A Certain Age: Twelve Monologues from the Classic Radio Series

by Lynne Truss

In the tradition of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads come Lynne Truss's twelve bittersweet tales about love, romance, friendship and family. Her six men and six women each have very different stories to tell, ranging from the wife who feels better when her husband disappears to the pedant who undergoes a TV makeover and the swimmer who can't escape the shadow of her sister...but all are funny, touching and as beautifully observed as would be expected from the bestselling author. Whether describing fathers and daughters, married men, cat-lovers or "other women", she is always brilliantly perceptive. These monologues were first aired on BBC Radio 4. You can download an excerpt from one of them below. Listen to excerpt (4mb mp3 file) (Credit: A Certain Age: The Men's Monologues published by BBC Audiobooks and available on CD (£15.99, contains 3 CDs) from 5th February)

• ISBN10: 1861978790
• ISBN13: 9781861978790
• Publish Date: 8 February 2007 (first published 3 January 2005)
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Out of Print: 19 August 2009
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Profile Books Ltd
• Edition: Main
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 208
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

I've been a fan of Lynn Truss since I stumbled on Making the Cat Laugh over a decade ago, while on a trip in the UK.  I've since read a number of her non-fiction titles, but A Certain Age was my first experience with her fiction writing.     

A Certain Age is actually a collection of 12 monologues she wrote for BBC radio in 2002 and 2005.  I had only the vaguest notion of what a monologue was in this context, but she very helpfully explains in her introduction (a dramatic form developed in the early 80's that elevated the general idea of a traditional monologue to one that, with the addition of multiple scenes, adds a temporal dimension allowing them to stand on their own as a form of drama.  Or something like that.).   

The collection is evenly divided, 6 female voices, 6 male.  Some of them are funny, some are confronting and some are tragic, but they are all outstanding.  I didn't like a couple of them, but they sucked me into their stories nonetheless, and held me entranced.   

Far and away my favourite was The Son.  My least favourite was easily The Husband.   

This was a bit of a departure for me, reading wise, so I admittedly don't have a lot to compare this to, but I'd highly recommend it.  I'm not sure I'll ever read her full length fiction, but as a short-form monologue writer, I think she's brilliant.