A Sense of Occasion

A death in the (dysfunctional) family - can the three remaining members hold it together long enough to organise the funeral? Mary''s death is inconvenient - for her daughter Patch, ex-husband Robin, and niece Jude. Patch must deal with death-related admin and speak to people outside of her family. Robin would much rather go and cruise farmers in the layby than be a responsible father and grieving heterosexual widower. And Jude must return from her new, erotically charged life in Naples to rescue this hapless pair: organising the funeral and making a lasagne. In Mary''s small, chaotic house in the West Midlands, each of them is trying to feel something: to mourn, to atone, to join in, to be better. Her absence in their lives brings new complications and lurching sexual undercurrents, broiling until they spill over the surface. A whip-smart, darkly funny and deeply entertaining novel, A Sense of Occasion subverts and perverts your expectations. Will the family make it to the funeral intact?

About the author

Brodie Crellin

Product details

• Authors: Brodie Crellin
• Publisher: JONATHAN CAPE
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 04.06.2026
• EAN: 9781787335868
• ISBN: 978-1-78733-586-8
• No. of pages: 288
• Dimensions: 138 mm x 222 mm x 25 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), FICTION / Family Life / General, FICTION / Literary, Midlands, Humorous fiction, FICTION / Humorous / Dark Humor, Modern and contemporary fiction: literary and general, Family life fiction / Stories about family, Narrative theme: love / relationships, Funerals / burials / death