Laurie Graham (1)Ressenyes

The blurb promises us a funny heartwarming story about the main characters quest to find a husband.What we really get is the depressing tale of a womans life.

A light hearted look at a family who appear smug until everything changes. Ba lives with Bobs with plenty of money and they are happy until Bobs tells Ba his secret. Plenty of social commentary from a narrator, Ba, who cares greatly what everyone thinks. Not a deep book but fun and mostly light.

Another enjoyable read from Laurie Graham. One way or another The Kennedys hold a certain fascination for most of us. I wonder where all nine children would have ended up had their parents, Joe senior and Rose not been so scheming and manipulative. In my eyes, not a happy family and they certainly had more than their share of tragedy. Once again I enjoyed Laurie Graham's writing and she's included many events true to the history of the Kennedys.

Birdie Gibbs is a tough old bird, who lives on a salubrious Council Estate, battling various Chavs, slappers and assorted morons just to get through the day. Birdie has been through a world war, four husbands, lost a child, worked in factories and longs for the days when she was physically able to dance the nights away. This often funny, sometimes tragic, this first person tale describes Birdie's daily life, looking after the less able on the estate, taking care of her ex-husbands dogs and hoping for a better future. Light and fun read, with many witty observations about the state of society and the plight of the less well off.

Gone With the Windsors by Laurie Graham is a re-telling of the love affair between Wallis Simpson and the Prince of Wales, soon to be Edward VII. Told through the journal entries of Wallis’ best friend Maybell Brumley, a fellow American. Wallis and Maybell grew up in Baltimore together and were schoolmates. When Maybell’s millionaire husband dies, she move to England and becomes reacquainted with Wallis. With Maybell’s money and Wallis’ connections, they set their eyes on meeting the Prince of Wales as knowing him gives them an entree into the high society that they wish to be part of.

There were two camps to English high society, those who strictly followed the age-old rules and were on the side of King and Queen. They shook their heads over the lively society that the Prince of Wales kept. His was a society of cocktails, gossip and high jinks that reminded me somewhat of high school with the Prince of Wales as the head boy and his current paramour at his side laying down the rules to everyone else. Wallis neatly snags the Prince away from his current companion and takes over all aspects of the Prince’s life. He is totally enthralled by Wallis and does his best to marry her and have her proclaimed Queen of England. The scandal and the eventual abdication play out while storm clouds are gathering over Europe with the likes of Hitler and Mussolini coming into power.

Gone With the Windsors was very humorous as the author uses her witty insight to skewer not just the situation, but the people, customs and rules that came into play during these years leading up to the abdication. Wallis Simpson comes across as a controlling, ambitious, and very intelligent woman. She lures the rather simple-minded Prince into her snare and he becomes putty in her hands. The author gives this familiar story a fresh spin by giving a voice to the rather dim Maybell who admires Wallis and see most things through rose-coloured glasses. I found Gone With the Windsors to be an entertaining and enjoyable read.

A delightful first-person description of the lives of mid-century USAF wives and their children while posted in post-war England and their return to the US. The frustration of 'following' and being perfect officer's wives and mothers plays out differently for every family, including the culture shock of transition to civilian lives or the end of a marriage or death.

Amazing what all transpired in this lovely fluffy book. It was like watching someone juggle. The perfect beach read, even if it was raining every day.

Really fun book by one of my favourite authors. Just whipped through it - wish we knew for sure if this was anything like the relationship between Wally Simpson and Prince Edward.

Back Cover Blurb:
The scandalous divorcee who led the besotted Prince of Wales to abdicate his throne first appears in the fictional diary of Maybell Brumby as her schoolmate Bessie. 'I'm Wallis,' she snarls, 'and if you call me anything else you're going to be sorry.'
One social climber swiftly recognizes another. When life's whimsical currents toss these two gilt-edged gold diggers together again as adults, history will change its course.
Maybell is the wealthy, friskily young widow of a Baltimore bore, eager to break into London society. Wallis has jettisoned husband number one and is looking for the escape hatch from husband number two; impoverished as ever, she's armed only with that terrific bone structure, a few erotic tricks she's picked up in the Far East, and the determination to land the most eligible bachelor in the world. And now, to help her on her quest, she has her old chum Maybell, along with her inexhaustible trust fund and her useful inability to recognize the deft touch of a born con artist.
Trailing a cloud of Worth perfume and an ermine stole, missing the point of every conversation, the deliciously dim Maybell witnesses the courtship of the twentieth century and the scandal that rocked a monarchy - recording all in her diary.

