Meet Major Pettigrew and a charmer of a book

Sometimes you have to put your foot down and take back your life.

As our story begins, Major Ernest Pettigrew of Edgecombe St. Mary, England, receives some terrible news, that his only brother has suddenly died. His sister-in-law’s abrupt phone call is a punch that staggers the retired military officer, still grieving the death of his wife of many years. And then a knock on the door changes everything.

The book is "Major Pettigrew‘s Last Stand" by Helen Simonson. Major Pettigrew is traveling by word of mouth, as charmed readers tell others about the funny, opinionated, tradition-loving but wryly cynical retired officer beset by a grown-up son and village busybodies, who falls in love in a most unexpected way. I found the book because someone wrote in passing that they liked it very much.

That’s what this book does, it wraps you around its finger, this little gem of a book about love in later years.

To continue our story, it seems that Pettigrew’s brother owned a gun, one of an heirloom pair passed down from their father, and Pettigrew needs to reunite the set. Arrayed against him are his niece and his own son, who prize, not tradition, but the money those old guns will bring.

Meanwhile, a survey team starts measuring and pounding stakes on the unspoiled country land behind Pettigrew’s comfortable old house. A high-end luxury housing development is on the way, with plans to replace the old village shops with ones catering to a more upscale crowd. There’s talk of installing a chef at the local pub.

Cultures clash, generations collide and the course of love runs anything but smooth in this tale of modern-day England.

Simonson was born in Britain and spent her teen years in an East Sussex village. No surprise, then, that "Major Pettigrew‘s Last Stand" joins a gentle genre of fiction, prime example of which is the Alexander McCall Smith novels, most often written by Brits and peopled by ‘‘everyday’’ heroes. A parade of human foibles bemuses, sometimes frustrates, always entertains. A knock on the door can change a life. Underdogs sometimes get to win. Love ignores the calendar. A story, page by page by page, spins you into a village in England, a town in Botswana, a street in a Scottish city.

I’m delighted to introduce you to Major Pettigrew, and I hope he makes future appearances.