Promising review: Julian Fellowes likes it.

I was about to treat myself to the movie "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,'' a sequel to the first cinema delight about Brits of a certain age and their adventures in India. Then my eye fell on a new book, just arrived, titled "Not Quite Nice'' and on the name of the author, Celia Imrie. I dimly recalled reading her memoir "The Happy Hoofer'' in 2011 and I began to recall the Olivier-winning actress. Movie fans remember her in "Calendar Girls'' and "Nanny McPhee.'' She also appeared in both of the "Exotic Marigold'' films.

"Downton Abbey'' creator Julian Fellowes said he found Celia Imrie's novel -- arriving March 17 -- "witty'' and "high entertaining.''

SO, I plunged in reading to find a central appealing character Theresa, 60, pretty much abandoned by husband, son and daughter. The latter only uses her as a nanny. And disapproves of her getting older, promising she won't take care of mum in really old age. (The young people in this fiction are almost universally unkind, ungrateful and detestable.)

So the "Nice'' in the title is not an adjective but a place name -- Nice on the French Mediterranean coast, where Theresa goes attempting a new life in the sun. And there is certainly a charm about escaping London for the South of France where Theresa meets a vast crew of like-minded retirees. Here, she finds some real pals, a few enemies and eventually crime and mystery.

Putting aside the reality that someone in Theresa's set-up could hardly...