Not Quite Nice

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Theresa is desperate for a change. Forced into early retirement, fed up with babysitting her bossy daughter's obnoxious children, she sells her Highgate house and moves to the picture-perfect town of Bellevue-sur-Mer, just outside Nice. This was a nice light read, describing the move to a little village just outside Nice on the French Riviera of a woman retrenched, badly treated by her daughter and grandchildren and looking for a new life in her retirement. I read this as an e-book, but I think it would be perfect as an audiobook, because I could just hear Celia Imrie narrating it.

Not Quite Nice: : Celia Imrie: Bloomsbury USA Not Quite Nice: : Celia Imrie: Bloomsbury USA

Shelve this book under "middle-aged woman rediscovers zest in her life" and "English people misbehaving abroad". This is light-hearted escapism, starting when Theresa, on a whim, buys a house in a lovely seaside town on the Riviera. The small community of English-speaking expatriates, embraces the new arrival, and soon Theresa is enjoying her new life. But it's not all baguettes and vin blanc , and drug dealers, con men and corporate spies soon appear on the scene. In informal speaking, we often use quite with like, enjoy, understand and agree to talk about our opinions or preferences. Depending on the context, it can mean ‘a bit’, ‘a lot’ or ‘totally’. We usually put it in the normal mid position for adverbs (between the subject and the main verb, or after the modal verb or first auxiliary verb, or after be as a main verb): I can't say this was particularly well written - it seems that towards the end, the author just wanted to get this book done and get all the stories wrapped up, which led to some really implausible and far-fetched revelations. The characters, especially the children of two of the female characters, were caricatures of entitlement and nastiness. And there were a lot of characters! I really enjoyed this book about the over sixties and seventies inhabitants of Bellevu Sur Mere. Although this was a light hearted read Celia managed to weave some dark threads in the tale. Including a con man, muggings, burglaries and card cloning. There was also one big storyline I definitely did not see coming.A hugely entertaining novel. It had a ‘Carry On’ feel to it. A glorious romp. Plot a little confused at times, but always colourful and engaging. The characters larger than life – anyone who is familiar to spending time in this beautiful part of France – will more than appreciate being reminded of the scenery and wonderful ‘cafes’ and highly engaging ex pats – a thoroughly delicious romp. Looking forward to Celia’s next gem.

BBC Radio 2 - The Radio 2 Book Club - Not Quite Nice by Celia

It's Mothers Day in the UK tomorrow and the disrespect and contempt Imogen showed Theresa annoyed me. Our members at Throston Reading Group, Hartlepool libraries, found this book enjoyable, some of the typical comments from our readers were: When we use quite + a/an + adjective + noun it means the same as ‘a little or a lot but not completely’: I enjoyed the narration, even if there were some over the top voices and that the middle aged, male Australian poet accent and vocabulary was incredibly off mark, hideous and cringeworthy as it appeared to be styled on my brother when hanging out with his bogan mates.Having discussed the characters, we can see why Theresa wanted a change, given her unlikeable daughter and grandchildren, to whom she should have stood up to. The most eccentric character is Zoe, but Sally was the favourite to some of our readers.

Not Quite Nice by Celia Imrie | Waterstones

Their ‘friends’ include an obligatory gay couple, a stylish American couple, an older botoxed-to-the-hilt loudmouth drunk, the mousy nondescript newbie, a corporate highflyer (whose first scene involving her slapping Theresa like some sort of trashy Dr Phil guest is too ridiculous for words) and her philandering poet of a husband. This debut from national treasure actress Celia perfectly captures the colour of ex-pat life and the glitz and glamour of the South of France. A shaft of early summer sunshine, a funny, spirited read The book is set in the South of France, and its large than life characters sparkle with wit and life, the Mediterranean sea simmers with sunshine.After visiting Nice on a couple of occasions this book did make me want to revisit. The blue of the ocean, the pavement Cafe's and the French love of live, what more could you wish for on a January day. Ugh. I’m so disappointed. I was so looking forward to reading this book, the first by Celia Imrie, one of my favourite actresses. I assumed it would be funny and feature older characters finding love. Older character romance is my favourite and so rarely done. There was also the promise of the French riviera and some feminist empowerment. There are lots of lovely ideas in this book, however, they seem to fizzle out as Ms Imrie hits on the next one. I liked the idea of the escaping grandmother; and of the cookery class; and of the recipes; and of the rescued furniture; and of the community supporting each other; and of older women learning new skills; I was fascinated by the way property is sold in France... But I could not not a handle on the different characters for they were not clearly drawn enough; the boring grandmother who allowed herself to be put upon for years by her grandchildren and tamed them in an hour - no way! The abhorrent children, every single one of them, them older lady who fell down stone steps yet didn't need emergency hospital treatment. An the plot... So many red herrings you could have made a hot fish soup.

Celia Imrie: ‘All the parts I’m writing are parts I’d like to

I’m slightly wary of the generation below me, who I find rather money-obsessed. In my day we would never even have discussed the word inheritance, but it often comes up in conversation nowadays. I find the whole subject rather vulgar. I suppose that’s why it reared itself in the book. And there is Brian, who is there when Theresa is mugged on one of her first days in France, and helps her out and becomes her lodger. Brain also helps out, when Theresa starts running cooking classes for the ex-pats to gain an income.

Theresa is fed up with the way her daughter and grand children treat her, and when she is forced to retire, she decides on a change, and moves to the south of France, and the town of Bellevue-sur-Mer, where there is a thriving ex-pat community. One thing many of the characters have in common is their children are horrid. And I mean horrid. I can’t quite fathom that a/ children would treat their parents like they do in this book or b/ anyone would let their children treat them like they do in this book. I’m sorry, it’s unbelievable. Okay, so there might be people out there with awful children but I would assume they were horrible parents in the first place. These middle aged horrors seem to have all been hatched from hell with no help from their mother or father. One bad apple might be understandable but for these characters to *all* have such demon children is weird. In her debut novel, Imrie has given us a sort of “coming of old age” story. I loved Theresa, though I wanted to shake her a few times when she put up with bad treatment by her ungrateful, selfish daughter and her bratty grandchildren. Still, this is a woman who has always done her best and who is slowly but surely realizing that she deserves some pleasure in life. The cast of supporting characters was marvelous as well: the smooth and attentive Brian; Sally a former British TV star; Americans Carol and David; “dragon lady” Sian and her philandering Aussie husband Ted; the witty, seemingly never aging octogenarian Zoe; compliant Faith and her pushy son Alfie who insists she needs a mansion rather than the small flat she’d prefer; and gay couple Benjamin and William. A light hearted book, an easy read with many reflections on families, love and life in general. A bit slow to start with , but worth persevering and enjoyable. Some may think a bit far fetched but life can be like that. This is an absolutely delightful novel that would be a pleasure to indulge in at any time - whether on holiday or just in the bath with a glass of wine. Celia Imrie effectively combines both drama and humour to offer the realisation that no matter how hard you try; one can never truly escape the past. - Tracy H.