Lovely book gentle, moving and funny a story of late life adeventures following Baxter and his new young friend Greg. Would really recommend.

DNF. I couldn't connect with this book at all and found it really hard to get into. I had high hopes for this, which is a shame.

This book had slipped down my TBR but once I rediscovered it I dived right in and loved it. I was laughing out loud in just a few pages and that carried on for most of the book. It takes a lot to make me actually vocalise my laughing rather than just a "ah that's funny" internal vocalisation.

The main character in the book is Mr Baxter, he's 94 and got the best sense of humour, although others in the book may not agree with that. To give you a little flavour - Mr Baxter asks "are you fond of music" and the reply is "I like Jazz". To which Mr Baxter replies "So that's a no then".

Apart from the wit of Mr Baxter and his exploits in the retirement home, the book has several other levels to it. Greg who works at the retirement home becomes a sidekick to Mr Baxter. At only 19 years old Greg has his own inner battles to fight but surprisingly finds an alliance with Mr Baxter.

The two of them take off to France and find out a lot more about each other and the loss they've both experienced gives them a bond. Whilst in France Mr Baxter opens up more about exactly why he wanted to visit the war graves and the story begins to be told from the perspective of the man he came to France to honour in a flashback to the second world war. At this point the book takes a very poignant turn, with no spoilers I will say no more about how that turns out.

All of the characters in the book are so vivid in their descriptions and actions that you begin to feel you've met all of them. It's a very amusing book, but with a deep message, it takes no effort to read. What appears on the surface to be a tale of every day life suddenly grabs you and makes you wish you could re write history.

Fairly typical of novels involving people coming to terms with their life in later years. Nobody wants to get old but ex music teacher Mr Baxter has a plan... A touching and amusing story about cross generation cooperation and learning (for both protagonists).

Lovely, lovely book about friendship and finding love. Well written with great well developed characters. Thoroughly enjoyed.

This book made my heart hurt. It made me laugh, but it MADE MY HEART HURT. IT felt slow at first, like it wasn't going to go anywhere but sometimes that's just the beauty of a book: the way it meanders. It's beautiful and I am so glad I read it.

This is an amazing novel about forbidden love, how the older people can still teach younger ones about life, and disappointment, and how to deal with grief. Baxter is in an old people's home, and is musing on his lost love from the war, when homosexual love was shameful, and forbidden.
A new carer comes to work at the home, who is intrigued by Baxter, and eventually agree
s to help the 95 year old to travel to France to try to find the fate, and body of his lost love. But the woman in charge forbids them to travel, so they have to find a way to do it in secret. The young carer is still suffering from the after effects of his brother committing suicide, after being tormented about being gay.
Whilst in France they learn more about each other, and the healing power of laying things to rest.
The premise of this book is a novel way to inform, what changes there have been in modern thinking about same sex relationships, even though the way it was dealt with during the war was shocking, and very sad.
The characterization is excellent, and the plot is well devised.

This is a lovely book about an unlikely friendship between two people, generations apart who have each lost someone they loved.. The book is funny, witty, thoughtful and quite poignant. Initially I thought it would be simply an okay read but I really enjoyed it.

Following a fall at home, 94 year old Mr Baxter reluctantly becomes a resident of Melrose Gardens Retirement Home. It's not exactly how he planned to live out his years. He's a former music teacher and apparently had always lived life to the full. He's doesn't make the best patient. He is quite demanding and a bit grumpy.

19 year old Greg has struggled with life since his younger brother committed suicide which was partly due to the bullying he endured because he was gay. Greg lives with his father but despite being a bright boy, lacks any motivation to do anything with his life. However his father put in a word for him with someone at the Retirement Home and Greg has just started working there.

Baxter sees Greg's pain at the loss of his brother. Baxter too has suffered the loss of someone he loved, Thomas, who went to war and never came back. Mr Baxter sees something in Greg and takes him under his wing. You see Greg coming out of his shell and opening up to others

Mr Baxter has a plan he wishes to keep secret from the management of the home and enlists Greg to help him achieve his goal of travelling to France to pay his respects to his lost love. When the pair arrive in Paris, Greg begins to see that the world holds lots of possibilities; that despite his devastating loss, he is not alone. People care about him and he does matter.

