“ Ayres gives a wonderful account of what it was like to grow up poor but respectable in post-war rural England. Some of her writing in the early chapters, describing life as the youngest of six children in a council cottage in the Vale of White Horse, Berkshire, has the original freshness of classics such as Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford ”
Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday
“ I find her work sweet and sour, gentle and sad, and often very moving in its wistful way ... The descriptions of post-war Berkshire life in The Necessary Aptitude are wonderful ... The world Ayres evokes is Hardy's Wessex ... I do admire (and envy) this marvellous woman ”
Roger Lewis, Daily Mail
“ Excellent ... Unsentimental, especially about herself, Ayres gives a surprisingly moving account of what it was like to grow up poor in rural England without any "aptitude" for making something of herself ”
Kathryn Hughes, Christmas Guide to a Cracking Read, Mail on Sunday
“ Highly readable ... Pam's memoirs are a masterclass in effective and effervescent prose ”
The Lady
“ An evocation of long-gone village life as captivating as Thompson’s Lark Rise to Candleford. At the book’s height, she reaches up and touches Laurie Lee ”
Buckinghamshire Life
“ As funny and benevolent a memoir as you’d expect from one of Britain’s finest comic ”
Good Book Guide
“ It’s all so well written, so funny and so touching ”
Readers' Digest
“ Charming ”
Choice
“ Ayres gives a wonderful account of what it was like to grow up poor but respectable in post-war rural England. Some of her writing in the early chapters, describing life as the youngest of six children in a council cottage in the Vale of White Horse, Berkshire, has the original freshness of classics such as Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford ”
Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday
Paperback
9780091940492
October 18, 2012
Ebury Press
432 pages
Audio CD
9781846573101
November 1, 2011
Audiobooks
