Customer Reviews

The Blackpool Landlady

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I'm well aware of the maxim that at the heart of a stereotype is a kernel of truth. However, this book is an exercise in laziness, drawing as it does on so many old and hackneyed stereotypes.

I thought, from the moment the eponymous Blackpool Landlady appeared, that we were veering into cliched territory. She is portrayed a single woman, fond of gin, never seen without the omnipresent cigarette hanging from her rouged lips, wearing a striped apron and with a knotted kerchief on her head. I persisted with the book, but to be honest I wished I hadn't.

Eventually I grew tired of her - the crude and lascivious comments she makes to her lodger, the terrible jokes about her cooking, and constant drunkeness are merely tiring rather than entertaining. One chapter began well when it seemed to suggest that she was on the verge of some sort of breakdown. This hinted perhaps at past traumas, and I felt this could lift the book from its rut. However, three pages in it transpired that she was simply more drunk than usual, and an interesting plot device was casually tossed away.

Not recommended.