Not Quite Nice is the first novel by British actor and author, Celia Imrie. A particularly bad day that sees her “let go” from her job and abused by her daughter and granddaughters has Theresa Simmons seriously considering life elsewhere. This “sea change” idea soon takes a firm hold and she sells up, moving from Horrible Highgate to Bellevue Sur Mer, which is very close to, but Not Quite Nice, and well out of baby-sitting range. Her Mediterranean village boasts a lively ex-pat community, and Theresa soon finds herself in the thick of the local dramas.

In this delightful story, Imrie gives the reader a cast of (mostly) charming characters: a widowed ex-actress, a pair of gay men, a narcissistic elderly woman with a flair for cutting remarks, an apparently loving American couple, an Australian lothario and his jealous wife, a timid mother and her bullying son, an ex-prisoner, a self-centred daughter and her three spoiled children, a long-absent hippy son, an over-achieving daughter and a mysterious woman who claims to be recuperating.

All sorts of happenings fill this enjoyable read, including (but not limited to) naked men jumping from hotel balconies, muggings, a cookery club, power boat lessons, robberies, drug deals, credit card cloning, elopement, bank account embezzlements, an artistic installation, a trans-gender revelation and a dramatic climax. And while at first it appears that many of the adult children are selfish, money-grubbing, nasty types interested only in their inheritance, they prove to be as human and flawed as their parents.

There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in this highly entertaining novel, which falls firmly into the hen-lit genre, with the main characters aged in their sixties and seventies, thus guaranteeing it a readership amongst that group. But with eight delicious-sounding recipes included, lovers of epicurean delights will also find this an enjoyable read. 4.5 stars