Alan Bennett’s twelve ‘Talking Heads’ are acknowledged masterworks by one of our most highly acclaimed writers. Some 30 years after the original six, Bennett has written ‘Two Besides,’ a pair of monologues. Each, in its way, is a devastating portrait of grief. In ‘An Ordinary Woman’, a mother suffers the inevitable consequences when she makes life intolerable for herself and her family by falling for her own flesh and blood; while ‘The Shrine’ tells the story behind a makeshift roadside shrine, introducing us to Lorna, bearing witness in her high-vis jacket, the bereft partner of a dedicated biker with a surprising private life. The two new ‘Talking Heads’ were recorded for the BBC during the exceptional circumstances of coronavirus lockdown in the spring of 2020.

Author Alan Bennett Published by Faber & Faber ISBN 9780571365852 EAN 9780571365852 Bic Code Cover Hardback