Heartbreak Hotel

Deborah Moggach –Chatto &Windus - $36.99

I reviewed this on Radio New Zealand National this morning.

This is Deborah Moggach’s 17^th novel but it is probably her 15^th novel, These Foolish Things, for which she is best known as that title was made into the recent movie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and others. 

She is a clever writer with an enormous sense of humour which she brings to her novels with great skill. This new novel in spite of the title is very funny and cheerful and had me laughing out loud on several occasions. She has the ability though to include in her writing some really touching moments and I guess it is that combination of humour and pathos that is one of her trademarks. There is a lot of wisdom and warmth among the humour and chaos.

When London-based retired actor Buffy Buffery inherits a B&B, Myrtle House, in Wales from an old friend, read former lover, he decides to move down there and become “mine host”. He is fed up with his cramped damp flat on the Edgeware Road anyway. So he packs up his meagre possessions and his Jack Russell, Fig, and heads 176 miles west to Knockton. I should mention at this stage that Buffy has been married and divorced three times, plus there have been several girlfriends, he has seven children and step-children, and his personal life is a bit complicated. He featured in one of Moggach’s earlier titles which had the apt title, The Ex-Wives. The author provides at the front of the book a useful reference of his former wives and their various children which I found especially useful early on in the novel as Buffy’s life has been, and remains, quite complex. He was a reasonably famous TV actor in his day and is still widely recognised by people he meets and who come to stay.

This is how he is described – “he was a used car with too many previous owners, each with their own special complaints about his parts and performance. No, those days were over but he was not ready for the scrapheap yet”.

Moving in to Myrtle House he quickly finds that he has taken on a bit more than he bargained for both in terms of the condition of the guesthouse which needs significant refurbishment and in regard to the work involved. He does prove to be an excellent host with a sympathetic ear however and before long he comes up with a bright idea to attract more guests and hopefully make some money for those badly needed repairs. His idea –“ Courses for Divorces”. After all he is a veteran of three marriages and many children himself so why not put into practice some of that he has learned along the way.

The author is alert to human folly and foibles and she pulls this idea of Buffy’s into the most entertaining read that has elements of farce along with truly touching pieces and I am not at all surprised to learn that she is currently adapting the book into a series for the BBC. She is also in demand as a speaker and is attending a number of Festivals in the UK over the next few months including the Hay, Althorpe, Winchester and Buxton Festivals. I have no doubt she will entertain them.

I met Deborah Moggach socially once back in the early 80’s when she was married to Tony Moggach who was the export sales manager for Penguin Books and I was working for Penguin NZ but in the UK on a company visit. I also met her father Richard Hough who was a prolific writer (over 90 books) of naval history including a biography of James Cook and who wrote children’s books under the name of Bruce Carter, Speed Six was a title of his I remember selling in my bookselling days.. Her mother was also a children’s author and illustrator. And I read somewhere where her daughter has her first novel coming out later this year. So a very bookish family. 
Moggach has also had several collections of short stories published, is a former chair of the Society of Authors and was on PEN’s executive committee for several years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. A pretty distinguished career it would be fair to say.