Summer's Lease

by John Mortimer

A woman takes her husband and children to the Italian home of another English family accompanied by her eccentric father. A sense of foreboding hangs over the holiday from the start as the house, as well as its absentee owners, exert their presence.

Genres: Fiction, Italy, Mystery, British Literature, Humor, Literature, Modern

300 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 10, 1985

About the author

John Clifford Mortimer was a novelist, playwright and former practising barrister. Among his many publications are several volumes of Rumpole stories and a trilogy of political novels, Paradise Postponed, Titmuss Regained and The Sound of Trumpets, featuring Leslie Titmuss - a character as brilliant as Rumpole. John Mortimer received a knighthood for his services to the arts in 1998.

Series:
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rapstone Chronicles

Reviews

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Story about Molly Pargeter - a mother of three who decides to rent a Tuscan Villa for her family's Summer holiday (the party against her will including her lecherous 70 something father who writes a column for a famous old left leaning magazine).

Molly becomes intrigued by the lives of the Ketterings from whom she rents the villa mainly due to an intriguing note she finds - and believes there is some mystery involving them.

Initially she thinks her family is being asked to pretend to be the Ketterings (an idea inspired by a Sherlock Holmes story as well as the house advert which seemed very specific that the villa suited a family with three girls) then that it is some fraud to do with water shortages and then supsects an affair between Mrs Kettering and the local Signor Fixit (an Englishman who helps out the ex-pats with all their needs).

The book is set among the Chianti-set as well as a group of rich kids who spend their holidays travelling from one European villa to another.

I found these characters impossible to identify or sympathise with, the book very uninvolving with no seeming themes or deeper meanings and even the mystery being resolved in a fairly uninteresting as well as unsatisfactory way.

More of a “who cares” than a “whodunit”.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable, if not a great one, this book suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a light novel of fluffy English manners, or is it a mystery? By trying to be both, it gets its signals crossed and neither aspect is done as well as it could be. I’ve enjoyed Mortimer’s Rumpole on TV, and very much liked his memoir, Voyage Round my Father. This falls short of those, but it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful. English people vacationing and living in Italy. Outrageous cast of characters. Peculiar goings on. Vanishing water. A murder!!

The BBC mini series is great, and includes a few scenes with Feodor Chaliapin Jr. as the old Prince, Tosti. It is not possible for me to convey his utterly wonderfully demented delivery of the spider speech, but here it is as it appears in the book:

'I was staying with Andrew Spratling at Porto Ercole,' the Prince piped up in a small, precise voice as though he were adding some useful information to what Nancy had told them, ‘and I awoke at about two in the morning. I couldn’t get back to sleep so I turned on the light to read and what should I see but a large spider hanging from the ceiling by means of a string produced from its own body! I did not hesitate. I got out of bed stealthily and dressed as quietly as possible so as not to disturb the insect. I packed all my clothes and shut my case; the spider was still hanging there as I tiptoed out of the room. It seemed to me that it's awful little eyes were upon me. I went down the stairs and let myself out of the front door. Then I walked to the hotel where luckily there was a porter on duty and a vacant room. Early the next morning I returned to my own home in Milano. I shall not stay there again. I become nervous of spiders and of omosessuali, and at Andrew Spratling’s house one finds both.'

Oddly, on TV, the spiders are at Peter Pergolesi's house. Then again, it's way more fun to say Peter Pergolesi than Andrew Spratling.

[Anne Zouroudi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite old enough to be vintage but definitely with an 80s/90s vibe, an undemanding but amusing story of a family's summer in Tuscany. If you're offended by white middle-class English characters, avoid at all costs; but if you're broad-minded enough to make allowances for it being of its time, it's a pleasant way to pass an hour or two with a cup of tea in the garden or in your deckchair on the beach.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining read

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the library book sale, drawn by the fact that the setting is a small town in Tuscany. I didn't realize that the author, John Mortimer, is a popular British author whose books have been the source of some BBC productions. A family from England - Molly, Hugh, their three daughters and Molly's roguish 76-yr-old father - answer an advertisement and lease a house in Tuscany for three weeks in the summer. The mysterious owners of the house and several unexpected incidents pique Molly's curiosity, and she is determined to find answers to her questions by the end of the vacation. While fitting together the pieces of the puzzle, Molly makes discoveries about herself and her family members and they about her as well. I found the plot a bit convoluted, but the characters are interesting, the setting lovely and the dialogue often amusing.