The story is set in the present and in the past so we learn about Baxter's earlier life and the reader also finds out what really happened to Thomas. The characters are wonderful. There is sparkling repartee between Baxter and his friend Winnie and Baxter and Suzanne the manager of the home. There were a few times I found myself laughing out loud. Winnie especially is a fabulous character.

A very enjoyable read.

I adore everything Matthew writes and this is no exception. I don’t know how one singular author can effect me in such a way that I find myself empathising with an elderly gay man, someone SO far from my own experience. This story is charming and typically Crow-like in the way it broke me heart into a million pieces. Bravo, Mr Crow. You did it again.

I am currently working on expanding our school library's senior section after years of a dismal and uninspiring selection of books that our older readers never checked out. My job has been to seek out much more diverse, gripping and modern books that will get them into reading by appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible. This really appealed to me because of its fantastic narrative and sense of atmosphere, combined with believable characterisation and its page-turning nature. It's hard to get young people into reading and if the library is not stocking the kind of book that they might grow up to buy as adult readers then we are not really meeting their needs. I can imagine this provoking lots of discussion after finishing it and a long queue of people trying to reserve it as they've heard so much about it. Will definitely be buying a copy and know that it's going to be a very popular choice. An engrossing read that kept me up far too late to finish reading it. It certainly stood out from the other books that I was considering and I look forward to converting more Matthew Crow fans in future!

I really enjoyed Baxter’s Requiem.

94 year old Baxter has to stay in an old people’s home, this was not how he expected to spend his last few years.

At the home Baxter meets Greg and can see that he is carrying sadness within him. Baxter knows this because he also has sadness within him.

The pair embark on an adventure to France to pay their respects and say goodbye to Thomas.

The unlikey duo become firm friends and help each other begin to heal.

I really enjoyed Baxter’s Requiem. This is a lovely story about an unexpected friendship that blossoms between an old man nearing the end of his life and a young man with his whole life ahead of him. This book reminds me of the work of Rachel Joyce. The odd companions are brought together because they have suffered the painful loss of someone who died before their time. I thought Baxter was a great character, a lovely man who just wants to help. Greg is traumatised and grieving because his younger brother committed suicide and Baxter, perhaps seeing some of himself in the young man reaches out to him. I loved the way Greg develops across the book. Baxter’s Requiem is a heart-warming, touching and very moving book. The story is simple but it’s much more than the sum of it’s parts. I was completely invested in the characters.

I felt I had to congratulate myself on finishing this book as I have to own up I did almost give up a time or two. It wasn’t that the charCters weren’t likeable just that it seemed to drag with nothing that was inspiring me to see what happened.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book- a completely different set of characters to anything I have read before. Following baxter, an elderly man reluctantly living in a care home, dealing still with a loss from many years ago- Thomas who never came home from the war. He meets Gregory working at the home, a young man who is not over the loss of his brother to suicide, after he was bullied for being gay. Together they can both help each other. The book studies loneliness and grief, and love, and left me thinking for a long time after I finished reading.

This was charming. A tale about a man, living our his twilight years in a care home. Upon getting some news about his ailing health, he decides that now is the time to go on a final adventure. He enlists the help of the hapless Greg, plodding but conscientious care home assistant, to carry his bags. Baxter, clearly used to the finer things in life, is an eccentric character whose secrets are revealed over the course of his trip. I liked the snappy dialogue in this, as well as the way in which things resolved themselves at the end.

Strong character-based novel about love, old age and awakening

This novel is about Baxter looking at the end of his life and wanting to leave with everything achieved. This involves Greg, a young man working in a residential home, with his own set of issues. They join together and move their lives on. Other strong characters get involved as a formidable supporting cast.

The one thing that stands out for me is the wit and repartee between them all as this tale of love and change progresses. It’s a pleasure to read about so many likeable characters. I’m sure that fans of modern fiction will enjoy this lovely book.

Oh! What a pure delight. Perfect Read.

Mr Baxter is ninety-four-years old and has been forced to move into the Melrose Gardens Retirement Home. This is not to his liking. His independence curbed and rules and timetables to govern his day, can he survive in this environment?

Greg Cullock is eighteen-years old. Thrown out of school, after trying to defend his deceased brother’s character, he has reluctantly become a member of staff at the Retirement Home. He’s a broken soul. He has a lousy relationship with his father, more so now than ever before as his father seems incapable of acknowledging that his younger son Michael’s suicide was a result of being bullied for being gay.

