The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick, Age 81 Kindle Edition

A very sweet book about an elderly man who was hit by a milk float and lived through it with some small injuries and a broken arm. I looked "milk float" up and found it's a van specifically designed for the delivery of milk. Since this book takes place in London it makes sense.Mr. Derrick's daughter who lives in California hires a young woman to come in once a week for twelve weeks to make sure her dad has what he needs and the apartment is clean. Frank takes a liking to the young lady, Kelly, and starts taking bubble baths and buying new ugly shirts at the thrift store to impress her. The weekly visits are the highlight of his week and he even gives his cat, Bill, away because he has heard his helper, Kelly, is allergic to cats.Mr. Derrick wants to keep Kelly coming once the twelve weeks are up, but doesn't have the money to pay her. He starts selling his beloved DVD's and even steals the bags of items people put out on curbs for the thrift stores to collect. He doesn't do too well because he spends much of the money he makes at the pawn shop on something he sees there before he leaves. One time he bought a metal detector and ended up digging up his front yard. In the United States he would have sued the milk float company and all his money problems would be over---eventually.This is a bittersweet read that ends with hope. Not a thriller or a page turner and I can understand why a lot of people wouldn't like it. However, I liked it very much and have ordered the sequel which is only available by third party sellers on Amazon.

Was a nice story but also bittersweet as it highlights the challenges and loneliness of growing old in today’s world. When you live long enough family is gone or moved away and life can become a lonely and difficult.

I made it through half, then I had to ditch it.So boring!Every time I think there might be a new book about an older person that would show some depth, experience, and wisdom I’m disappointed. Either there is a crotchety old lady detective, a group of old women, or some boring old man.There are a lot of incredible old people out there. Why can’t someone write about them?You might wonder why with that review I gave the book 3 stars and not fewer.The writing was decent, it started out well, it just got too repetitive.In addition, if you’re going to write about someone whose adult child left the country, and certainly many adult children are not around to help their older parents, at least make it fresh.In some ways, the biggest problem with this book was the lack of interior reflection and psychological astuteness. At the end of the day, Mr. Derrick is not a very complex person.

Great read for the over-60s. Though I wouldn't recommend it to younger readers.

Great book, loved it. Frank is an adorable character. A sweet book that is an easy, highly enjoyable read. Recommended.

Dark, very dark and depressing to me at least. Well written but quite sad overall.

The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick, Age 81 is the first book in the Frank Derrick series, and the third novel by British author, J. B. Morrison (aka musician Jim Bob). Eighty-one year-old widower, Frank Derrick has a broken arm. And a broken toe. A runaway milk float ran over him when he was returning from buying a pint of milk at the local shop, Fullwind Food & Wine. Because Frank lives alone in (very likely) the only house with stairs in Fullwind-on-Sea, his daughter Beth, who lives in America, arranges, quite against his wishes, for a care worker to visit once a week.Frank stages a dirty protest: on the day that Kelly Christmas arrives, Frank is dirty (several days unwashed, unshaven) as are his clothes; his house is untidy; his sink overflowing with dirty dishes; his hall is filled with junk mail; his toilet unflushed. But Frank soon finds himself embarrassed by this: Kelly Christmas is not the unfriendly, bossy matron he is expecting, but a charming young woman who seems to care about him, listens to him and sings as she works.Since Sheila died almost ten years ago, after which Beth and his granddaughter, Laura moved to California, Frank’s only companion has been a cat named Bill (the name seemed less silly when Ben was alive); he visits the local shops to buy cat food and tinned spaghetti; at the charity shop, he buys ceramic giraffes, hoping a large collection of them might become valuable; he goes to the library to email Beth now and then; he fends off callers from stair-lift companies, window cleaners, gutter clearers, chimney sweeps and roofers; and he plays board games with his wheel-chair-bound friend, Smelly John, in his care home.But now, he finds himself preparing for Kelly’s visits, and looking forward to them. And when they are due to finish, his distress at the thought of doing without them leads him to some behaviour quite out of character for this normally responsible old man.There’s plenty to love about this novel: Frank himself, curmudgeonly at times, but whose dry wit makes his inner monologue an absolute delight; his invented Sioux names for neighbours and people he encounters are often hilarious; his experience of the Mini Mental State Examination is highly entertaining. Frank’s desperation to continue Kelly’s visits highlights the loneliness that can be the solitary older person’s lot, but while the story threatens to turn quite dark, the end is uplifting. A heart-warming read.

