A Corner of Paradise A Love Story (with the Usual Reservations) Synopsis
In 1973, Brian Thompson kissed the impossibly glamorous Elizabeth North for the first time, in a busy supermarket car park along the Leeds ring road. This is the story of the unexpectedly joyous consequences - ones to baffle many, not least themselves - until her death, aged 78. Both were writers, though very different in ambition and achievement. They came from opposite ends of the social register - she an Admiral's daughter, he the descendant of unruly Cockney eccentrics. She was by nature a solitary (though one with four children). He was loud, incurably facetious - and needy. 'It's you and me, girl. It's only ever about you and me,' he once told her much too fervently. 'Yes,' she replied with her biting honesty. 'Yes - with the usual reservations.' From a tiny Harrogate terrace, to the deeply un-picturesque French farmhouse where they spent their summers, Brian and Liz battled their way to a heartrending goodbye in an Oxford hospital ward. In many ways, their partnership was 'an exercise in asymmetry' - yet, despite the conflicts, they emerge in this deeply-felt memoir as a couple who were lucky enough to find their corner of paradise in one another.
A joyous, life-and-love-affirming account of his unconventional relationship with fellow writer Elizabeth (Liz) North... Thompson writes with wit and precision about these small things, the eccentricities in other people that mark them apart and bring them to life... This book is about the ordinariness and singularity of being in love -- Rachel Joyce The Times
As he proved before with his previous books Keeping Mum and Clever Girl, Thompson is a terrific memoirist - wry, vivid and with one eye trained unforgivingly on his own failings... A beautifully written, deeply affecting book -- John Preston Daily Mail
As a portrait of a marriage through middle years and into the endgame, it is movingly particular and universal -- Peter Stanford Independent Good books about being old but feeling young are rare and this is one. Brian Thompson knows how to keep the reader reading -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham Spectator
Author
About Brian Thompson
Brian Thompson has written for the stage, radio, television, and is the author of four novels. He divides his time between Oxford, England, and the South of France.