Book description
Thirty-somethings Nick and Laura have been married for 10 years and
things aren't going well. She senses her biological clock ticking away
and wants children while he doesn't. Not because he doesn't like
children but because he feels a child would be just one responsibility
too many.
Nick's problem is his parents. He's devoted to them of course, but
sometimes even he finds his patience wearing a little thin which in
turn brings on the guilt. But they are rather a handful. They're
conservative, highly eccentric and increasingly infirm. His Mum's so
enormously overweight that her heart's now a bit dicky and she is
certainly no longer up to looking after Dad by herself. He's got
Parkinson's Disease - not the shaking kind, as Mum's always reminding
people - but he's unable to do even the simplest task himself and
needs constant care and attention.
Nick knows the time has come to take the matter in hand but things
need to be handled carefully. And so he and Laura take them to Malta
for what they hope will be a happy final family holiday. Nick thinks
his only problem is going to be avoiding Laura's amorous advances but
this particular island turns out to be a sun-kissed cupboard with more
than its fair share of skeletons...
Tackling a taboo subject with sensitivity, understanding, great
affection and good humour, What We Did On Our Holiday is a remarkably
uplifting, moving and reassuring novel about a time in our lives when
it seems roles are reversed and we find ourselves looking after the
very people we'd always assumed would be there to look after us.
John Harding was born in a small Fenland village in the Isle of Ely
in 1951. After local village and grammar schools, he read English at St
Catherine's College, Oxford, where he once sat next to Martin Amis
during a lecture. He worked first as a newspaper reporter, then as a
writer and editor in magazines, before becoming a freelance writer. His
first novel was the acclaimed and bestselling WHAT WE DID ON OUR
HOLIDAY. He lives in Richmond upon Thames with his wife and two sons.
