Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

by Helen Simonson

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson is a most marvelous and charming and loving and funny and satisfying novel-and a first one at that!  Set in a small village in England, the characters are recognizable and real.  The themes attacked are family, race, culture, real estate, inheritance, parenting, growing up, being a snob, acceptance, money, class and love.  The reader gets lost among the gardens and hedgerows of the village and does not want to leave, at least the house of Major Pettigrew!  He is an intelligent widower who suddenly realizes life has more to offer him than a matched set of guns handed down by his father years ago to himself and his brother, who has just died.  There is romance and humor and who can ask for more?  I loved every page and every moment.  A most lovely and brilliant debut.