Graham Forbes is a disappointment to his mother, who thinks that if he must have a wife, he should have done better. Though her own husband isn't all that satisfactory either. Still, this is Alan Bennett, so what is happening in the bedroom (and in lots of other places too) is altogether more startling, perhaps shocking, and ultimately more true to people's predilections.
The Greening of Mrs Donaldson
Mrs Donaldson is a conventional middle-class woman beached on the shores of widowhood after a marriage that had been much like many others: happy to begin with, then satisfactory and finally dull. But when she decides to take in two lodgers, her mundane life becomes much more stimulating...
Not much to say about this one other than that it was a bit of a disappointment:
The Greening of Mrs. Donaldson, I have no doubt, was penned to shock more than it was penned to incite thoughts about the perception of quiet, middle-class, older ladies. But Bennett's taking apart of assumptions about quiet older ladies was the much funnier than the completely implausible plot twist. The only time I got a giggle out of this story was at the very end when Mrs Donaldson turns down a proposition because she's not finished reading the chapter in her current book, yet.
The Shielding of Mrs. Forbes, was weird but thankfully it was also instantly forgettable.
