Home › England - 20th Century › The Bloater
  • The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks book cover
  • The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks book cover
1 2

The Bloater

by Rosemary Tonks

Marriage, desire, and a difficult courtship in 1960s London

$15.21 USD
$25.35 USD $15.21 USD
Save 40%

Paperback New

Delivery to your door
In stock·Dispatches in 1–2 business days
Standard shipping* from $4.35
Standard shipping transit* 5–8 business days after dispatch

Faster options are available.

Rates and delivery estimates depend on your destination and item quantity. Estimates are informational only; the final shipping method and rate are selected at checkout.
Secure checkout
American Express Apple Pay DiscoverGoogle Pay Mastercard PayPalVisa
30-day eligible returns Returns & refunds policy

AlbakiReads Editorial

Marriage, desire, and a difficult courtship in 1960s London

Min, a BBC sound engineer, describes her marriage to George as so insubstantial that she can forget he is in the room. Her social life offers other distractions, including an internationally renowned opera singer she nicknames “The Bloater.” Min’s sharply self-critical, opinionated account turns on her mixed feelings toward him and the question of whether to accept his advances. The novel’s 1960s London setting frames a story concerned with marriage, sexual attraction, and the gap between what Min wants and what she finds appealing.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in fiction set in 1960s London.
  • Readers drawn to stories about marriage, desire, and romantic dilemmas.
  • Readers who enjoy a narrator described as self-critical and opinionated.

Themes

Marriage and intimacySexual attractionAmbivalence and desire1960s London

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Why do the only men I know carry wet umbrellas and say "Umm?" I'm being starved alive. Quick: the first bookshop for a copy of the Kama-Sutra.

Min works at the BBC as a sound engineer, and in theory she's married, but her husband George is so invisible that she accidentally turns the lights off even when he's still in the room. Luckily, she has her friends and lovers to distract her: in Min's self-lacerating, bracingly opinionated voice, life boils down to sex appeal--and of late she's being courted by an internationally renowned opera singer whom she refers to as The Bloater (a swelled, salted herring). Disgusted by and attracted to him in equal measure, her dilemma--which reaches a hysterical, hilarious pitch--is whether to sleep with him or not.

Rosemary Tonks--the salt and pepper of the earth--is a writer who gets her claws into the reader with all the joy of a cat and a mouse. Vain and materialistic, tender and savage, narrated in brilliant, sparkling prose, The Bloater is the perfect snapshot of London in the 1960s.

Shipping & returnsShipping options, delivery timing, and our return policy.

In-stock items normally dispatch within 1–2 business days. The ZIP-code estimator on this page is informational only; the final shipping method, price, and availability are confirmed at checkout for your full order.

For the initial delivery estimate we use these transit windows after dispatch: Standard 5–8 business days, Expedited 2–4 business days, and Priority 1–2 business days. Holiday delays are not included.

Eligible items can be returned within 30 days in accordance with our return policy.

Customer reviews

You may also like

View all