KILLING TIME by Alan Bennett

Over a career that has spanned longer than most of us can expect to live, Alan Bennett has forged a quintessentially English niche. His work is wry, witty, and a little naughty. It brims with insight that makes light of his country’s general fustiness.

Now over ninety, Bennett has turned his unexpectedly acute (for his age) gaze to the supposed last bastion of traditional mores: the old folks home. Alas, as anyone who has set foot in one of God’s waiting rooms knows, they are anything but saintly. Rampant shtooping, petty rivalries, gossip… pretty much everything kept in check by our former inhibitions go out the window. It is, so to speak, on for old and older.

Bennett has a splendid time with his cast of fuddy duddies and their carers. From flashers and puzzle-fiends, to put-upon cleaners and a handyman who who makes extra money on the side providing “relief” in the gardening shed, they’re perfect fodder for his light barbs. It comes to a head when Covid hits. Survival becomes a competition of quite hilarious proportions.

Killing Time is rather silly and pointless, but it’s a wonderful toast to life lived at zero… um… folks.

Killing Time by Alan Bennett
Faber & Faber, 2024
103 pages