Major Pettigrew is as English as it is possible to be.  At sixty-eight, a widower and the eldest son living in the ancestral home in the village of Edgecombe St. Mary, he believes in honor, duty, and family.  Stunned by the news of his brother’s death, he opens his door wearing his wife’s old robe and collapses into the arms of Mrs. Ali, the widowed Pakistani owner of the local mini-mart come to collect for his daily newspaper. Over a restorative pot of tea, their conversation sparks the beginning of a friendship that will set the entire village on end.  As his attempts to understand his financier son, Roger, merge with his desire to reunite the pair of Churchill hunting guns split at the deathbed of his father, and gets further mixed up with golf club festivities and an annual shoot at the estate of the local lord, Major Pettigrew finds himself at the center of a local whirlwind.  Mrs. Ali’s independence puts her at odds with her traditional family.  Economic and social factors are changing British life.   Major Pettigrew is trying to hold on to the past and move into the future with dignity intact.  Major Pettigrew’s good heart and level head win out over his British reserve and the tsking of his neighbors.  At times funny, sweet and exasperating, with an unforgettable cast of characters, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a wonderful read. ~Marla Vandewater

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