[Susy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a great fan of Rumpole or She Who Must Be Obeyed. But I was called by the plot summary: an English woman, married to a wavering lawyer husband and saddled with a father who just thinks and breathes sex (of the virtual variety mostly), two just adolescents and a three year old baby, leases a Tuscany villa for the holidays. Most of the reviewers were mad about the character of the Father but in fact I disliked him and loved good old Molly, not beautiful but with a great mind and a love of detective stories. She follows clues to discover what happened to her absentee landlord and, in the pursuit, discovers an actual murder and a few secrets of the British expatriates. A very pleasant little piece, highly recommended.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The villa near a small Tuscan town is everything the Pargeter family could want for a three-week stay -- complete with a pool, magnificent views, and 'the world's greatest small painting' nearby. But when the water supply fails and a neighbor dies suddenly, the idyll turns sour. And Molly Pargeter begins to wonder about their mysterious absentee landlord ...
~~
I had rather gone offf John Mortimer after reading several Rumpole books. I always enjoyed the Rumpole series on tv, but the books just didn't grab me. Nor did his various autobiographies. But this little book was charming, quirky and mysterious -- exactly the sort of book you think is just charming, but then it evolves into something with more meat on its bones. It redeemed Mr. Mortimer for me.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molly Pargeter feels that renting a Tuscan villa for the summer holidays will get her out of a rut and give the whole family a new experience. When her chatty and lecherous elderly father decides to tag along it only puts a mild damper on the fun. But Molly begins to wonder about the identity and whereabouts of her landlord. Why did he want to rent to a family with two girls, just like his own ? Why does the lease stipulate the family must eat supper by candlelight on the terrace every evening? What begins as a sort of imagined mystery begins to turn sinister. Mortimer knows how to write a subtly chilling atmospheric novel while throwing in plenty of comic relief.

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Top notch entertainment. Haverford Downs is surely one of literature's great creations.

[Juh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled to get through this book.
I first read it in 1988 and I loved it. I kept it in my shelf all these years.
I decided to re-read it and I didn’t love it as much.
Maybe it was just me.

[Jeanne Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. However, I did not like Molly's father Haverford. He was just a little to much 'in to himself' for my taste. And I tired of hearing of his 'rogering'. I did however like Molly. I too would have had the desire to find out about the mystery of the people that owned the home that they were staying in. It was a bit hard to read since I speak no Italian and somewhat confused by the English terminolgy. Some things I looked up and others I just skipped over in order to 'enjoy' the story. Now I must go and see if I can find "toast soldiers" to have for breakfast. Yum yum.

[C. Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unusual mystery. As much a journey of self-discovery for Molly and a marriage reboot with her husband Hugh as it is a mystery. Mortimer does a great job of intertwining the lives of the expats, their secrets, the quirky characters, indeed almost an overload of downright irritating characters, all while skewering the British fantasy of the Italian good life, culminating in a shocking denouement. The ending really stayed with me and made me rethink the tone of the book, because the shock of the ending is not at all where I thought the book was headed. Mortimer catches you by surprise with a zinger.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, though I found the beginning to be very slow. The prose was magnificent and once the plot sped up, I couldn't put it down. For the entirety of the book, I loathed Haverford's character. His pompous, free-loading, and at times cruel behavior, reminded me of someone I know and it really stuck a chord. I think this is indicative of Mortimer's ability to write a character well and thus appreciated the abhorrence I felt for Haverford Downs.

[Nimbex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha gustado a pesar de que no es lo que esperaba. El misterio no es para tanto y tampoco es una comedia propiamente dicha (el humor recae principalmente en el padre de Molly, aunque la verdad es que es un buen personaje y me he reído bastante con él) pero no aburre en ningún momento y consigue involucrarte en la vida de la familia y, en especial, poner al lector en el lugar de la protagonista.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually follow a firm belief that you read the book before you see the movie, but I didn't know this was a book when I saw the movie. Both are great, especially if you appreciate British humor. A great mystery.
I can relate to the main character in some ways, so it was fun to read.

[Martyn F · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea how this book landed on my to-read list. I kept on for about 100 pages, then I gave up. I had the feeling the book still had not started, but I guess I was wrong.

I have no idea why you would like this book. It's all about a holiday, a bit of gossip and other boring stuff.

[Webb Hubbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful Story!

[Hunted Snark]

So what was this?
Low key humour, very low key tragedy, mystery, satire.
That about covers it.

I'll be honest, there's no way I'd have picked it up if it hadn't been for the BBC series being a bit of a family favourite back in the 90s. I mean ... John Gielgud playing a terrible old reprobate: over-sexed, radical, intellectual snob and tease. What are you going to do? Without that performance in my mind, the character probably would have put me off on about page 30 or so.

But the writing was such a pleasure that I blinked past the cringe, remembered it was written in the 80s, and allowed myself to be drawn along.

Standing back a bit now, I really enjoy the way it was woven together.
In particular, the final joke in the Haverford subplot, albeit a bit on the nose in some ways, was so well set up throughout the entire book that I just couldn't be mad about it. I'd forgotten that bit, and kept telling myself that I was imagining that Haverford was actually rather campy in his abominably heterosexual way. But no, I wasn't. All deliberate setup for a nothing but a silly, silly joke. Oh, the bathos.

Then there was the way Molly's own arc was explained to us as she stood looking at Piero's della Francesca's Flagellation of Christ. Only we didn't know it yet (except I did remember that bit).

A great read, wonderfully redolent of the Tuscan hills and all the banger-and-mash-with-Chianti English who populate them. I wonder if they're there still?