A wonderful funny book which does have some sad bits. I do love this authors books......this is one of her early ones.
Back Cover Blurb:
Bobs and Ba live in happy prosperity. They have children, grandchildren and a chain of car repair yards. But on a Caribbean holiday to celebrate Bobs' fiftieth birthday, it becomes clear he is a man with things on his mind.
Has he found a younger woman? Has he bought another useless race horse? And what's the terrible secret in the cupboard behind his pool talbe?
As the gossip starts at the golf club and the kids stop calling, Ba's life is turned upside down. It takes events beyond their control to show Bobs and Ba just what their marriage is made of. That's the thing about courage. Sometimes it shows up in the funniest places.

A light and entertaining read but not as good as the 2 other Laurie Graham novels I've read - At Sea and The Future Homemakers of America. It relies rather too heavily on stereotypical characters although that is a deliberate part of the humour of the book.

Jack the Ripper’s story as told by a Victorian music hall singer

Dot Allbones, a music hall entertainer, tells her story which includes the Jack the ripper murders in Whitechapel. She also tells the reader about life in the music halls of the East End of London and we learn about the social mores of the late Victorian era.

The book is simply written and there is a fair amount of characterisation. The most interesting aspect of the book for me is about how people lived at the time in the lower classes and what was considered common practice among music hall entertainers.

Not really my cup of tea but entertaining enough if you’re into Ripper Street and Victorian tales.

Dot Allbones works in the East End music halls as an entertainer. One of her friends from back home in Wolverhampton is Catherine Eddows. Then things change for thd two women as the Autumn of Terror approaches.

I picked this book up because I enjoy reading about Jack the Ripper and I thought it was going to have a different angle to it as it featured one of the victims Catherine Eddows. Dot Allbones is a fictional character whose voice the reader hears an not Catherines which was a little let down.

However Dot is a pleasant character, very chatty and quite amusing at times. As the reader follows her around then we get to hear and see all the grisly going ons with Jack. The murder of Kate and her inquest is heavily featured near the end of the book with then just a few pages to sum up with the murder of Mary Jane Kelly.

The book was ok, funny at times, sad at others. I felt the story was drawn out and maybe dragged at times, but well researched on the subject matter. Would have liked to have heard Kates voice along with Dots, perhsps alternating chapters. Would recommend if you you want to read about Saucy Jack.

This isn't my usual choice of book, but as I was given it I decided to give it a go. I did really enjoy it actually, and once I got into it I found myself wanting to read more to find out what happened next in Poppy's life. I did find at times I did not like Poppy very much and she was quite a selfish person, but I don't think I enjoyed the book any less! It does whizz through her life though.

It didn’t take more than three pages of meeting Lubka before I wanted to adopt her as my grandmother. What a great character. Feet firmly planted on the ground, head wandering happily among the clouds.

It doesn’t take long for Buzz Wexler to begin to adore Lubka either, and Buzz isn’t one to adore many people. Buzz has become quite cold, over the years, quite cold to the mean world she sees every day in her job as a top-notch music promoter. So when she is asked to accompany the Gorni Grannies, including Lubka, from recently de-Sovietized Bulgaria on their musical tour of England and the US, it is only with the greatest reluctance that she goes along. The Grannies win her heart and rock her world, and to that we say, Thank goodness, Buzz. Her world needed some heavy-duty rocking.

This book was nothing like what I was expecting. The blurb on the back led me to believe it was going to be a book set in WWI, what I got instead was a book covering years and years of Poppy Minkels life.

Here are some of the things I didn't like about the book;

- You never really get to go into much detail on her life, because it's always moving so fast, just a quick, this happened and it was like this, and then this happened, and then before you know it another 10 years have passed. I guess I just don't like that kind of writing, I prefer good portions of narrative, along with the descriptive text, and you really didn't get that in this book. It was just little snippets of things that happened to her in her life.

- The main character and narrator, Poppy Minkel, I found to be an impossible character to like. She started out a naive 15-year-old, which considering she was a child you can forgive, but she remained naive until she was in her 20s, and then moved swiftly from naive to selfish, and often downright cruel.

- For a book that covers so many years and moves so fast between them, the book felt slow.

Overall I don't know if I just didn't get along with the reminiscent narrative, or if it was the main character I didn't like, or if it was how the book tried to cover too much time and too many events in too few pages, or if it was all of this. I just really didn't like this book.

This is simply a scintillatingly good book. The prose is fresh, ironic and delightful, and the main character Lady Enid is a delight. I loved the story of how she discovers who her husband Bernard really is and where he came from, and the other people Enid gets to know on the cruise are also very well depicted.

There are some great comic moments on the way, as well as some glorious discoveries, and the way Enid orchestrates her secret revenge on the tricksy Bernard is very satisfying indeed. I loved it.

