Not Quite Nice
Celia Imrie
Language: English
Pages: 336
ISBN: 1632860325
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Theresa is desperate for a change. Forced into early retirement, fed up with babysitting her bossy daughter’s obnoxious children, she sells her Highgate house and moves to the picture-perfect town of Bellevue-sur-Mer, just outside Nice.
With its beautiful villas, its bustling cafes and shimmering cerulean sea, the village sparkles like a diamond on the French Mediterranean coast. Once the hideaway of artists and writers, it is now home to the odd rock icon and Hollywood movie star, and, as Theresa soon discovers, a close-knit set of expats. There’s Carol, the infinitely glamorous American and her doting husband David; the erstwhile British TV star Sally; the ferocious Sian and her wayward Australian poet husband; the sharply witty Zoe with her strangely youthful face and penchant for white wine--and the suave Brian who catches Theresa’s eye.
As Theresa settles to the gentle rhythm of seaside life she embraces her new-found friendships and freedom. However, life is never quite as simple as it seems and as skeletons start to fall out of several closets, Theresa begins to wonder if life on the French Riviera is quite as nice as it first appeared.
The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (2nd Edition)
A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
dark navy, always sparkling with diamonds of light. Bobbing upon it, the cruise ships, so scarce during the winter when most of them were off on world tours or in the Caribbean, returned to their regular summer Mediterranean circuits. Almost every day saw a huge white liner unload its passengers in Villefranche-Sur-Mer or Monte Carlo, from where they dispersed in coaches for the day to all the towns and villages along the coast. Daily, tourists arrived from the airport, having taken up spring
determination was quite frightening to behold. Sally dreaded Sian’s reaction if Marianne was to make good on her threats. But then, at the start of her own acting career, wouldn’t she herself have gone to some extreme lengths to further her chances? She remembered hugging information to herself so that she might get to an audition, while her friends didn’t. Perhaps Sally had had that naked ambition too, just had forgotten it over the years of being out of the business. Well, if Marianne could be
frantic, his face white as a sheet. He was yelling for Sally. ‘Sally! I’ve been searching for you. It’s terrible. Come quick.’ ‘Oh God, what’s happened now?’ ‘It’s Faith.’ William stopped at the edge of the terrace and stooped, holding his knees and taking deep breaths. ‘I just bumped into Alfie. He arrived home early this morning to find his mother lying on the bedroom floor, covered in blood, unconscious.’ Theresa and Sally both rose hurriedly. ‘Is she all right?’ they asked, in unison.
Theresa laughed too. ‘Well, I won’t go that far, but I promise to lay on a feast worthy of Louis the Fourteenth.’ ‘You’ve got to watch your weight, Mummy,’ snapped Imogen. ‘And all you think about is food.’ She stood with her hands on her hips and wearing a serious expression. Then she said: ‘You’d better live frugally out there, Ma. We don’t want you using up the children’s inheritance.’ Theresa did not grace this parting shot with a reply. As she clicked the garden gate after her and walked
to the tube station, she wiped away a few more tears. Theresa was shocked to realise that whatever she chose to do aroused this greedy disdain in her daughter. Making her way back to her now oddly empty and echoing house, she decided she must be resolute. Absence, she hoped, would make the hearts grow fonder. She slept fitfully, and woke before dawn. She left the key to the house with Mr Jacobs and, early that morning, flew out to Nice. As Theresa stepped off the plane, her London house sold,
