The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old

Thoughtful, anxious and gruff... Laced with humour

The Best New Fiction, Mail on Sunday

Amusing [and] wickedly accurate ... I was constantly put in mind of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, another comi-tragedy concerning the tyranny of institutions of the unwanted. Enjoy Groen's light touch but do not be fooled by it. We live in an ageing society. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen is a handbook of resistance for our time. ***** FIVE STARS

Daily Express

Funny, tragic and sometimes heart rending

Het Parool

Hendrik Groen is a heart-warming hero

Trouw

With pungent phrasing Groen takes down life in a retirement home. Both charming and hilarious

Leeuwarder Courant

Hendrik Groen is king

Ray Kluun

The tears came streaming down my face. From laughing so hard. I couldn't stop grinning for three days

Ouderenjournaal

Highly entertaining ... a delightful and touching saga of one man's way of coping with old age ... we may assume that Hendrik Groen is a character of fiction. But it is a fiction so closely based on the observation of real life that it is utterly convincing

Daily Express

A joy to read, as much concerned with friendship and dignity as it is with the debilitating effects of aging ... An entertaining and uplifting story of a man in the winter of his days, stoic in the face of bureaucratic nonsense and an unabashed need to wear a nappy. Imagined or not, this is the diary of someone who wants nothing more than to be allowed see out his days with dignity and respect. It's not too much to ask, really, is it?

John Boyne, Irish Independent