84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff

My favourite cousin recommended this to me saying 'It's about this mad American woman who writes to a secondhand bookshop in London just after the war and orders books. She gets to know the people who work at the bookshop and sends them food parcels and they send her little gifts - it's great fun, you must read it.' So I did reading and after doing so I looked it up on the internet and found that it's a cult classic and everyone absolutely adores it. Well I don't adore it. I enjoyed it, yes, and it is something special in that it is a compilation of real letters between people who never imagined they would be published. And it's wonderful to see how ...  Read the complete review

Sometimes life can be perverse! Outside the warm sun was shining and the sea sparkling and inviting on the first seasonal summer Saturday we had been blessed with in quite a while. Inside I was suffering a headache, sneezing, shivering and generally lacking any energy to get out and enjoy it! I clicked on the television and there on the Freeview guide the words “84 Charing Cross Road” sprang out to greet me bringing memories flooding back. I wrapped myself in a duvet, curled up on the settee and got lost in that gentle and wonderful film. When it finished I wanted more and went in search of the book that I first read twenty five or so years ago and have re-read on ...  Read the complete review