A Bit of a Do

A Bit of a Do
David Nobbs

From the author of the Reginald Perrin series comes a classic tale of two families, one posher than the other, set in a Yorkshire town.‘I’m the groom’s father. You’re the bride’s mother. It’s their wedding day.’When Ted Simcock, maker of toasting forks in a small Yorkshire town, tries to avoid the inevitable with beautiful dentist’s wife Liz Rodenhurst, his anguished attempt fails utterly, with huge consequences for both their families.From one awkward ‘do’ to the next, via a dentists’ dinner dance and the Crowning of Miss Frozen Chicken (UK), the fall-out touches everyone, but none more than Liz’s husband Laurence and Ted’s wife Rita, the unexpected heroine of this tale.Charting the relationship of newlyweds Paul and Jenny, along with the infamous coupling of their respective parents, Ted and Liz, this book will have you cringing, crying and laughing out loud.

David Nobbs

A Bit of a Do

Copyright (#ulink_938abeae-1e3b-59a0-a5d5-451f3c552768)

The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper

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www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk/)

First published in Great Britain by Methuen London 1986

Copyright © David Nobbs 1986

David Nobbs asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780007505777

Ebook Edition © NOVEMBER 2012 ISBN 9780007505784

Version: 2016-08-26

Dedication (#ulink_b01a573f-96e2-580b-9d9f-30d560125052)

For many good friendsin the fair city and county of Hereford

Contents

Cover (#uac3e7971-6cb6-5f92-bdcd-c2dac18d57f0)

Title Page (#u4aadb4c4-5e3d-5080-a286-5b5103a3a3ec)

Copyright (#uab2f4fa9-7be2-591c-9777-9f1d8872a579)

Dedication (#u73410d92-2331-50b8-a903-670839b5d2dc)

First Do (#u866a816d-556a-5212-acfd-10c0b476ef59)

August: The White Wedding (#u8d7f6ca3-264b-5bb3-bdad-624caef7733a)

Second Do (#udbe5073f-1f03-5c11-8055-98389f7e7432)

October: The Dentists’ Dinner Dance (#u59c0f989-2b81-5f69-bd4d-9f29b2304fa6)

Third Do (#litres_trial_promo)

December: The Angling Club Christmas Party (#litres_trial_promo)

Fourth Do (#litres_trial_promo)

April: The Charity Horse-Racing Evening (#litres_trial_promo)

Fifth Do (#litres_trial_promo)

May: The Crowning of Miss Frozen Chicken (UK) (#litres_trial_promo)

Sixth Do (#litres_trial_promo)

September: The Registry Office Wedding (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Other Works (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

First Do (#ulink_9573857c-6e79-5607-bfe2-59b2923e5075)

August: The White Wedding (#ulink_7ca09b4f-de83-5815-af07-12da8a8d9658)

The doors at the back of the abbey church creaked open, and the radiant bride appeared on the arm of her noticeably less radiant father.

Jenny Rodenhurst looked stunning in her wedding dress, which had achieved that elegance of simplicity which only money can buy. It was entirely white, and successfully combined traditionalism with modernity. Her accessories were extremely spare, in view of all the suffering in the Third World. Her lengthy train was held by two bridesmaids. One of them was very young, and the other one was very fat.

Her father, Laurence Rodenhurst, was as perfectly dressed as it is possible for a man to be without ceasing to look like a dentist.

Leslie Horton, water bailiff and organist, who hated to be called Les, launched himself into a hefty rendition of ‘Here Comes The Bride’; and a brief burst of sunlight poured through the memorial stained-glass window dedicated to the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, on whose side God had been in two world wars, though this hadn’t prevented them suffering heavy casualties.

The sizeable congregation craned their necks with varying degrees of shameless curiosity to watch the bridal procession, as it moved slowly past the stall of devotional literature, past the red arrow that indicated the distressingly slow progress of the Tower Appeal Fund, past the empty back pews and massive columns of the austere Norman nave, towards the less fearsome, more decorated beauty of the Early English chancel. Now the bride and her father were level with the least important of the guests, the third cousins twice removed, the employees who just couldn’t not be invited, and the funny little man with the big ears who turned up unbidden at all the weddings.

Rita Simcock, mother of the groom and wife of the town’s premier maker of toasting forks, was painfully aware that there were more people on the bride’s side than on theirs, that the people on the bride’s side were better dressed and more stylish. She was painfully aware that her younger son, Paul, the groom, was unemployed, and hadn’t had the haircut that he had promised, and looked a mess. She was painfully aware that her elder son, the cynical Elvis, although he had a philosophy degree from the University of Keele, was also unemployed, there being no vacancies for philosophers at the Job Centre just then, and looked almost as great a mess as Paul.

Liz Rodenhurst, mother of the lovely bride, a year older than Rita but looking ten years younger, was aware of all these things too, but her main emotion as she watched the slow procession was one of irritation with her daughter for having had her beautiful hair cropped short before this day of all days. It emphasized the slight heaviness of her jaw. How perverse the young were. But then it was perverse of Jenny to marry Paul at all. ‘If only I’d had the sense not to advise against it,’ she thought.