Mr Brightly's evening off (by Kathleen Rowntree)

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It’s over twenty years since I read Kathleen Rowntree’s novel ‘Mr Brightly’s evening off’. So, unsurprisingly, I had entirely forgotten the story and the people. It was more than time for a reread.

There’s a prologue which doesn’t seem to make much sense at first: three unconnected women watching a TV show where some silhouetted women are asked how they feel about a situation, and a particular person. I’m not quite sure why this prologue is there, other than to give a bit of mystery to the novel; it’s not until towards the end of the book that the scene takes place.

Chapter one introduces us to the elderly - but spry - Mrs Parminter who wakes up to find herself lying in her garden, in the rose bed. She comes to consciousness gradually, and then starts to wonder why she’s there. She then worries about how she’s going to get up, until she remembers that it’s Wednesday, and Mr Brightly is going to pay her a visit. It’s his evening off, he has told her, when his wife is at choir practice. And although Mr Brightly is much younger than Mrs Parminter, in his early fifties, the two of them are very good friends. 

Mr Brightly rescues his friend when he discovers her, and makes her promise to call her doctor. He’s nicely shown as a pleasant, respectful and helpful man who likes to walk in the village, where he knows almost everybody. He’s a lay reader in the local church, and has been responsible for it since their last vicar left, though a new one should soon arrive to take over.

Mr Brightly’s wife Ginny is a polar opposite to him - she moves at rapid speed, talks a lot, and likes to fill every moment. They seem an ill-sorted couple, but he is responsible and faithful, and very fond of their teenage daughter Harriet. 

We then meet Cressida Reece, a woman in her thirties whom Mr Brightly has seen and admired as she looks after her disabled teenage son Alex. She’s just won a large amount of compensation money after a medical mishap (hers, not her son’s) and Mr Brightly - who owns a finance company - goes to advise her. He’s just as charming to her as he is to Mrs Parminter, although less formal. And he gets along very well with Alex, who is quite a computer whizz.

These are the main characters, but there are several other people with whom Mr Brightly has had business transactions. He’s known variously as Dick, Ricki and Richard, and is good at adjusting his style to suit whoever he is with. There are a few slightly shocking implications about his past, but he’s clear that he’s now a Christian believer, and will thus resist any female lures - and there are several of them. He’s a good-looking man as well as being excellent company.

Right from the start there are hints that Mr Brightly’s finance company isn’t as reliable or watertight as he implies. And it’s cleverly written so that I could feel the confidence of the women he deals with, and Mr Brightly’s personal charm, yet also had a growing suspicion that he’s doing something dodgy with the money they are persuaded to invest…

I liked the book very much. The characters are perhaps a bit caricatured, but they’re three-dimensional and quite distinct. It’s essentially a village story, but with a lot of undercurrents and little side stories that add to the main plot. I didn’t find it funny, but there are wry observations that made me smile from time to time. 

There’s a somewhat inevitable dramatic conclusion, in which Mr Brightly continues to behave in a placid, helpful and friendly way. I couldn’t help liking him, as well as most of the other characters. And the last scene in the final chapter is really quite moving. 

I’m very glad I reread this, and hope it won’t be another twenty-three years before I read it again. Definitely recommended if you like women’s fiction with a bit of tension and drama.

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