Book review: R.I.P.

After a rather heavy session on the old parsnip wine, George Pearmain would very much like to be left in peace the next morning. 

Nigel Williams

Corsair, €28.50, ebook €12.99

His wife Esmeralda though is quick to bemoan his laziness and general uselessness as she sets about getting the house in order for the celebration of George’s mother’s 99th birthday.

Unfortunately, Jessica’s popped her clogs and when Esmeralda comes to cajole George once more, there’s another startling discovery… George too is dead!

Two deaths wouldn’t necessarily seem the most apposite starting point for a comic novel, but author Nigel Williams manages to bring a very British sense of humour to the matter of death through his disconcerted middle-aged anti-hero George, not to mention a cast of colourful characters, including an overenthusiastic pathologist, a bumbling GP and an always camera-ready TV personality, who send the whole debacle further into farce.

But though the laughs are plentiful in the novel, there are also some touching realisations about what it means to be married and in love.