The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hand

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff

137 pages 

Published March 1973 by Lippincott Williams and Wilkins

Publisher's Summary: 

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.

My Thoughts: 

I knew I was forgetting a book when I did my mini-reviews the last week of December, trying to finish reviewing all of the books that I had read in 2023. Maybe this one just demanded to have its own review. 

It took me fifty years to finally read Helene Hanff's most famous work, 84, Charing Cross Road. I was charmed, as millions of others have been; but it didn't occur to me to find anything else Hanff had written.  Last year, when this book was brought to my attention, I was delighted to discover it and get a chance to read more of Hanff's work. 

Whilst 84, Charing Cross Road is entirely an epistolary work, composed of letters primarily between Hanff and London bookseller Frank Dole, The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street is Hanff's memoir of fulfilling her dream to travel to London, a diary she was encouraged to write by a friend. 

Although Frank died three years before Hanff was finally able to make the trip (and Marks and Co was no longer in business), her correspondence with Frank had led her to correspond with his wife, his daughter, and other employees of Marks & Co. Not only that, but the success of 84, Charing Cross Road and led Hanff to "meet" many other people in England who wanted the chance to meet her and show her the country. So, when she finally arrived, she was flooded with people who wanted to take her to dinner, to show her the sites, to ensure that she saw all that she longed to see, not necessarily just the touristy things. Their generosity allowed Hanff to stay in England longer than she had thought her money would last. 

Hanff was an interesting lady; she was a bit of a recluse who also seemed to attract people to her. More than one of the people she met in England arranged to meet up with her again and to take her on outings outside of London. She was unfashionable when it came to her clothes, but liked to make sure her hair was just so. She was witty, intelligent and had strong and often unusual opinions.

"I despair of ever getting it through anybody's head I am not interested in bookshops, I am interested in what's written in the books. I don't want to browse in bookshops, I browse in libraries, where you can take a book home and read it, and if you like it you go to a bookshop and buy it."

 Once again I come away from Hanff's book thinking that she was a woman I would very much have enjoyed getting to know. This one will make you long to do a better job of chronicling your own travels; London comes alive in Hanff's capable hands, as do the people she met. When I finished 84, Charing Cross Road, I suggested that it was a book I would definitely read again. When I do, I'll reread this one as well.