A great one to end 2011 with a short synopsis of the wonderful 84 Charing Cross Road.
The book by author Helene Hanff was published in 1970 and tells the story of the twenty-year correspondence between her and the chief buyer of an antiquarian bookseller called Marks & Co , named Frank Doel , which was located at the address 84 Charing Cross in London England.
Hanff first contacted the shop in 1949, when she saw an advertisement in the Saturday Review of Literature. She has been in search of obscure classics and British literature titles she had been unable to locate in New York City.
Her letter lands on the desk of Frank Doel and it becomes his job to fulfill her requests. In time, a long distance friendship eveolves not only between Hanff and Doel but also with other staff members, which culminates in the exchange of Christmas and birthday presents as well as food parcels to compensate for post World War II food shortages in England.
Their letters include discussions on a variety of topics from how to make a Yorkshire Pudding, to the sermons of John Donne, from how the Brooklyn Dodgers are playing to the coronation of Elizabeth II.
Hanff intends to travel to England to meet with her long distance friends at 84 Charing Cross. Helene Hanff did finally visit the site in the summer of 1971, , but sadly, Doel had died in December 1968 from peritonitis caused by a burst appendix and the bookshop eventually closed. The shop was still standing but was empty, the trip is recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street .
The book was later made into a stage play, television play and film. The 1987 film was directed by David Hugh Jones . The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore is based on a play by James Roose-Evans which itself was an adaptation of the original book. The film starred Anne Bancroft as Helene Hanff and Anthony Hopkins and Judi Dench as Frannk Doel and his wife Nora.
Today, a circular brass plaque on the building that now stands on the shop's former site acknowledges the story.
I read this book when I was still in school. First of all as a Reader's Digest "condensed" version (remember those?); then one of the first "ordered / reserved" books from the Library. (I felt so 'Adult' when I did that)
ReplyDeleteI remember crying when I read Nora's news back to Helen that Frank had died. (I always was one for the emotions :-()
I really irritated my parents by dragging them around that part of London looking for the book shop in 1973 (?*!). Whilst Mum liked me reading books it wasn't supposed to bring out and encourage "excentric" behaviour.
So I read the "Ragged Trouser Philanthropist" after the London expedition - whilst my neighbours may think that brought out excentric politics, Mum regarded it as "othodoxy"
A year later I went to Univerisity - there the stabilising nature of a "good home" got somewhat lost in....... (well we can all write the list)