After Henry

by Simon Brett

Product After Henry

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Simon Brett, OBE, FRSL is a prolific British writer of whodunnits.

He is the son of a Chartered Surveyor and was educated at Dulwich College and Wadham College, Oxford, where he got a first class honours degree in English.

He then joined the BBC as a trainee and worked for BBC Radio and London Weekend Television, where his work included 'Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy' and 'Frank Muir Goes Into ...'.

After his spells with the media he began devoting most of his time to writing from the late 1970s and is well known for his various series of crime novels.

He is married with three children and lives in Burpham, near Arundel, West Sussex, England. He is the current president of the Detection Club.

Reviews

[Michael Wilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the funniest books I have read. I remember staying in the car after getting home from the station after work so that I would not miss the last hilarious five minutes of the radio version when it was being broadcast. Who would have thought you could extract so much humour from the priceless interplay between three generations of the same family? The book follows the middle-class lives of three women - except that one of them feels like pig-in-the-middle. Although Sarah has been left well provided for by her late husband, a doctor called Henry, she is also been left a demanding mother living upstairs, and an adolescent daughter downstairs who craves independence. The only person she can unburden her troubles to is a mildly amused and understanding gay bookshop owner where she works part-time. For those of you who may have missed the series take heart. I understand from Simon Brett that he is getting together a stage version that should be taking shape later on this year.

[Davidg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice reminder of the radios series. Obviously, much of the dialogue comes straight from there. I could hear the original cast voices in my head, particularly Prunella Scales and the wonderful Benjamin Whitrow.

[Magpie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joan Sanderson and Prunella Scales on top form. Charming. Also quite ahead of its time with some of the social attitudes.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trigger warning. Spoilers Alert!!!!!! I used to love watching this comedy After Henry starring Prunella Scales and Joan Sanderson and Janine Wood. I had really high hopes for this novel but it really disappointed me.
For starters it isn't even funny, it's not comedy at all . And where the characters were all very funny and endearing in the tv programne, they come across as really unpleasant and vile, in the case of Claire, in this novel .
The book is also really badly written with little or no narrative style , and I was expecting some storyline mentioned early in the novel to be discovered but they aren't. And worst of all , towards the end, it's as if this dismal writer has got fed up with the book himself by omitting the conversations in two big social events . What a rubbish book. No way does this do justice to the great TV comedy series.