The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

Helene Hanff's sequel to 84, Charing Cross Road (review), The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is Hanff's journal from her eventual trip to London, where she's wined, dined, toured and fussed over by friends old and new. Like 84, it's a charming little book which cannot fail to delight the reader; Hanff's style and effusive wit are addictive. This one doesn't have much of anything to do with books, more's the pity - but it's good just the same.

I have to add just a couple samples of Hanff's musings, the ones that made me laugh out loud:

- "I ordered 'Chicken Maryland,' which turned out to be a slice of chicken, braided and fried flat like a veal cutlet, accompanied by a strip of bacon and a fat sausage. Dessert was 'Coupe Jamaica,' I didn't show more order it but the couple at the next table did: a long, narrow cookie sticking up out of a ball of vanilla ice cream that rested on a slice of canned pineapple. It would probably confuse Jamaica as much as the chicken would confuse Maryland."

- After suffering through quite a hassle trying to have a check cashed: "Nothing infuriates me like those friendly, folksy bank ads in magazines and on TV. Every bank I ever walked into was about as folksy as a cobra."

- Walking around London on July 4: "... was walking down Waterloo on my way to St. James's Park when who should I run into, standing on a corner on a little pedestal looking small and spruce, but Gentleman Johnny Burgoyne who lost the Battle of Saratoga to us rebels. I think he was supposed to link up with some other general's forces but there was a snafu and Burgoyne's entire army was captured ... Can't imagine what possessed the British to put up a statue to him, I suppose he won some battle somewhere but he lost the American Revolution almost singlehanded. Wished him a happy Fourth."

Will have to hunt up some other Hanff books now, as I've enjoyed these two so well.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2006/08/book-review-duchess-of-bloomsbury.html show less

I love Hanff's easily quirky and witty writing style. Duchess is Hanff's diary of her trip to London, after the publication of 84, Charing Cross Road. If one knows the backstory, the book starts off bittersweet - Hanff is finally going to London but too late to meet her friend Frank Doel, and too late to see Marks & Co. before it closed.

I couldn't help smiling at Hanff's wit and humor. She took on her new-found celebrity with tongue-in-cheek aplomb (usually). I loved reading about the people she met, the places she saw, the food she ate - her observations of London make me want to go back there (though I didn't much care for it any of the times I was over there) to try and find Hanff's London.

When I read 84, Charing Cross Road in 2009 I was completely in love with it. Helene Hanff’s first book is a collection of letters between herself and the British bookseller, Frank Doel. For years the two wrote back and forth, never meeting in person but sharing a deep love of literature.

In this sequel Hanff finally had the opportunity to visit London for the first time. Unlike her first book, this one is written in journal form as she chronicles her time there. Her quick wit and acerbic nature make the whole thing so much fun. The nonfiction account hit a soft spot for me. I’m such an anglophile that when she describes her lifelong desire to visit London (see below) it was like I was reading my own thoughts.

“All my life I’ve show more wanted to see London. I used to go to English movies just to look at streets with houses like those. Staring at the screen in a dark theatre, I wanted to walk down those streets so badly it gnawed at me like hunger. Sometimes, at home in the evening, reading a casual description of London, I’d put the book down suddenly, engulfed by a wave of longing that was like homesickness. I wanted to see London the way old people want to see home before they die. I used to tell myself this was natural in a writer and booklover born to the language of Shakespeare.”

I felt the need to visit London from a young age. I just always knew that one day I would go. When I was 19 I planned my first trip to Europe, hopped on a plane by myself and met a friend in London. During that trip I visited Bath, Windsor and London, and then traveled to Ireland and explored Dublin and some coastal towns. It was absolutely everything I imagined it would be. Seeing poets corner in Westminster Abbey, Twelfth Night performed at the Globe, dinner in a pub, etc. I loved everything about it. Later I moved there for a few months to do a semester abroad and my love of London grew ten-fold.

Hanff’s experience was similar to my own (except she was a bit of a celebrity because of her first book). She was in awe of everything see saw and all she wished for was more time. She made friends along the way, pinching every penny so she could spend just one more day in her beloved city.

BOTTOM LINE: I loved it so much! If you’re an anglophile or you loved 84, Charing Cross Road don’t miss this one!

“I seem to be living in a state of deep hypnosis, every time I mail a postcard home I could use Euphoria for a return address.”

p.s. Hanff wanted to personalize every book she signed and at one point she has to sign a stack of books for a bookseller to take to his shop and she said…

“I still couldn’t bring myself just to write my name and let it go at that, it seems unfriendly. Wrote “To an unknown booklover” in every copy.”

