|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Book Description
"Why has it taken more than half a century for this wonderful flight of humor to be rediscovered?"-Guardian
"The sweetest grown-up book in the world."-Sunday Times
"Everyone, no matter how poor or prim or neglected, has a second chance to blossom in the world."-Daily Mail, in reference to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
A major film to be released in 2008 and starring Frances McDormand, Miss Pettigrew Lives for Day is a delightful, funny, lighthearted novel. First published in 1938, it was reissued in the United Kingdom in 2000, complete with thirty-five original illustrations, and has sold over 22,000 copies.
Miss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies. Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever.
Winifred Watson (1907 - 2002) grew up in Newcastle, and was a secretary until, in 1935, she married Leslie Pickering, the manager of a timber firm. She wrote six novels in all, but after the birth of her son in 1941 she stopped writing and lived quietly in Newcastle for the rest of her life.
About the Author
Winifred Watson (1907-2002) lived in Newcastle and wrote six novels in all; she chose to stop writing after the birth of her son in 1941. The Times interviewed her at age 94 when Persephone Books reissued the book in 2000. The headline was "Bodice-Ripping Fame at 94".
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Here's mud in your eye",
By
This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Audiobook (Audio CD)
Fans of the Golden Age "grande dames" of detective fiction are oh-so-familiar with the young, fast set in 1930s London. Lord Peter Wimsey could talk "piffle" till the wee hours at clubs and parties, and Roderick Alleyn--until he met the artist Agatha Troy--was known to enjoy the company of actresses. These detectives were the creations of Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh, but their London came to life as a backdrop to the wildly popular books.Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is by no means a crime novel, but it was written in 1938 by Winifred Watson, a contemporary of Sayers and Marsh. It was a best-seller in its day but went out of print until resurrected by Persephone Books, a London-based publisher of "neglected classics" from the 20th century. "Miss Pettigrew" was made into a movie, which I have not seen, in 2008. Miss Pettigrew is a drab middle-aged spinster out of a job and looking for work as a governess (which she hates, being afraid of both the children and their parents). An agency sends her by mistake to the apartment of nightclub singer Delycia LaFosse. Miss LaFosse's personal affairs are in an uproar due to a surfeit of suitors, and Miss Pettigrew discovers in herself a talent for sorting out difficult situations. The day brings one situation after another and there is never a chance to inquire about the position. How does timid Miss Pettigrew find it in herself to send unsuitable young men packing and become the toast of cocktail parties and night clubs? Simple--she takes her inspiration from haughty former employers and of course from the movies she loves so much. It's all so wonderful for her; she's never had a scrap of glamor and excitement in her life until this wonderful day. After inciting a fight at a late-night club to save Miss LaFosse from herself, with whom will Miss Pettigrew find herself sharing a cab? And what will come of THAT adventure? Predictable but so much fun...the entire book is a piece of delightful "piffle," and of course everyone gets the very thing they want most in the end. There are a few passages that are culturally inappropriate by today's standards, and of course you wouldn't want your daughters lying about in negligees drinking all day and staying up until 4 a.m. throwing themselves at tantalizing men in night clubs. But the book is a product of its era so if you can cut it some slack on that account, then by all means pick it up and enjoy it. I listened to the unabridged audio, wonderfully narrated by Frances McDormand who played Miss Pettigrew in the 2008 movie. It was six hours of pure escapist enjoyment, though I'm sorry to have missed the original illustrations in the Persephone edition. Linda Bulger, 2010
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly the best book ever,
By Megan "Megan" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Paperback)
Okay, the premise sounds a little strange but this is my absolute favorite book. I've never mat anyone who read this book who did not immediately go out and buy it for their best friend. Most Persephone books are wonderful, but this one is far and away the one to start with!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.6 out of 5 stars (46 customer reviews) 47 of 48 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The literary equivalent of the Lubitsch touch,
By Jay Dickson - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Paperback)
Winfired Watson's little 1938 fantasy has become the bestelling reissue for the terrific Persephone Books imprint in the UK, and its not hard to see why. Basically a Cinderella story set during the 30s, Watson's novel concerns a dowdy governess sent by mistake by her agency to the home of a glamorous and dithering nightclub singer, who comes to rely upon Miss Pettigrew to straighten out her love life. Miss Pettigrew not only rises to the challenge (much to her own surprise), but undergoes a makeover and finds some romance for her own life as well. While undeniably slim (and purposefully so), the novel is just about irresistible: it plays upon the same fantasy as Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK, the fantasy of being not only loved but also needed. Curiously, the trappings of glamour in this novel come not from the world of the wealthy and titled (as per usual in British fiction from this era, as in the novels of Waugh and Nancy Mitford) but from a world envisioned in American film: the world of night clubs, self-made men, and cocaine-dabbling gigolos.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Miss Pettigrew,
By Ashes Sarrico "helpless book nerd" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Paperback)
It's incredibly that untill recently, this book was hardly known about, much less considered an important book. This book is sweet and delightful and funny. The dialouge is memorable, and so are the pictures. I'd love to see this turned into a movie. But i think maybe its the sort of book that shouldv'e been turned into a movie in the 50's...it just wouldn't be right unless it was shot in that wonderfully grainy old film with 1950's conceits and that fat cat dialougue.Anyways, the book is about this dowdy old lady who going to an interview as a nanny, but she's given the wrong adress and ends up at the house of Delsyia, a sweet aspiring actress with three lovers and who romps about in classic 1920's flapper style. Miss Pettigrew is detirmined to save her from the wicked cociane snorting possesive man and the career-advancing director and have her marry the good guy, and in the mean time, Miss Pettigrew gets a make-over, finds a beau, and has a little jazz and booze fun of her own. Its a really funny subversive little story told in a very touching way. 25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Possibly the best book ever,
By Megan "Megan" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Paperback)
Okay, the premise sounds a little strange but this is my absolute favorite book. I've never mat anyone who read this book who did not immediately go out and buy it for their best friend or their mother or their daughter. Most Persephone books are wonderful, but this one is far and away the one to start with!Miss Pettigrew is a dowdy governess who doesn't much like children and is down on her luck. She accidentally gets sent to the flat of a glamorous nightclub singer who is having all sorts of man trouble, which Miss Pettigrew promptly fixes with a combination of her wits and her totally common sense attitude about life. It's a light and very easy read, definitely loose on the realism. But really, I promise that you will NOT regret it if you buy this book. |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
