Categories: book-review
Tags: book review
Date: 12 March 2009 20:10:21
"The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street" is the follow up to the lovely "84 Charing Cross Road", which was the letters exchanged over a 20+ year period between Helene, a writer in New York, and the second hand bookshop in London. In "84 Charing Cross Road" Helene was always saying how she planned to come to London, and then it never happened, and at the end she discovered that the book-buyer she had corresponded most with, Frank Doel, had died, and the shop was closed down. However once "84 Charing Cross Road" was published (in the early 70s) it became a pretty instant hit, and eventually she was able to come to London, her lifelong dream, to publicise the book's UK publication. "The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street" is her diary from that time, detailing the people she encounters (including Frank's wife and daughter, and Joyce Grenfell!) and her feelings at finally being in the city she's longed to see for so long.
I really liked how she wrote. Having lived in London for 15 years I think I stopped appreciating it, so it was lovely to see someone really appreciating the city that I almost no longer notice. I like her sense of humour, and how she seemed to see the good and the interesting in everyone. I notice from the last few pages about other books she's written that having come back from London she realised she knew very little about her own city, so she ended up wandering round New York with a friend then writing about that. I think I might try to get hold of that.
Recommended, especially if you liked "84 Charing Cross Road". I enjoyed some of the early 70s touches - at the end she receives a royalty cheque from the "Readers Digest" for £50, and that enables her to stay at her hotel for another 10 days!!!! *boggle*