Helene Hanff

A zesty memoir of the celebrated writer's travels to England where she meets the cherished friends from 84, Charing Cross Road.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

Laura Mauler

Reading this book makes me feel optimistic, especially when I'm reading it at a sunny table outside a cafe on a lovely lazy day. Add this book to my list of "10 books I'd want want with me if I was marooned on a desert island." Although in all fairness it should be allowed to share its slot with "84, Charing Cross Road" since they really do make up two halves of a whole. (Also I'm greedy.)

Melissa Palmer

Book #94 Read in 2015
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

This is the sequel to the book 84 Charing Cross Road, which was a collection of letters between a NYC author (Hanff) and a British bookseller. In this book, Hanff has finally made it to London, as her book is now being published there. Before she leaves New York, a friend tells her to keep a diary or she won't remember all the details of her London trip. She does and this book is the diary entries, telling of people she meets, sites she sees and the wonderment she feels of people treating her like royalty. A quick read, I borrowed this book from the town library.

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Connor 

Until Lizz mentioned it a few weeks ago, I was completely unaware this book existed; now, having read it in less than two days, it's a favorite. 84, Charing Cross Road was a favorite when Lizz first recommended it, but this may surpass even that in my personal estimation for one simple reason.

This book exactly captures what it felt like to be abroad in a city where you have longed for years--and I do mean years--to see. I didn't spend nearly so much time in London as Helene Hanff, but through this book I can see what that trip meant to her. It was much of what my time studying abroad in Dublin meant for me. Duchess so aptly captures the excitement, enthusiasm, and occasional mortification of being abroad--being American does not, you know, always work in your favor--and I enjoyed every moment I spent reading this so much that I read it instead of going to bed at a decent hour and now it is past midnight and I'll surely be in a daze tomorrow between sleepiness and thinking about how much I loved reading about Hanff's travels: the characters, the friends she makes--and how dear they quickly become!--the places. 

Also, this makes me miss Europe rather a lot for someone who only lived there for four months out of her life.

Sarah Escorsa

A lovely follow-up to 84 Charing Cross Road which definitely makes me want to see the screen adaptation of the books!

Eugenia Andino

After reading 84 Charing Cross Road, I didn't exactly want more in the same style: I wanted to know more about the characters. So, I bought all the books by Helene Hanff published after it. It fits that after publishing a collection of letters, instead of a more conventional memoir or travelogue she writes a book in diary format; nevertheless, the style is too hurried, not detailed enough, and not funny enough. The book is occasionally good, but I wish she had used her diary as a source for a more organised and better written work.

Akanksha Chattopadhyay

Splendid. Enchanting. Marvelous.
Few works of nonfiction have moved me to emotion like this one did. To look at THE city through the eyes of an ardent lover of English literature strikes notes dear to the heart. Blame it on an EngLit student's incorrigible Anglophilia, or call it Colonial Hangover if you wish.

Patricia

Pierke Bosschieter

Lisa

Michael Burkhardt

Lili Vanden Wijngaert

Sarah Ryan

Nancy Mitford meets Nora Ephron in the pages of The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff’s delightful travelogue about her “bucket list” trip to London When devoted Anglophile Helene Hanff is invited to London for the English publication of 84, Charing Cross Road—in which she shares two decades of correspondence with Frank Doel, a British bookseller who became a dear friend—she can hardly believe her luck. Frank is no longer alive, but his widow and daughter, along with enthusiastic British fans from all walks of life, embrace Helene as an honored guest. Eager hosts, including a famous actress and a retired colonel, sweep her up in a whirlwind of plays and dinners, trips to Harrod’s, and wild jaunts to their favorite corners of the countryside. A New Yorker who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, Helene Hanff delivers an outsider’s funny yet fabulous portrait of idiosyncratic Britain at its best. And whether she is walking across the Oxford University courtyard where John Donne used to tread, visiting Windsor Castle, or telling a British barman how to make a real American martini, Helene always wears her heart on her sleeve. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is not only a witty account of two different worlds colliding but also a love letter to England and its literary heritage—and a celebration of the written word’s power to sustain us, transport us, and unite us.

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

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