Waiting by Kate Farrell - Kitchen Sink Gothic

Waiting by Kate Farrell provides us with a keenly observed, sometimes wryly humorous  insight into the life of Edna Gould. The tightfistedness over money of her late husband, Len, is comically observed throughout the story.
"I used to get People's Friend and Woman's Weekly. Len liked the Daily Express. We had the papers delivered until he decided he'd walk down to the newsagent for them. Why pay a delivery charge when you've got the use of your limbs, he said. And it saved on a Christmas box for the paperboy."
Throughout we get to know about Edna's life, her trials and tribulations and her cheery determination to make the best of everything, especially after her husband's death, when some of the little luxuries he was too careful to pay for are suddenly available.
"...I were thinking about taking a holiday abroad, a short break somewhere with Mrs Wilson. I must look out for my passport. The last time I used it, Len and I went to Holland for the tulips. That was nineteen eighty-seven, our fortieth anniversary. I loved all the purples and yellows and reds and pinks, all mixed up. Len said we could have stood outside the local florist and saved him the money."
For me it's a wonderfully warm story, full of colour, humour and humanity, and we truly grow to like Edna. Which makes the closing paragraphs all the more chilling.
You have been warned.
Parallel Universe Publications will be publishing a collection of Kate's stories later this year, And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After. In the meantime PS Publishing have just brought out My Name is Mary Sutherland, reviewed by Christopher Teague for the BFS.

trade paperback: 
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ebook:
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Kitchen Sink Gothic includes:

1964 by Franklin Marsh
Derek Edge and the Sun-Spots by Andrew Darlington
Daddy Giggles by Stephen Bacon
Black Sheep by Gary Fry
Jamal Comes Home by Benedict J. Jones
Waiting by Kate Farrell
Lilly Finds a Place to Stay by Charles Black
The Mutant's Cry by David A. Sutton
The Sanitation Solution by Walter Gascoigne
Up and Out of Here by Mark Patrick Lynch
Late Shift by Adrian Cole
The Great Estate by Shaun Avery
Nine Tenths by Jay Eales
Envelopes by Craig Herbertson
Tunnel Vision by Tim Major
Life is Prescious M. J. Wesolowski
Canvey Island Baby by David Turnbull