Buffy

The demise of Russell Buffery's latest marriage has put the sixty-one-year-old actor in a reflective mood. After all, his three ex-wives-the journalist, the new-age housewife, the antique dealer-have easily found their way without "Buffy", and his connections to his children are tenuous at best. Spurned and alone, he still wonders where it all went wrong. Until he meets Celeste... Only twenty-three and new to London, the fresh-faced young woman has given Buffy, the hopeless romantic, a new lease on life. But, unknown to Buffy, Celeste has her own agenda. She begins to delve into his past, but discovering each ex-wife leads to another one-not to mention the women on the side. And though Celeste may be in over her head, what is revealed to her will transform her life-and give both her and Buffy a chance to get it right this time around.

In her effortlessly winning novels Tulip Fever and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Deborah Moggach charmed readers and critics alike with her generous prose and hilarious dialogue. With Heartbreak Hotel, Moggach has triumphed once again. When retired actor Buffy decides to leave London and move to rural Wales, he has no idea what he is letting himself in for. In possession of a run-down bed and breakfast that leans more toward the shabby than the chic and is, quite literally, miles from nowhere, Buffy realizes that he needs to fill the beds-and fast. Otherwise, his vision of the pastoral countryside will go up in smoke. Enter a motley collection of guests: Harold, whose wife has run off with a younger woman; Amy, who's been unexpectedly dumped by her (not-so) nebbishy boyfriend and Andy, the hypochondriac postman whose girlfriend is much too much for him to handle. But under Buffy's watchful eye, this disparate group of strangers finds that they have more in common than perhaps they first thought. A charming romantic comedy that will captivate even the most determined urbanite, Heartbreak Hotel is a supreme entertainment.