I'll Go To Bed At Noon

Gerard Woodward’s richly woven novel, set in the 70s. As pressure builds on Colette to help her struggling family, her own weaknesses begin to emerge.

Colette Jones has had drinking problems in the past, but now it seems her whole family is turning to alcohol. Her oldest son has thrown away a promising musical career, and his drinking sprees with his brother-in-law Bill have started to land him in trouble with the police. Meanwhile, Colette’s recently widowed brother is now on the gin, a bottle a day and counting. Who will be next? When her own husband hits the bottle Colette realises she has to act. The title of this shortlisted novel comes from King Lear: ‘And I'll go to bed at noon’ are the last words spoken by the Fool. 

"A portrait of an alcoholic family in a North London suburb during Britain's dingy mid-1970s does not, admittedly, sound like the most promising of concepts for a novel. But the wry, compassionate wit and deftness of characterization in Gerard Woodward's second novel quickly overwhelm any reservations the reader may have."  -  Christopher Hart, Literary Review UK

Gerard Woodward is a British novelist, poet and short story writer, best known for his trilogy of novels concerning the troubled Jones family, the second of which, I'll Go To Bed at Noon, was shortlisted for the 2004 Man-Booker Prize. In 1989 he won a major Eric Gregory Award for poets under thirty and his first collection of poetry, Householder, won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1991. His first novel, August, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award.