Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Major Ernest Pettigrew (British Army, retired) has lived his life in the village of Edgecombe St. Mary as many other old English gentlemen have done before him: quietly and with dignity surrounded by old family momentos, books, and his garden. Until a chance encounter with the village shopkeeper, Mrs. Jasmina Ali, starts to wear away the foundations of his solid and somewhat ordinary life.
Out of their shared love of literature, and shared grief over the loss of their respective spouses, Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali begin an unusaual friendship (he the quintessential local gentleman she the foreign outsider). A friendship that soon blossoms into something more, something of which their families, and the rest of the village do not approve of. Are the bonds of culture, family and tradition too strong to break or does a retired army officer still have enough courage to make one final stand in the name of love.