A Chip in the Sugar

by Alan Bennett

Graham, a middle-aged bachelor, emotionally retarded and chronically dependent on his mother, finds life difficult enough at the best of times. When Mother meets an old flame and seems set to marry him, however, Graham's old insecurities rear their ugly heads again. Fate, eventually, rescues Graham and he resumes his normal life of banal muddle under his mother's amnesiac tyranny.

Genres: Theatre

30 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1994

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Alan Bennett is an English author and Tony Award-winning playwright. Bennett's first stage play, Forty Years On, was produced in 1968. Many television, stage and radio plays followed, along with screenplays, short stories, novellas, a large body of non-fictional prose and broadcasting, and many appearances as an actor. Bennett's lugubrious yet expressive voice (which still bears a slight Leeds accent) and the sharp humour and evident humanity of his writing have made his readings of his own work (especially his autobiographical writing) very popular. His readings of the Winnie the Pooh stories are also widely enjoyed.

Reviews

[Stephen]

A wonderful play but best seen rather than read. There's a great You-tube video of the author performing it. At 39 minutes, it's well worth the viewing time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozEAk...

I believe that I saw most of this years ago but since I'm short on my 2016 challenge thought I'd count rewatching this today as re-reading it.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of Alan Bennett's comedies in which mother and son are a little too close.

[Plum · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love these stories where you come across a sentence and think... wait...? did I get that right? and then it all comes out slowly over the course of the story.