[Bryson Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

A masterpiece of subtlety and Shakespearean humour that has suffered the indignity of being perpetually underestimated. This story is mystery, parody and romance in an idiom Mortimer lived himself as lawyer and traveller but likewise as superlative storyteller. As per usual, a damning review in the NewYorkTimes had American readers turning up their noses because as we all know there is a certain kind of ironic subtlety of which Brits like Mortimer are masters but that Americans simply don’t get. This is one of those. The story fantastic as it may be is anything but plodding or dull as its reputation alleges. In fact it’s both laugh out loud funny and deeply moving on a level of emotional truth that only great writers can render convincingly, as drawn from life. It now reads abit like a comedy of manners of the English in Italy in the 1980s, but a mannered comedy written with this kind of steely-eyed affection is well within the best traditions of English literature. The TV series is likewise brilliantly done, and that rarest of offerings, a small screen version that remains faithful to the book, with Sir John Gielgud showing all his younger co-stars how to do comedy.

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this because I enjoyed the mini-series version put out in 1989. There is something about vacation type mysteries, especially ones where people take extended vacations to the less touristy places, that almost always please me. This is a very mild mystery. There are murders. And a little bit of mystery around the murders, but it is more of a novel about marriage and family with a bit of intrigue in an exotic locale. The mini-series follows the book very closely which was nice. This novel is for people who enjoy character driven plots. The people make it interesting probably more so than where the plot goes. It is very well written. The characters are believable and the setting is scrumptious. It's a comfortable novel that doesn't take you on an emotional roller coaster but you still care about the characters and want to see how it all turns out.

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Molly Pargeter sees the ad for a summer rental in Tuscany, she leaps at the chance; the ad seems tailor-made for her and her family, as it specifically requests visitors with three children, preferably daughters, and with parents in their 40s. Sure enough, the villa is lovely, but the owner seems to be a tad eccentric and the year-round English ex-pats seem a bit too exclusionary for Molly’s tastes. Still, three weeks in Tuscany, who could ask for anything more? Well, perhaps a mystery or two to solve…. This is a light-hearted romp through a particular type of English tourist life in the 1980s, complete with a “Mr. Fixit,” a sudden death and a bunch of crusty eccentric characters. Nothing earth-shattering, but quite good fun to read; mildly recommended.

[Mary Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tale of an English family, the Pargeter's vacation at a home in the Tuscan hills is a mix of cultural differences, character development and relationships, a mystery search and the humor of Grandfather/journalist Haverford. The lovely villa, Dulcilita, near a small Tuscan town seems ideal until there is a stoppage of water supply and an odd death of a local man.. These upsetting happenings send Molly Pargeter on a personal search for an answer to the mysterious happenings and related people. An interesting and often comical read.

[Nick Hazlewood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story about nothing yet something

I remembered bits from this book and 30 years later decided to read it again. The construction and plot and execution are somehow off beat and it seemed to me to catch that sort of alien feeling you get, maybe more in the South of France where there's that mix of x-pats and holiday makers from the UK in a foreign country. Worth a read, yet will leave you wondering why you read it.

[Ilja · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik weet eigenlijk niet zo goed wat ik van dit boek vind. Ik denk dat 'raar' of 'vergezocht' het dichtst in de buurt komt.
Alleen al het begin: een vrouw vliegt naar Italië, alleen om te zien of het vakantiehuis dat ze een tijd later 3 weken wil huren, wel aan haar verwachtingen voldoet? Als ze het nu voor 6 maanden had willen huren had ik het geloofwaardiger gevonden. Nu dacht ik vooral: ja hoor, héél logisch (niet dus).

En dat is het niet het enige waar ik vraagtekens bij plaatste.

[Terri · Rating 2 out of 5]

A friend gave me this book. It took until Chapter Eight to become engaged. I'm not a fan of fiction depicting these kind of characters--Brits with attitude. The father, Haverford, was particularly unlikeable with his constant lecherous talk (the two most humorous scenes involve him however).
The little mystery that Molly solves while on holiday in Italy amongst these annoying Brits didn't amount to much. Overall not my "cup of tea."

[Grace · Rating 2 out of 5]

Checked out from library. Read the first few chapters. Was not delighted. Had to skim through the rest (verrrry skimmy) because it's a mystery, so you have to find out what happened...but I didn't want to spend any more time with these people, and the writing wasn't charming enough to make it worthwhile.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I anticipated pleasure when I’d picked up this book and I looked forward to getting back to it when I had to put it down. But the pace is so slow that I found myself putting it down and finding distractions after a few pages. I think I just wanted to be in a villa near Siena. This is really just too boring. I doubt I’ll remember anything about it next week.

[Tom Romig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mystery, social satire, rollicking humor: altogether a satisfying read. Molly is determined, yes, but too often oblivious to consequences. Her husband is incapable of making a decision. Her father Haverford is relentlessly non-PC as well as hopelessly and hilariously lacking in self-awareness. Beware: plots abound and murders result!