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The Clothes They Stood Up in : a Story by Bennett, Alan, 1934- is a work of fiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is The Clothes They Stood Up in : a Story about?

Life imitates art in The Lady in the Van , the story of the itinerant Miss Shepherd, who lived in a van in Alan Bennett's driveway from the early 1970s until her death in 1989. It is doubtful that Bennett could have made up the eccentric Miss Shepherd if he tried, but his poignant, funny but unsentimental account of their strange relationship is akin to his best fictional screen writing. Bennett concedes that "One seldom was able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation", but as the plastic bags build up, the years pass by and Miss Shepherd moves into Bennett's driveway, a relationship is established which defines a certain moment in late 20th-century London life which has probably gone forever. The dissenting, liberal, middle-class world of Bennett and his peers comes into hilarious but also telling collision with the world of Miss Shepherd: "there was a gap between our social position and our social obligations. It was in this gap that Miss Shepherd (in her van) was able to live". Bennett recounts Miss Shepherd's bizarre escapades in his inimitable style, from her letter to the Argentinean Embassy at the height of the Falklands War, to her attempts to stand f

Who reads The Clothes They Stood Up in : a Story?

Author

Bennett, Alan, 1934-

Publisher

Profile Books, in association with London Review of Books

Published

1999

Language

EN

ISBN

9781861971227

Category

work of fiction

Subjects

Literary Fiction, Fiction, Memoir

Rating

3.7 / 5 (2,724 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14