Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson

I saw this on the "new arrivals" rack at the library, and I decided to read it because I wanted to see the movie too. It was one of those "why not?" selections, and it really paid off. This was such a fun book to read. I wish I could selectively forget the entire book and bring it with me on vacation next month, so I could have the pleasure of reading it again while sitting on the beach. So fun!

The protagonist is a fading, genteel middle-aged governess who is about to be kicked out of her London flat, and needs a job immediately. She answers yet another add, goes for yet another interview, and gets swept away in the glamorous life a beautiful actress juggling three men at once. Miss Pettigrew becomes progressively bolder and really lives for the first time in her life.

I want to read more books by this publisher, Persephone Books. Their description from the book jacket sums up the novel perfectly:

"Persophone Books reprints forgotten twentieth century novels, short stories, cookery books and memoirs by (mostly) women writers. They appeal to the discerning reader who prefers books that are neither too literary nor too comercial, and are guaranteed to be readable, thought-provoking and impossible to forget..."