Baxter realises that somehow Greg must be helped to once again find enjoyment in life and invites Greg to accompany him to France where his partner, Thomas, lies in an unmarked grave in a war cemetery.

This is truly one of the most beautifully written books that I’ve had the pleasure to bury myself in for a long time. Mr Baxter (we never do find out what his first name is) is a solid, wonderful man who has made the best of his life, regardless of the sadness at losing his soulmate during the war. He is exasperating, as he will not conform to how a ninety-four-year old man is supposed to “behave” but with all of this, still loved and admired by all.

Greg’s story is tragic, and even more disturbing is the fact that his brother suffered years of abuse and bullying because he was “different” to what society considers to be the “norm.”

There are others in this story who, too, are larger than life and yet never too overpowering.

This is a book that should be read with a cup of hot chocolate next to you. Maybe have a box of tissues at the ready (I don’t often get emotional while reading, but this book found me reaching for the tissues several times) and a sign on the door saying “Do not disturb” until you’ve reached the final page.

I want to add a paragraph that so perfectly sums up this book and the central character perfectly. Baxter’s reminiscence - “Life, it is safe to say, had been exhausting. The entire thing seemed just a messy cacophony; a song played once that could never be repeated. And yet given the chance, he’d do it again in a heartbeat, without changing one moment, whether or not he could survive it a second time over.”

Matthew Crow, this is one novel that I shall remember for a very long time.

Imbali

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

In general, I liked the story yet it took me more than a month to finish it.
I did find Baxter, the MC, charming though. His past was as colorful and dramatic as his personality. Greg, one the other hand, whom Baxter befriends and sort of takes under his wing, was a puzzle within a puzzle. Even by the end of the book, I still had no clear idea of what he really wanted to do with his life despite some shifts in his perspective.
The trip to Paris, the events that transpired there and its aftermath were the parts that redeemed the book for me.
Overall, the story dragged in places. In my opinion, it had its shining moments but they came few and far between.

Be still, my beating heart!! I ADORED this beautiful and touching book from start to finish! It is one of those books that is such a simple story but full of so many important and emotional messages that you can't help but take these characters to heart and embrace the friendships made in the most unlikely of places.

Baxter is a grumpy old man! He doesn't want to be living in the care home but time has forced him to, and he'll let everyone know he's not happy about it while he's there! He's 94, a realist and he gets on with things, seeking solace in his vinyl.

Greg is 18 and starts working at the home for something to do. He's had a tragic past and doesn't find much in life that excites him anymore and wants to escape his life. Going home doesn't bring him much joy either so the banter he has with various residents, especially Baxter, starts to spark some life into him

The friendship that begins with Baxter and Greg is so touching! Baxter sees behind the tough exterior of Greg and wants to find out more about what has caused him so much anguish . And this bond between them allows them both to share some tough stories about what they've both been through - and it's fascinating to get these comparisons between someone almost at the end of their life, and someone just beginning theirs. It just shows that people have more in common than they think - age is no barrier!.

The care home staff become like family to one another and is another wonderful aspect of this story. There are some great characters introduced throughout, each playing such an important role in the main thread and just gives that extra depth to the storyline.

This book deals with grief in its' many forms - for people lost, for lives not being lived - and it does it in such a heartwarming way, without ever going OTT or feeling too sickly or sorry for itself. The characters and their pasts are so poignant, and how the act of being a friend can be so rewarding and such a strength to those who need someone to talk to or to believe in. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking to read and full of so much spirit and compassion that it just fills you with joy.

An absolute delight of a book!!

Thank you to publishers and NetGalley for providing me with access to this. A heartwarming tale of friendship, love and loss that had me laughing and crying in equal measure.
Baxter is a querulous 94 year old, argumentative on occasion but with a keen interest in those around him. Greg is 19 and beaten by his younger brother’s suicide. The two strike up an unlikely friendship, and so follows a charming story.
While Baxter is not immediately likeable, his heart is in the right place and as we come to know more of his story it’s easy to see his many positive qualities. Greg is uncomfortable with life and doesn’t know how to move on from the suicide of his brother as the bullying about him being gay became too much too take. Baxter’s story and the way it impacts on Greg was moving.
An author I’d not read before, and this was a story that appealed on a number of levels.