''A Change for the Better'' is a 1969 novel by English writer

Susan Hill Dame Susan Hill, Lady Wells, (born 5 February 1942) is an English author of fiction and non-fiction works. Her novels include ''The Woman in Black'', '' The Mist in the Mirror'', and ''I'm the King of the Castle'', for which she received th ...

, published by

Hamish Hamilton Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton (''Hamish'' is the vocative form of the Gaelic Seumas eaning James ''James'' the English form – which was ...

Plot

The novel is set one November in a seaside town where Deirdrie Fount and her mother Winifred Oddicott run a drapery shop. Deirdre's 11-year-old son James never knew his father as they divorced shortly after his birth, but he often wonders about his father. Also in the town are Major Bertram Carpenter and his wife Flora who are residents in a large plush hotel. Bertram met his elderly friend Mr Isepp every couple of days but when the Carpenters return from a cruise from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

he finds that his friend is ill. Bertram visits him at the hospital where Mr Isepp dies - Bertram is shocked by his friends death, aware of his own mortality and also blames the doctors... Meanwhile, Aubrey Fount, James' father is staying at the hotel where he plans to meet Deirdre and to introduce himself to his son James.

References

Novels by Susan Hill 1969 British novels Hamish Hamilton books {{1960s-novel-stub