James is getting on a bit and needs full-time help. So Phoebe and Robert, his middle-aged offspring, employ Mandy, who seems willing to take him off their hands. But as James regales his family with tales of Mandy's virtues, their shopping trips and the shared pleasure of their journeys to garden centres, Phoebe and Robert sense something is amiss.Then something extraordinary happens which throws everything into new relief, changing all the stories of their childhood - and the father - that they thought they knew so well.
The Carer by Deborah Moggach was published in paperback by Tinder Press on 30 April 2020. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review as part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour
I've been reading Deborah Moggach for many years, I didn't realise quite how long it was until I looked back on my reading list. It's over thirty years! I started with her novel Porky that was published in 1983, and have since read everything else that she's written.
I do prefer her more contemporary novels, although she is probably best know for Tulip Fever and These Foolish Things (aka The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel). If you are ever looking for an author who can bring the most ordinary of characters living in fairly mundane situations to life, I'd really recommend that you try one of her books, if you haven't already.
The Carer is trademark Moggach; she takes four lead characters and paints them so incredibly well that they begin to take over, I found myself pondering them, even when doing something else and their voices called me back to the story constantly.
James is elderly, he was married to many years, is a retired Professor and lives alone. His two middle-aged children: Phoebe and Robert are delighted when they recruit carer Mandy to look after James. Neither of them are particularly loving people, although they are both fond of their father.
Robert was made redundant from a high-powered City job, and spends his days in a garden shed, writing a novel, whilst his glamorous TV news reader wife Farida continues to keep them in the luxury that they've got used to.
Phoebe is single, an artist, and lives in the Wales countryside. She's unfulfilled, with a string of failed relationships behind her and currently involved with an ageing hippy called Torren who lives in a hut in a nearby forest.
Mandy is unlike anyone that moves in their circles. Overweight, wearing silver leggings and speaking as she sees on a regular basis, she's something of an enigma, but James seems to really like her and if Robert and Phoebe don't have to worry about wiping his bum and ensuring that he eats, they are happy for Mandy to stay.
However, it's not long before both of them become suspicious of Mandy. James seems frailer, and confused. He's wearing tracksuit bottoms and enjoying trips to a hedgehog sanctuary. What happened to their aloof, intelligent, rarely seen (if they are being honest) father?
As James changes, so do Robert and Phoebe and what this author does so very well is dissect characters and relationships and break them down into the tiniest pieces. The reader can then put them back together again to reveal the real characters, not the person that they show to the world.
The Carer is full of wry humour and stark honesty. It's an absolute joy to read and I was utterly entranced by the characters and the ever evolving plot. Deborah Moggach is so wonderfully observant; the reader will pause to reflect on just how real and authentic her characters are; we may even recognise ourselves at times.
Hugely entertaining and so tenderly written. Highly recommended by me.
Deborah Moggach is the author of nineteen successful novels including the bestselling Tulip Fever.
In 2012, her novel These Foolish Things was adapted for the screen under the title The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and starred Judi Dench, Dev Patel, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith.
An award-winning screenwriter, she won a Writers' Guild Award for her adaptation of Anne Fine's Goggle-Eyes and her screenplay for the 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was nominated for a BAFTA.
Her television screenwriting credits include the acclaimed adaptations of her own novels Close Relations and Final Demand, as well as Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate and The Diary of Anne Frank.
Deborah has been Chairman of the Society of Authors and worked for PEN's Executive Committee.
A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she was appointed an OBE in the 2018 New Year's Honours List for services to literature and drama.
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