The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot
The Middle Age of Mrs Eliot is a novel by Angus Wilson, first published in 1958. It won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for that year, and has been regularly reprinted ever since.
First edition | |
Author | Angus Wilson |
---|---|
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Publisher | Secker and Warburg |
Publication date | November 1958 |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 430pp |
ISBN | 0-436-57505-1 |
OCLC | 256140343 |
It describes the fortunes of Meg Eliot, a happy and active woman, the wife of a barrister, who finds herself a widow in reduced circumstances after the shocking murder of her husband abroad.
Her attempts to rebuild her life are placed in contrast with the self-isolation of her brother, David, who lives with his dying partner Gordon at a commercial nursery in Sussex.
Wilson conceived the idea for the story in September 1957, while visiting Thailand, which is possibly the model for the fictional country of Badai.[1]
The first edition dust jacket was designed by Michael Ayrton.
Characters
- Meg Eliot
- Bill Eliot, her husband
- David Parker, her brother
- The "lame ducks"
- Polly Robson
- Lady Pirie
- Jill Stokes
- Gordon Paget, David's partner
- Else Bode
- Mrs Paget, Gordon's mother
- Lady Pirie
- Michael Grant-Pritchard, a Tory MP
- Fred Rogerson
Footnotes
- Margaret Drabble. Angus Wilson. Secker and Warburg, London, 1995. Page 238.