The Curious Charms was one of the most heart-warming books I’ve read in a while. When the tiger attacked he felt a desire to live.” When they had shown a need, he found a desire to help.

Not in the sense of lust or longing, but a reaction to others. “What these people and events had stirred in him was desire. His quest takes him from his safe, routine in York to escapades in Bath, London, Paris and beyond, as he discovers more about his wife’s undisclosed past, as well as learning some surprising nuggets about himself along the way.

Plagued by curiosity and a need to understand why his wife kept the bracelet a secret, Arthur sets out on a mission to discover how each charm came to be in her possession. They mean nothing to Arthur but he soon realises that they meant a lot to Miriam. The eight charms on the bracelet range from an elephant with a real emerald and a tiger, to a paint palette and a golden ring. Whilst clearing out Miriam’s wardrobe, he comes across a sumptuous and showy charm bracelet that he’s never set eyes on, let alone heard his wife ever speak of. They lived an ordinary, simple forty years together, two peas plucked from the same pod. The titular Arthur Pepper is still mourning the loss of his wife a year after her death. Phaedra Patrick’s The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper is the latest book to centre on an elderly character’s daring adventures and it’s an utter delight from start to finish. And who could forget The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared (a firm contender for longest book title ever)? These books all had a common theme, and it wasn’t just the senior protagonists it was the message that it’s never too late to do something brave and exploratory. It started with Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, then there was Catharina Ingelman-Sundberg’s The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules. Over the last couple of years there’s been a surge in quirky books about elderly people going off on madcap adventures.

The secret charms of arthur pepper