I'll Go to Bed at Noon

It is 1970 in the suburbs of north London and, from the untidy comfort of her crowded house, Colette Jones is watching her older brother go to pieces in a cold, modern cul-de-sac up the road. Childless, recently widowed, he is drinking himself into oblivion on home-made wine, and then brewing up shoe polish when the tomato sherry runs out. Colette knows the solace a drink can provide, being partial to an evening at the Red Lion and a few "Gold Labels" herself. But soon she fends she cannot afford to ignore the destructive effect that alcohol is having on her family. The drunken violence of her angry oldest son, Janus, is putting an untold strain upon her husband until he, too, the only truly sober Jones, is found, bottle of whisky in hand, ranting lines from King Lear about the ingratitude of children. With gritted teeth, Colette exiles the alcoholic son she loves so much from the house. But this act of supreme self-sacrifice takes its toll and, just as she can't resist a drink, so she can't resist allowing Janus back into her life - with heartbreaking consequences for everyone. Gerard Woodward's magnificent second novel continues the story of the Joneses, so memorably introduced in August. By way of an odyssey through the pubs, parks and shopping parades of suburban Southgate, it lurches from farce to tragedy as the members of one troubled but unforgettable family build and destroy their lives in the unstable years leading up to the Thatcher revolution.