THE FEAST
by Margaret Kennedy (Faber £9.99, 448 pp)
Hilarious and perceptive, here’s the perfect seaside holiday read. We’re in Cornwall in 1947, where a landslide has buried a hotel, fatally crushing guests in the rubble.
The survivors’ lurid tales have left the shocked local vicar composing his funeral sermon in a tizz. Events leading up to the disaster are entertainingly revealed through the diaries, letters, thoughts and conversations of the inmates of the hotel.
And what an intriguing bunch they are: obnoxious children, an arty writer and her toy boy, nutty priest . . . snobs, slobs and the lovelorn. The nail-biting tension to discover who actually survived the tragedy will keep you on the very edge of your deckchair.