• Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
  • Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
  • Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
  • Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
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Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont

A Virago Modern Classic
  • Author
    • Elizabeth Taylor
£10.99
£10.99

Anticipated publication date

Nov 12, 2026

We will deliver the product within a reasonable period of time following the publication date

The publication date is an estimated date only and is subject to change.

We anticipate that the book will be published on this date. However, should the estimated publication date change for whatever reason, we will notify you within a reasonable period of time.
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'Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is, for me, her masterpiece' GUARDIAN, 'The Best 100 Novels'

'An author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth' SARAH WATERS

'Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Elizabath Bowen - soul-sisters all' ANNE TYLER

On a rainy Sunday in January, the recently widowed Mrs Palfrey arrives at the Claremont Hotel where she will spend her remaining days. Her fellow residents are magnificently eccentric and endlessly curious, living off crumbs of affection and snippets of gossip. Together, upper lips stiffened, they fight off their twin enemies: boredom and the Grim Reaper.

Then one day Mrs Palfrey strikes up an unlikely friendship with an impoverished young writer, Ludo, who sees her as inspiration for his novel.
  • Published: Nov 12 2026
  • ISBN: 9780349019611
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Press Reviews

  • Robert McCrum

    'the 100 best novels', Guardian
    Elizabeth Taylor's exquisitely drawn character study of eccentricity in old age is a sharp and witty portrait of genteel postwar English life facing the changes taking shape in the 60s . . . Much of the reader's joy lies in the exquisite subtlety in Taylor's depiction of all the relationships, the sharp brevity of her wit, and the apparently effortless way the plot unfolds . . . Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont is, for me, her masterpiece

  • Anne Tyler

    Jane Austen, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Elizabeth Bowen - soul-sisters all

  • Sarah Waters

    Elizabeth Taylor is finally being recognised as an important British author: an author of great subtlety, great compassion and great depth. As a reader, I have found huge pleasure in returning to Taylor's novels and short stories many times over. As a writer I've returned to her too - in awe of her achievements, and trying to work out how she does it

  • Antonia Fraser

    One of the most underrated novelists of the twentieth century, Elizabeth Taylor writes with a wonderful precision and grace. Her world is totally absorbing

  • David Baddiel

    Independent
    She's a magnificent and underrated mid-twentieth-century writer, the missing link between Jane Austen and John Updike
  • The Times
    It is both mercilessly observant and also quite tender about the ravages of old age

  • Simon Heffer

    Daily Telegraph
    Elizabeth Taylor was a master at capturing the upheavals and uncertainties of war