The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick is extra ordinary. Not "extraordinary". And herein lies the difference between this genuinely realistic story from J. B. Morrison and the book it could be compared to; The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.I downloaded this book and The 100 Year Old Man at around the same time and the latter completely put me off this genre. I know I disagree with the vast majority who thought The 100 Year Old Man was wonderful but for me I felt it to be ridiculously far fetched despite a strong start (which I enjoyed), but by the end I was glad to get it over with.The Extra Ordinary Life of Frank Derrick is different. From the start, you feel that Frank could be real; heck, that there could be hundreds of Frank's up and down the country living a similar existence! And that it what is so likeable about this book and about Frank.Frank is an 81 year old widower living alone with a set routine involving his cat, daytime tv, dvds, newspapers, short daily trips to the local off licence and charity shop and the odd email to his daughter who lives abroad. A freak accident with a milk float temporarily sets Frank back from his normal routine and installs a temporary home help carer in the form of Kelly Christmas in his weekly routine. And so begins Frank's journey not only to recovery but to new adventures and doing things he thought he'd already done for the last time.The story is by no means extravagant. There is no big reveal nor a life changing event that turns things around for Frank. Just the presence of someone new who makes Frank feel differently; that life is worth living and worth starting to make an effort for. Frank's personality, thoughts and behaviour were enough to give me a smile every now and again or the odd little chuckle to myself.I enjoyed Frank's story. I just felt like I would've enjoyed seeing Frank do something more; that his journey was only just beginning. I'm in no rush to read the follow up to this book but it will definitely be added to my reading list.3 stars for a charming story of a charming man just getting his second wind for life.

From the first few lines, Frank's narrative voice has you hooked. There's something wonderfully 'real' about how he speaks to the reader, and you don't realise until later this is because he really has no one else to talk to. I've read books about the monotony and struggles of ageing before and I've never felt so immediately invested in the character. There is no point at which he feels stereotypical, an object of pity or a caricature to laugh at - though you will laugh a lot.This book isn't even about the monotony and struggles of ageing, it just manages to fit that in somehow. To describe the plot would make it seem rather mundane, which it suppose is the whole point. The way it is written, however, is anything but mundane. Morrison has a real gift with language. Nothing screams at you, nothing jumps out at you. You almost have to stop and rewind to appreciate what you've just read. In a pretentious way, you could say he is 'economical' with his language. Nothing ever seems out of place with the character and situation - which is, of course, extra ordinary - but you just get the impression that such a lot of work has gone into making it all fit so well. It's either great talent or great effort that can craft the sort of phrasing that you could blink and miss. I'd guess it's a good mixture of the two.There are whole paragraphs you want to go back and read again. Not because of the kind of language you used to write essays about in English lessons, but because of the kind of language which evoke true feeling and make you pause to think: how did he do that? If you've read the book, you probably know the moments I'm referring to because you can't read them without a pause.For someone not as obsessive about language and the crafting of a character and story as I am, it's an incredibly accessible book and I honestly think anyone could enjoy it, perhaps for different reasons. The cliché of 'you've laugh and you'll cry' has to be brought in. Because you will.

This book is a great read. I have just read it for the second time. It delighted me even more than the first time. I have laughed at Frank, laughed with Frank and cruise both for him and with him.Jim Bob has created a legendary character here. In Frank Derrick (like the oil rig). Frank is so real, so interesting, while also being extra ordinary. From Frank's day-to-day antics, the author really manages to paint a picture of the pain and hopelessness that can dominate the life of an ordinary octogenarian, while also sprinkling the story with little pearls of hope, optimism and joy. I'm now going to go and read the second book again, in the hope that I'll garner a few jewels of Frank Derrick wisdom.

For a book in which nothing much happens (excluding the incident with the milk float) and really is the recounting of an "extra ordinary" life, this is absolutely brilliant. I could not put it down. Deftly written with wit and empathy, I loved the characters in the book, 81 year old Frank, the raucous old ladies on the free supermarket bus, Kelly the carer and Smelly John. It was such a fresh insight into old age - let's face it, this is coming to us all, and I certainly hope I'm still discovering new music and listening to Green Day when I' m in my 80s. There are some fantastic one liners in here and as an account of what is essentially a lonely old age, this is a very funny read. I think this is possibly the most perceptive account written from an elderly person's perspective that I've read in a long time and I would really recommend this book. I could not put it down. I particularly loved how Frank spent his time - giving his neighbour's Native American names - I'm certainly going to spend some time doing that in the future. It sounds like fun.

The book starts with one of the best ever opening paragraphs I have ever read and until half way through the book you are content just to live Frank's life with him although his everyday doings are far from exciting. However as the book progresses some of Frank's doings almost suspend belief. Although he is eighty one and temporarily needs a carer he appears to far more energetic then one would believe and seems to think nothing of climbing in to the loft and walking several miles. It is a good portrait of a lonely man but he does seem to have alienated himself from his own neighbourhood so maybe the fault dear Brutus lies with ourselves. I was not keen on some of his desperate measures undertaken to raise money and subsequently found myself 'unloving' him as a character. I probably speed read the last few pages without really absorbing the words.I will give Frank another go however as I have purchased the next book in the doings of Frank Derrick aged 81