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A TOUCH OF DANIEL by Peter Tinniswood

A TOUCH OF DANIEL

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Pub Date: July 25th, 1969
Publisher: Doubleday

When Auntie Edna fell off the bus, she landed on her pate and remained unconscious for sixty-three days. At the end of this period she died, and they had a funeral."" Thus begins a potty, pleasant but too tongue-in-cheeky British novel about a family that keeps expanding with each death. Auntie Edna's Uncle Mort moves in. . . similarly Auntie Lil, senile Uncle Stavely and his 102-year-old-buddy Colonel Parkinson. Uncle Mort gets Auntie Lil pregnant and the result is Daniel, whose touch seems to reinvigorate the household. Uncle Mort takes after the nurse, Jessie (who is after young Carter); Uncle Stavely sheds wrinkles and grows hair; and Colonel Parkinson undergoes the most surprising change of all. Carter knows it's all Daniel's doing and uses the baby as a sounding post for his own problems. . . then Carter is accidentally responsible for Daniel's death. . . Mr. Tinniswood underplays his humor to a point just left of the American funny bone. . . which won't be terribly tickled, just bemused.