Osmond complains of the lack of male company. Palfrey are all in various stages of boredom and hopelessness, but Elizabeth Taylor is subtle enough with her pen to show these states as brittleness or insatiable nosiness or indulging in risque jokes. The characters sharing the Claremont with Mrs. Her fellow residents are a magnificently eccentric group who live off crumbs of affection, obsessive interest in the relentless round of hotel meals, and undying curiosity.’ So says the blurb on my beautiful Virago edition (I used a postcard of David Hockney’s My Parents for a bookmark, see below, and his mother is startlingly similar to the Virago cover Mrs. Palfrey, recently widowed, arrives at the Claremont Hotel in the Cromwell Road. Palfrey at, you guessed it, the Claremont – ‘One rainy Sunday in January Mrs. Consequently I’ve forgotten all sorts of details, but I’ll do my best… Palfrey at the Claremont a few weeks ago, but was waiting until I’d seen the film as well before writing about it here.
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