Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson

Ratings:

Age Group: 12+ . Availability: 7/10 (Most librarys and many bookshops now have it as it is making a comeback). Cleanliness: 6/10 Overall: *****

Review:
English author Winnifred Watson wrote six novels, the best-known of which is Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, a Cinderella-type story of a failed governess who finds happiness and turns her life around in only 24 hours. It is a delightful pre-WW2 tale of cocktail parties, clubs and the people that inhabited them. It is also the story of Miss Pettigrew who suddenly finds herself caught up in this unfamiliar world and has her fortunes radically altered as well as finding the beginnings of love in the process. The glitz and glamour of classy 1930's London is well-described in the book and one can easily visualise the glittering lights and champagne the story invokes. This lighthearted and bubbly book whips us and Miss Pettigrew through a dazzling story that I could hardly put down. The writing is good quality and while not of the calibre of say, Homer or Thomas Hardy, it is a highly enjoyable book. Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is probably more appealing to girls than boys because of the Cinderella aspect of it, but it is a thoroughly good read.

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is by Winifred Watson. Republished in 2000 by Persephone Books, it was originally published in 1938 by Methuen.

An Additional Note:
The movie Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2008), starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams, is widely available both for rent and from libraries. I viewed this film not long after reading the book and while it does deviate from the original in more than a few places, it does capture the spirit of the book and place it in a more realistic context. It also does a good job of showing the glamour of the world Miss Pettigrew steps into and the clothing and sets are true to the period. It does change the roles of a few characters and leave out some interesting parts. But, all in all, a very enjoyable film, although probably more for females.  It is rated PG-13 and is suitable for a teenage and adult audience.
You can see the trailer here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0970468/

Oh Dear!

I'm afraid it has been an awfully long time since I last wrote anything. I will try and keep more things coming now that things are back to normal. I have recently been re-reading a number of books and then writing about them for my English Three course, so by the time the assignments get sent in I really cannot stand to write about the same books all over again. In addition to this I went on a trip to England and saw a lot of my family and a whole load of very exciting places. I went to the British Museum, which I have always dreamed of visiting, The Victoria And Albert Museum, Hampton Court Palace, Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, The Museum Of Kent Life and The Natural History Museum as well as a lot of churches, ruins, bookshops, parks and so on. When I got back it was almost Christmas and with that came a lot of performing with the Victoria Salvation Army Band and the choir I'm in plus the usual busy-ness of life. Once Christmas was over and we were in the New Year I had three essays to write in one week, which I did and now I finally have the time to read a book again! I have just finished Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, which was one of the best books I've read in a long time, so I shall certainly be reviewing that later this week. It is also the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, so I shall have to do something special for that as well. But for now, my Latin homework calls, so I shall write more later.