Super Host

More about the book

What do you do when you're left with a large house? Fill it with people of course... Bennett Driscoll is a Turner Prize nominated artist, and was a Bright Young Thing. Now, at 55, his wife has left him, the reviews have dried up, and his gallery wants to stop selling his paintings, saying they'll have more value retrospectively...when he's dead. So, left with a large West London home and no income, he moves into his painting studio in the back garden and rents out the house, soon reaching status as a Super Host on AirBed. At last, the money is coming in, but he's loveless and, well, lonely. Meantime, his guests alternate between being mind-blowingly dull, and obsessive nuts. But they like his home, and one or two can be fun - and they seem to like him... Wry, rueful and rich in observation, SUPER HOST provides a delicious portrait of middle-age, marriage, and the underlying fears and loneliness that colour so many lives.