Mum and Mr Armitage (Flamingo) [Paperback]

Beryl Bainbridge (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This first short story collection, by the award-winning British writer (Injury Time, The Bottle Factory Outing, contains 12 faultlessly crafted and indisputably original tales. In the title story, "Mum" is widowed Rosemary Mumford, whose visits with Mr. Armitage delight the regulars at a resort hotel. The two friends play complicated pranks wildly appreciated by all except elderly Miss Emmet, who "expected to be left out of things. And she was." The lady endures the wild antics until Mum and Mr. A. pick her as the patsy in a hair-raising joke for which they pay a high price ultimately. "People for Lunch" discloses the secret that compels a faithless husband and wife of another man to think over problems caused by adultery. Embracing savage irony, supernatural adventures, gothica, misunderstandings, every story in this collection is a gem.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

These 12 stories are essentially character studies, each ending with some cruel and/or comic unexpected revelation. And in each, someone is the object of a weird twist of fate. In "Mum and Mr. Armitage," gaily madcap Mum is the pathetic object of misplaced revenge. Two doltish married couples are hilariously victimized in "People for Lunch." In "Bread and Butter Smith," an exasperated husband inadvertently gets rid of his wife and her boring, ubiquitous paramour. A bickering family's theater outing provides the setting for a devastating black comedy in "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie." Each of these wonderfully spare and original stories, by the prolific, talented author of Watson's Apology ( LJ 9/15/85) is a masterpiece. Ronald L. Coombs, SUNY Downstate Medical Ctr. Lib., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Flamingo (April 16, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0006541909
• ISBN-13: 978-0006541905
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,766,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Stories, May 11, 2001

By 

taking a rest - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mum and Mr Armitage: Selected Stories (Hardcover)

Ms. Beryl Bainbridge not only is a wonderful novelist, she also has shown she possesses a brilliant touch with short stories in her collection, "Mum And Mr. Armitage". The book is a collection of 12 short stories that are all wonderful studies of Human Nature that are often unsettling either due to what they reveal at their conclusion, or to the degree they let the reader fill in the final details and discomfort.

Short stories are wonderful in that they challenge the writer to communicate ideas in various lengths, however brief. Ms. Bainbridge not only sets up what seems to be a straightforward experience that may indeed be familiar, only to surprise, shock, or to demonstrate just how subtle her view of Human Behavior is observed and written. The stories may initially appear when read to seem perfectly appropriate, even familiar, that the Author is able to make detailed and definitive observations and conclusions that most people would at best only have a sense of, is the gift she exercises.

The story that is also the title of the book gives no hint at the ending. The story is about fun-loving types on Holiday that paint the horns of cattle in paint that glows at night, and other harmless fun. The final sentence will chill your spine. Truth is an oft repeated theme, however the manner in which it is presented is always unique, "The Worst Policy, and The Man That Blew Away", were excellent, the last remarkable.

Ms. Bainbridge is a wonderful writer you will not be disappointed.