Experience Joyful Laughter and Feel-Good Romance with "A Grand Old Time" Comedy

Robyn A. Chumley: Judy Leigh takes us on a journey with Evie. Evie is in her mid-70s and disgusted with being disrespected in her life. Her husband, Jim, died a decade ago. Evie manages to carry on, but wants something more than a boring life in a nursing home. So she takes her leave, flies her first flight from Dublin into Liverpool, buys a rundown campervan, explores France’s coastal cities, and surprisingly falls head-over-heels in love with a man she initially called “Mr Grumpy.” Meanwhile, the son she adores, Brendan, and his wife Maura chase after his mom Evie while their marriage falls apart. Leigh’s writing in this book is more my style. There are some comic moments, but not “hilarious.” But it’s a comfortable, sitting-in-front-of-a-roaring-fire read. Happy, sad, silly…heartwarming.

United States on Sep 07, 2023

Alaska Customer: I always enjoy the way Judy Leigh brings her reader to new places. Her stories demonstrate that age is not necessarily a limit to finding new aspects of one's self -- and maybe even finding a whole new life, and even love.

United States on Jun 12, 2023

k: I have read other books by this author, and enjoy them sufficiently to encourage me to purchase this one. However, I found the writing skittish and disappointing, the story unbelievable and had the impression the author was treating the reader as a fool. I stopped caring about them all around the 30% mark, and jumped to the last few chapter to see what had happened, realising I hadn’t missed too much.
Brendan was boorish and boring, Maura needed a spine, and Evie’s character was painted as unrealistic, and almost laughable, but not in a funny, entertaining fashion…
I have great difficulty comprehending how readers can give this work five stars and wax lyrical about it… are they so easily impressed by what I consider rubbish, or am I largely bereft of objective literary criticism capacity?

Save your money and your time… this is not worth the effort!

Australia on Apr 26, 2023

Sew Delighted: I love Judy Leigh’s novels. It’s exciting to read feel good stories relating to seniors. The characters are full of adventure and just a joy to be with for a short time.

Canada on May 03, 2022

Quality Shopper: I didn't find the book at all hilarious, in fact quite depressing in parts and wonder how it achieved this label, I initially bought it because I needed to laugh, what I got was a much needed dose of reality.... Live for the now. The story brought home the reality that some people however old, are never old enough for a care home, circumstance may dictate this outcome, but let's face it they are gods waiting room, if you have an ounce of life in you, go live it, stop looking out of the window and wishing for change, the change you need is YOU...

The depressing elements of the book revolve around the son and his wife, he thinking a woman who is nice must of course fancy him, so he creates a fantasy future with her, quite happy to dump his wife until reality smacks him in the face... and his wife, well a complete nag.....

The book is a good read and I found myself discovering new things, the book inspired me to look up new authors, Spanish liqueurs, and different religious beliefs.... Wonderful...

United Kingdom on Jan 02, 2021

jill goodale: I think anyone in their senior years would enjoy Evie’s story, have a laugh and find it entertaining.
I’m sure it would resonate with a lot of elderly ladies (who are still young at heart) they would enjoy and engage with her spirit – be impressed at Evie buying a caravan, driving erratically on the opposite side of the road (I cringed)! from Ireland to Liverpool and then to France showed she had an adventurous spirit.
Don’t get me started on her activities in France, I’m so envious! And picking up the French phrases – some I confess I had to look up for meanings, but that was fun.
She met the love of her life, although brief but she had consolidated herself enough in the Winery to go on and keep those lovely memories in her heart and she wanted to continue what they had started. She knew now what she wanted out of life and there was no going back to a Rest Home.
Brendon her son and Maura his wife got to me a bit, I did wonder part way through, (did we need them because to me it was a good story in itself). However, it did eventually teach Brendon that his mother was entitled to a life, she still had her marbles, was a capable woman and he didn’t have to...

United States on Dec 29, 2020

Jena Henry Booklover: I have read several books by author Judy Leigh and by now, I count on her when I want a warm, humorous read with a spotlight on memorable and charming characters. A Grant Old Time truly delivers a grand time.
Evie is 75 and is shaken and lost when her husband dies. She numbly goes to a care home. But a little spark in her is enough to make her get up and go and leave the well-meant but dreary world of the old folks home behind. She decides to rely on her luck number “4” to guide her. And so this Irish lass bolts from the home and heads to England. Taking things as they come, she eventually makes her way to France.
Meanwhile, back in Dublin, Evie’s son and his wife are not getting along. and Evie’s disappearance has Brendan in a tailspin. They scramble to find Evie. Will they find her? Will they find themselves? Will Evie come home?
Readers will enjoy the energetic and bubbly Evie as she finds herself. Brendan and Maura are a bit harder to love. If you know Judy Leigh, her trademark charm, humor and a touch of sorrow shine through. A positive read that left me rethinking my life and goals-I highly recommend this book.

United States on Oct 26, 2020

T. Johnson: What is it that we often admire about our favorite characters, especially in modern day books? It's the courage and audacity they have to start anew. To shake things up. To toss it all and dare to change their life into something they've always wanted down deep...or didn't know they needed, but was like a new dawn once they found it.

Ol' Evie...a septuagenarian who is washed up. In a care home. Not really living life so much as more counting the days til it's all over. Her husband has passed, her only child, Brendan, married to a grumpy woman, Maura, and no grandkids. No hobbies. No job. No passion. No life.

Her only lift each day is an early morning conversation with the Ukranian man who serves coffee and toast to all the elderly residents. Someone who doesn't treat her like she's already "mostly dead". (All reviews need a Princess Bride reference, no?)

One day, she's had enough. She needs a holiday. Out of the care home she sneaks, with the idea of a few days away. To get out and away from the pull of apathy and extinction.

And here is where we start to fall in love with this spunky woman. She's not savvy, not experienced in the world. But she's...

United States on Oct 19, 2018

Nigel Melville: Good on you, Evie Gallagher ! Her story moves, at a spanking rate, through three literary genres. It starts in “pensioner emancipation” mode when Evie, “bereaved, bored and going barmy” makes a break from her residential home in Dublin where “the soothing music told the residents they were in a caring environment.”

A lucky bet in her first hours of freedom funds the ferry crossing to Liverpool where a mugging and a radical makeover complete Evie's liberation and her story moves into the “French grass is greener” mode, as she takes a second ferry across to Brittany and then heads south. Meanwhile the care home contacts Evie's only son, the inadequate Brendan, who takes off in pursuit, dragging his grudging wife Maura in tow.

France, naturally, weaves her seductive spell on all three in ways they don't expect. Evie graduates to an elderly campervan and heads south for Carcassonne and the sun, driving erratically through several wine regions, before landing up – thanks to an alchoholic spree – in an Irish bar just north of the Pyrenees. As to that seductive spell, author Judy Leigh can't help describing Evie's journey in so much loving detail that...

United Kingdom on Jun 05, 2018

D. C. A. Price: I’m a bit conflicted over this book! I enjoyed it very much, but couldn’t somehow get round the premise that a fit and healthy 75 year old would agree to go into a care home, even if suffering from the sadness of the death of her husband. I’m 70 with many friends in their 70s and 80s and a Care home is something they are determined to avoid at all costs. And surely a loving son like Brendan would dissuade his mother from such an drastic action. Then we’re led to believe that this same woman leaves her care home and is able to buy tickets and travel around Britain and France, buying and driving a camper van, helping people decorate their home and rescuing a dying wine business in France! But if you suspend credibility it’s a great book!

United Kingdom on Apr 26, 2018