Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller

Having watched the film of Notes on a Scandal starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett and having seen such rave reviews of the book written by Zoe Heller I felt that I should read it and see how the book compared to the film which was very well executed. The book is written in the form of notes/diary written by the central character Barbara Covett, an old-school history teacher, past retiring age; who decided to keep notes on the relationship between her colleague and friend, Bathsheba Hart, and the scandal that she was embroiling herself into. The scandal the spread across a 2year span was the fact that a pottery teacher became embroiled in an affair ...

Bathsheba Hart is a new teacher at St George?s. From day one she is befriended by Barbara Covett, an older and more established colleague who teaches history. Barbara is a sixty-something spinster, with a sharp tongue and little sense of humour. Sheba is 41, married with two kids and beautiful. She wears flowing clothes and pretty jewellery. The male teachers lust after her, the women turn away from her. So Sheba is glad of Barbara's company. Because of her looks, the kids see Sheba as an easy touch and misbehave during class. Sheba sometimes ended up in tears because they harass ...

'Notes on a Scandal' does exactly what it says on the cover. It is notes. On a scandal. And it's a cracking good read. The author is Zoe Heller, who has much newspaper work and a previous novel under her belt. This particular tome found it's way onto the 2003 Booker short list, along with quite a lot of my other recent reading material, I realise as I come to write this review. I've actually had this knocking around for months, but it had slipped under my bedside table, some vigorous cleaning earlier this week unearthed it. And two nights later with it back in it's dust jacket I am here to tell you all about this delicious dark tale of sex, love, ...