Peter Altschuler does a marvelous job of supplying different voices and accents (American and British), and switches between them seamlessly.

I also think the cover art on the original publication, clothing placed on a hat/coat stand in such a way as to appear as two people embracing, is so very clever. Ali are growing to love one another deeply, they must simultaneously navigate through the waters of bigotry. Pettigrew’s son Roger, a boorish financier and social bounder, eschews anything that threatens his status and his career. I don't believe the greatest views in the world are great because they are vast or exotic," she(Jamina) said.Within a handful of pages, you start getting bits of personality that make the characters jump to life. The Major (Earnest, aptly named) – Retired British Army, military attitude, and strong values, almost stuffy with an air of ostentation. Highly recommended although do bear in mind that my English sentimentality will have influenced my score greatly. Simonson has been so trained (perhaps overtrained) by American writing groups and programs (she has an M. Some start off as stereotypes, but few of them remain that way -- and you don't have to wait for the end of the book to discover their layers.

A lot of interesting themes such as race, class, family, love and sex are explored in a gentle but engaging story. I liked the way one character described his feelings for a woman, -- "In her presence, I'm lost to her.The only thing that knocked a star off this review for me was a slightly hackish plot device at the end, but it's such a minor thing it really only counts for half a star. On the first page of the first chapter of her first novel, “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand,” Helen Simonson invites her readers to experience love at first sight. Set in modern England, it encompasses many facets of British life - clashes and frictions between generations, social classes, religions, and cultures - all portrayed from the POV of an aging, conservative and very proper man who, because of his late love, finds himself compelled to face many issues he preferred to avoid or overlook in the past.

I found him a little unrounded; he followed his father into the army, and we are told that when he left he spent time teaching in a boys’ private school but was happy to leave it. The upper echelons of the village, led by the ladies of the various village committees, compensated for the rudeness of the lower by developing a widely advertised respect for Mr and Mrs Ali. Ali is Pakistani, and while some villagers pretend to have jettisoned class and ethnic snobbery, it is hopelessly woven into the fabric of their lives. Ali’s nephew is a devout Muslim and even more overtly disapproving of the friendship than the major’s neighbors.

The narrative, which is enjoyable even when it tootles along with mechanical efficiency, follows a three-act structure and detonates the party scene at the end of Act II. That “Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand” opens at a moment of heartbreak has no sobering effect whatsoever. Meet Major Pettigrew: widower, retired army officer, and pillar of the community in his small English town.