Pamela Norris
The Mysterious Visitor
The fourteen short stories in Jane Gardam’s The People on Privilege Hill take place in locations from the Vale of York to the Cape, include a variety of social groups, and describe the experiences of the very young as well as the aged. Gardam writes particularly well about the stifled emotion and dotty gentility associated with the English middle classes, and, after more than four decades of publishing fiction, her observation remains sharp and original. Ranging from a palm-reading that forebodes tragedy to an elderly woman’s passion for a gorilla in her local zoo, her new collection exemplifies Gardam’s zest for human oddity, which she explores with characteristic empathy and humour.
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