I wish so badly that I could get a signed copy of this book! show less

American Helene Hanff began a decades-long correspondence with London bookshop employee Frankeñ Doel when she placed an order for books. She appreciated his prompt responses and willingness to find and send her the various books she requested. She also learned about the poor state of the Londoners at the end of WWII and began sending food parcels for special occasions. Their correspondence continued for years that was finally published in 84, Charing Cross Road, a wonderful book! When it was turned into a BBC television show, Hanff finally got to visit her beloved England. This charming book is about her weeks in London, her meeting friends and fans including Doel’s family (Frank had already passed away), and visiting sites she show more dreamed of seeing. Hanff is so very American, and she never holds back how she feels in comparison to the English stuffiness. Just plain delightful. show less

A delightful follow-up to [b:84, Charing Cross Road|368916|84, Charing Cross Road|Helene Hanff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1287338794l/368916._SY75_.jpg|938626], in which Helene Hanff finally makes her way to London. It felt very much like I had finally made it there myself. I was so caught up in her travels and all the people she met. I loved shopping with her at Harrad’s and dining at the Savoy. Mostly, I loved the genuine way she delighted in all the small things that I know would thrill me as well. That sense of wonder.

I mean I went through a door Shakespeare once went through, and into a pub he knew. We sat at a table against the back wall and I leaned my head back, against a wall show more Shakespeare's head once touched, and it was indescribable."

I laughed aloud, knowing I would be just as foolish. I’m not a celebrity worshipping kind of person, unless, of course you get me back past 1850.

Speaking of 1850, imagine how surprised I was to find Hanff did not admire Dickens. Her first mention: the porter will show you the room where Dickens wrote Great Expectations. Doesn't seem the time to tell her I found Great Expectations very boring. Yikes, she just panned not only one of my favorite writers but my very favorite book. She managed to mention her disdain for Dickens twice more before the end of the book. It was almost the end of our relationship, but I have a hard and fast rule to tolerate differences of opinion in regard to literature. :)

Her unique sense of humor added an element of joy that would have been missing with a straight narrative. She is a New Yorker, and that theme also appeared. For instance, when people on the street hovered with she was having her portrait painted:

what New Yorkers call the Sidewalk Superintendents. In London you shoo them away by talking to them. In New York talking to them would just get you their life stories.

This is a story about dreams coming true; about waiting much of your life for an event you live vicariously, over and over again. And, it is a story about how sweet realizing that dream can be. No disappointment, just fulfillment at last. I needed that. show less

A bittersweet memoir, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street recounts writer Helene Hanff's trip to England in the summer of 1971, her first trip outside the United States. Hanff's voice is charming, and you can't begrudge her the clear and unvarnished joy she takes in visiting places she's read about for so many years even if, like me, you absolutely cannot enter into her ardent Anglophilia.

You decide to stop using the word “anachronism” when a seventeenth-century carriage drives through the gates of Buckingham Palace carrying twentieth-century Russian or African diplomats to be welcomed by a queen. “Anachronism” implies something long dead, and nothing is dead here. History, as they say, is alive and well and living in London (p. 82)

In 84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff collected the letters she and Frank Doel, a bookseller in London’s famous Charing Cross Road, exchanged for twenty years, from just after WWII up until his death. Helene Hanff had always wanted to travel to England, but until the summer of June 1971, after 84 Charing Cross Road had been published and she went on tour to publicize the book, she show more had never had the opportunity to do so. This short book is a diary that Helene kept for the three weeks that she was in London and environs, meeting Frank Doel’s family and some of the many people who enjoyed 84, Charing Cross Road.

I went on vacation to London (and York) for a week at the beginning of the month, so I thought this would be the perfect book to get me in the mood for the trip. It’s a short book; I finished it in a couple of hours on the plane ride. Helene Hanff went everywhere and did everything, it seems: Bloomsbury (personally, my favorite part of London), the site of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (which hadn’t yet been reconstructed by Sam Wannamaker), Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London. Some of those were places I went, too, so it was fun for me to read about what she saw and did. Helene even got so see some of the sights outside London: Eton and Oxford (only Helene could have a hissy fit in the middle of Wadham Yard!).

The same funny, witty tone of voice she used in 84, Charing Cross Road comes right across in this novel, and I enjoyed reading some of her insights into England and the English (some of them ironic, as in):

I find the treatment of royalty distinctly peculiar. The royal family lives in palaces heavily screened from prying eyes by fences, grounds, gates, guards, all designed to ensure the family absolute privacy. And every newspaper in London carried headlines announcing PRINCESS ANNE HAS OVARIAN CYST REMOVED. I mean you’re a young girl reared in heavily guarded seclusion and every beer drinker in every pub knows the pricese state of your ovaries (p. 77-78).

I must admit that I have a soft spot for Helene Hanff; we both have a Philadelphia connection, plus we are/were massive Anglophiles. I love the blunt, direct way that she addresses her readers, almost as if she’s telling her story to you in person. She also has some great insights into London: how you can tell a city’s character based on its parks:

All the parks here are every serene, very gentle… lying in peaceful St. James’s, I realize how much a city’s parks reflect the character of its people. The parks here are tranquil, quiet, a bit reserved, and I love them. But on a long-term basis I would sorely miss the noisy exuberance of Central Park (pp54-56). show less