PERHAPS only a national treasure of Alan Bennett’s stature can get away with writing a tragi-comic novella set in a retirement home — not least one where terror, like that which ravaged care homes during Covid, strikes relentlessly.

The story begins when Mrs Foss enquires about a place for herself at the rather well-heeled residential home Hill Topp, “with two Ps”. She is assured that, unlike the home at the bottom of the hill, they do not vegetate, and the cuisine is not unadventurous. and there are sherry tipples and trips out. She is told that, on their last visit, to a local farm, they spotted a flamingo. At every turn, Bennett — now 90 years old himself — injects witty and sardonic observations rooted in the everyday, effortlessly revealing that his eye for the absurd is by no means failing.

Mostly harmless whimsies are interrupted when Mrs Vokes fails to attend her chiropodist appointment. The lively group of residents presume that she is sleeping. But she is dead. The benign vicar takes the funeral, and makes a clever exit after the tea. So far, so normal; and yet these are the days of innocence.

The tale soon turns, as the snobby administrator and the unpleasantly ingratiating resident Mr Woodruff die. They had assumed that only the less salubrious home could be infected, and thus flouted the rules at Hill Topp.

Petty snobbery, poignant secrets, and droll absurdities abound as the tale of the pandemic’s macabre ravages unfolds. In a story reminiscent of The Lord of the Flies, residents are abandoned, with neither help nor food, and choose to take extreme measures. Not for the fainthearted, Bennett’s bold novella is both brisk and refreshingly close to the bone.

The Revd Jennie Hogan is a psychotherapist in central London.

Killing Time
Alan Bennett
Faber & Faber £10
(978-0-571-39481-4)
Church Times Bookshop £9