Offshore

The shortest novel to win the Booker Prize, Penelope Fitzgerald offers a delightful glimpse into the workings of the eccentric London community living on houseboats on Battersea Reach.“A marvellous achievement: strong, supple, humane, ripe, generous, and graceful.” - Sunday TimesA houseboat community rises and falls with the tide of the Thames on Battersea Reach. Living between land and water, its members feel as if they belong to neither. Maurice, a male prostitute, is the sympathetic friend to whom the others turn. Nenna loves her husband but can’t get him back; her children run wild on the muddy foreshore. She feels drawn to ex-naval reserve Richard, whose converted minesweeper dominates the Reach. But is he sexually attractive simply because he can fold maps the right way?"An astonishing book. Hardly more than 50,000 words, it is written with a manic economy that makes it seem even shorter, and with a tamped-down force that continually explodes in a series of exactly controlled detonations. “Offshore” is a marvellous achievement: strong, supple, humane, ripe, generous and graceful." - Bernard Levin, Sunday TimesPenelope Fitzgerald who died in 2000, did not start her literary career until the age of 58 and won the Booker Prize with her third novel, Offshore. Before turning to write, Fitzgerald had known homelessness. She had also taught at various schools and could number both the future Duchess of Cornwall and the Booker Prize-shortlisted Edward St Aubyn among her former pupils. WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE FEATURED ON BBC'S BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB Penelope Fitzgerald's Booker Prize-winning novel of loneliness and connecting is set among the houseboat community of the Thames, with an introduction from Alan Hollinghurst. Offshore is a dry, genuinely funny novel, set among the houseboat community who rise and fall with the tide of the Thames on Battersea Reach. Living between land and water, they feel as if they belong to neither... Maurice, a male prostitute, is the sympathetic friend to whom all the others turn. Nenna loves her husband but can't get him back; her children run wild on the muddy foreshore. She feels drawn to Richard, the ex-RNVR city man whose converted minesweeper dominates the Reach. Is he sexually attractive because he can fold maps the right way? With this and other questions waiting to be answered, Offshore offers a delightful glimpse of the workings of an eccentric community. This Booker Prize-winning novel from the author of 'The Blue Flower' is set among the houseboat community of the Thames. 'Offshore' is a dry, genuinely funny novel, set among the houseboat community who rise and fall with the tide of the Thames on Battersea Reach. Living between land and water, they feel as if they belong to neither... Maurice, a male prostitute, is the sympathetic friend to whom all the others turn. Nenna loves her husband but can't get him back; her children run wild on the muddy foreshore. She feels drawn to Richard, the ex-RNVR city man whose converted minesweeper dominates the Reach. Is he sexually attractive because he can fold maps the right way? With this and other questions waiting to be answered, 'Offshore' offers a delightful glimpse of the workings of an eccentric community. On the Battersea Reach of the Thames, a mixed bag of eccentrics live in houseboats. Belonging to neither land nor sea, they belong to one another. There is Maurice, a homosexual prostitute; Richard, a buttoned-up ex-navy man; but most of all there's Nenna, the struggling mother of two wild little girls. How each of their lives complicates the others is the stuff of this perfect little novel 'Are we to gather that Dreadnought is asking us all to do something dishonest?' Richard asked.