Last Orders

by Graham Swift • 1996

Four men once close to Jack Dodds, a London butcher, meet to carry out his peculiar last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea. For reasons best known to herself, Jack’s widow, Amy, declines to join them. On the surface the tale of a simple if increasingly bizarre day’s outing, Last Orders is Graham Swift’s most poignant exploration of the complexity and courage of ordinary lives. ‘Last Orders confirms his reputation as one of the great contemporary chroniclers of landscape and memory’ Observer ‘His finest book to date; emotionally charged and technically superb’ Times Literary Supplement ‘Inspired . . . His finest novel yet’ Guardian ‘A triumph’ Sunday Times ‘Tragic, comic and wonderfully compassionate’ Daily Mail