Very well observed characters and a seriously funny story - Laurie Graham seems to paint her leading ladies as rather bossy self-centered creatures initially but you always find yourself rooting for them.

Ok yes this is chick-lit? Maybe so, maybe for a slightly more mature woman - I am a mna by the way. I don't know why I tried this and when I first sat down I kind of felt a bit guilty about reading it. However I have to say I quite liked the humour and found the storyline interesting and compelling. Yes there are a few girly touches and maybe I felt that pang of self conciousness as the author attacked men a little, but the characters are varied enough and the pace of the plot fast enough to keep your attention with the next laugh never far away. Guilty pleasure? possibly, just possibly.½

At first I thought, this isn't as good as her other books, but slowly the characters grew on me and I was very sorry to come to the end. I thoroughly enjoyed my daily fix of Maybell and her best friends Wally (Wallace Simpson) and David (Edward VIII). Here is a story of high society in the 1930s/1940's, the lives of royalty, the abdication of King and the start of international travel.

Bobs and Ba live in happy prosperity. They began with nothing, but now they have a successful chain of car repair yards. Bobs has even bought a racehorse! But on a Caribbean holiday to celebrate Bobs' fiftieth birthday, it becomes clear he is a man with things on his mind.

Has he found a younger woman? The receipt in his pocket from Sasha Lingerie is pretty damning. And what's the terrible secret in the cupboard behind his pool table?

As the gossip starts at the golf club and the kids stop calling, Ba's life is turned upside down. What's more, her daughter Melody is getting married and everyone's nerves are in shreds. It takes events beyond their control to show Bobs and Ba just what their marriage is made of.

My Thoughts:

This is the second time I have read this book, both times being for book group. I found this book really funny just as funny second time around as I did the first. It does have serious undertones along with the laughs.

The story is told from the narrative of Barbara. I found her very chatty and felt like I was right next to her in the kitchen having a cuppa and a biscuit. She has a lot going on in her normal everyday life. Suddenly her grand daughter is struck ill with leukaemia and then to top it all off she finds out her husband Bobs is a cross dresser.

This book for me was about putting things in priority. Barbara seemed to cope very well and did put her grand daughter first and worried about Bobs later. I personally don’t know what I would have done if it had been my husband.

The book I felt was very down to earth with realistic characters. It also had a local interest for me as it was set in the West Midlands with places mentioned which I know very well.

A very pleasing read and I would recommend it for a laugh, but it does have some sad moments.

Great story "as told" by the fictional nursery maid.

I love reading about the Kennedys, for some unknown reason, and I have a soft spot for JFK, but who's to say what is fact and what is fiction when reading the many and multiform biographies and histories printed about the family? Laurie Graham's delightful novel does away with this question by openly combining the two.

Told through the eyes of Irish nurserymaid Nora Brennan, this is the story of the Kennedy family from the birth of eldest son Joseph Patrick to the death of Kick just after the war. Graham captures the familiar caricatures of the family, including greedy, ambitious Joe and cold-hearted Rose, but also creates a life 'below stairs' with the mostly Irish staff. Nora meets her husband Walter while staying at Chatsworth with Kick, who was briefly married to the eldest Devonshire son, and stays in touch with her family and friends in America. I love Nora's blunt wisdom and her dry wit, and her conversations and letters with her sister Margaret in New York are hilarious.

It is very easy to overlook this story as an ode to the Kennedys, but don't be put off. Even readers with no interest whatsoever in America's first family will enjoy Graham's easy narration and likeable characters. When Nora leaves the family to stay in England and get married, we experience the Second World War and the Blitz through her eyes. As in The Future Homemakers of America, Laurie Graham manages to represent both the beleaguered British and the independent Americans with spirit - Nora is respectful of her adopted country, but also does her part for the war effort in London. The Kennedys are portrayed sympathetically, for the most part - Joe might have forced his sons into politics, but he cared about his family, and even though Rose didn't seem to have a sentimental bone in her body, she was a strong woman who had a lot to put up with at home. Kick Kennedy comes across as a lovely, vibrant woman who breaks away from the family influence to live her own life in England, and poor Rosie's fate is heart-breaking.

Wonderful - amusing, honest, warm and cleverly told.

Another fabulously entertaining book from my favourite author. Laugh out loud funny, great characters, wonderful settings and terrific story.

Laurie Graham writes a great book! Set during the 1950's a story of 4 women, their friendship, their lives, their laughs and their struggles. At times this story had me laughing out loud, at other's I couldn't put it down because all I wanted was find out what happened. These women came right out off the page for me. If you like a story about everyday life in it's full blown glory, read this book.

Well drawn characters and lots of fun to read. Set in 1950s UK & US, moving on to the present day.