Unfaithfully Yours by Nigel Williams

Cast of Principal Characters

Elizabeth Price, a classics teacher

Orlando (Roland) Gibbons, a private detective

Gerald Price, a successful barrister, married to Elizabeth Price

Mike Larner, a retired BBC producer, late of the Natural History Unit

Mary Dimmock, wife to Sam Dimmock, a dentist

John Goldsmith, a Putney doctor in general practice

Sam Dimmock, a Putney dentist

Barbara Goldsmith, a novelist, married to John Goldsmith

Pamela Larner, career mother, married to Mike Larner, now deceased

Introducing the cast of Unfaithfully Yours by Nigel Williams - published by Corsair, Constable & Robinson on 18 July 2013.  Four couples and one private detective.   Four couples who are all now in their sixties and who spent many summers holidaying together in various European hotspots.

Told in the form of letters between each of the characters (except of course for poor Pamela, now deceased, but subject of much wondering by the others), Nigel Williams made me chuckle and chortle out loud many times.

The correspondence begins when Elizabeth Price hires private detective Roland Gibbons:

Dear Mr Gibbons,   I am writing to you because I think my husband may be having sex.  I am not sure with whom he is having it but it is certainly not with me...........

This first sentence sets the scene for the whole book, sharp and straight to the point ..... and rude, so rude! There comes a time in life when 'telling it like it is' is the only way forward and each of these characters have arrived at that point at the same time.   Hidden lust is suddenly out in the open, suppressed feelings are made clear.  Feelings are hurt, revenges are sought and truths are told.

Nigel Williams has entertained me over the past couple of day with this comical tale of what could be called a suburban melt-down.   There are some cracking one-liners in there (a couple of which I will be saving to use myself one day!).

My thanks to Sam Evans from Constable & Robinson who sent my copy of Unfaithfully Yours for review.

Nigel Williams is the author of twelve novels including the best-selling Wimbledon Poisoner trilogy.  His stage plays include Class Enemy, still being performed all over the world, and a dramatization of Willing Golding's Lord of the Flies, recently revived at the Regent's Park Theatre.  He also wrote the Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning Elizabeth I, starring Helen Mirren, while his BBC Radio 4 comedy, 'HR', with Jonathan Pryce and Nicholas le Prevost, is now in its fourth series.  He has lived in Putney for thirty years.