📖 'Rather Dated' March: Winifred Watson's 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' 📖

Just popping this here in case any of you are interested.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4971680-new-year-new-fallen-woman-elizabeth-gaskells-ruth-readalong?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I absolutely loved this book. Gentle, funny and kind. A real comfort read.

I thought the film really missed the point. Frances McDormand was excellent and it looked beautiful, but they sucked all the warmth out of the story.

Welcome! It's such an amusing book. I'm not sure how well the film will hold up but I'm going to watch it over the weekend.

I love this book, first read it many years ago on a holiday in France and it was such a delightful read.

I think it's important to keep the book as is, because that's how people were, it's differcult to progress on unless we remember where we've been. After saying that, the anti semitic parts always jar

I agree with Buttalapasta. It's important to know what the author wrote. These books are like a window on the past. If you were to erase certain details, you wouldn't get the full view. It's like the debate about changing words in the texts in Roald Dahl. It's nearly rewriting the stories.

Welcome DorisParchment! You should have a look at the main thread for the Rather Dated Bookclub.

I have found my people! Why have I only just found this thread?

I'm glad it wasn't edited. I think it's important to read what the author intended.

I love Miss Pettigrew, but the casual racism and references to domestic violence really jar. Presumably Persephone's policy is to publish books 'as is', but it wouldn't have harmed the book to have edited those sections - there aren't many, and they are throwaway comments rather than plot points.

There are some very witty lines in it. I would why rereading it would appeal.

I adore it. It was chosen for a book group I was in 15 years ago and I must have read it annually since. It is funny, charming and - except for the small references to the uncomfortable racism of the 1930s - an absolute delight.

“England expects,” as she’s shrieked at to her duty to her makeup makes me laugh every time. Invoking the spirit of Lord Nelson towards mascara running is the sort of absurdity that makes the book so appealing.

Lovely end papers, lovely illustrations and an excellent choice by Persephone to reissue it.

On the one hand this was a whimsical story but it certainly had a serious side to it. Miss Pettigrew was really down on her luck, just surviving from one post to the next.

I thought that Joe's little push towards the end of the story, when he was trying to make Delysia see sense, stood out as a dated feature of the book. It was jarring.

I read it quickly, and enjoyed it. It’s fun and frivolous, although I do agree; not laugh out loud funny (compared to PG Wodehouse for example, which was the closest thing it reminded me of). In my head, the action resembled one of those 40s/50s screwball comedy films, with glamorous women making quick fire wisecracks. Witty and polished, like a sparkling miniature, rather than trying to be more than it was … sorry, that sounds muddly but I hope you know what I mean. But I do think @MotherofPearl is right, and there is a serious social commentary underneath the frivolity. I remember an Agatha Christie short story about how hard and constrained are the lives of the impoverished gentlewoman, The Listerdale Mystery, iirc. I actually did really like the action spread over one day, and the chapter headings being the time. That was a clever device, and I think it added to the film-like quality for me. I loved that Joe had made his money in corsets, and how that would have put him beyond the pale to Miss Pettigrew’s parents. I loved the happy ending.
This thread is such a joy: I would never have even heard of Winifred Watson or Dorothy Whipple without it!

I'm a big Persephone fan and I asked dh to buy me a random Persephone book for my birthday last year and he got this one. I have to say I really didn't like it at all! It just didn't work for me - not funny enough to be comic, not engaging enough to be witty. P.S. I didn't like the film either!

I had the illustrations on the Kindle edition and really liked them. They added to the charm.
Miss Pettigrew is amazing. I loved how she was at once completely clueless but provided the the solution to everyone's problems. A sort of peace-maker and psychologist all wrapped up in one.

I love this book, both the story and the beautiful book itself. Normally I get cross with contrivances in plot but there's something so tongue in cheek about it and just the right amount of farce. I love how Miss Pettigrew is both fish out of water and a Jeeves like fixer, and the fact it's all in one day. It's really fun.

I’m really enjoying it. I’ve still got an awful lingering cold, and Miss P is cheering me up no end. Does everyone else’s edition have illustrations?

Just re-read it, lovely. Easy read at bedtime

ooh I love, love, LOVE this book! Think I'll see if I can re-read it by the end of the month. Thanks!

Ooh I wanted to start reading again, I think this is the book to get me back in! I read it years ago and can't really remember anything except that I liked it.

Glad you are all enjoying it! I haven't seen the film but I will when I have read the book. I never know which is the best way to do it.

My copy just arrived from WOB and I've read the first few pages and found myself delighted.
Thanks for this one!

I watched the film recently and it was delightful, set in London, with gorgeous sets and costumes. I just didn't like the ending but read the book so long ago I'm not sure if it is the same. I need to dig out the book for a re-read! I have The Persephone Classics edition.

I've got Mrs Palfrey on my Kindle, Walkinginthesand. * *I'm going to read it soon. I'm glad you liked it.

I've just finished Miss Pettigrew. I liked it very much. Looking forward to the discussion.