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

37 replies

MotherofPearl · 01/03/2023 13:17

Welcome to the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group, where we are reading and discussing fiction from the 1930s to the 1990s that would have been described as 'contemporary' in its day. We are reading one book a month. Spoilers are permitted!

We started the chat thanks to a thread where we kicked off with a discussion of Penelope Lively, The Road to Lichfield.

Currently we have these separate threads:
November: Anita Brookner, A Start in Life
December: Margaret Drabble: A Summer Bird-Cage
January: Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Beautiful Visit.

This month we are reading Winifred Watson's 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day', originally published in 1938.

Please do post your comments here when you are ready. I am only about a third of the way through the book so far, on account of finishing Whipple's 'Greenbanks' (which I loved, incidentally).

So far I'm enjoying Miss Pettigrew, though trying to adjust to the conceit of the whole set over just one day.

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Original poster
MotherofPearl · 01/03/2023 13:24

I wanted to post the beautiful endpapers of my Persephone copy, taken from a 1930s furnishing fabric apparently.

📖 'Rather Dated' March: Winifred Watson's 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' 📖
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ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 01/03/2023 14:12

Just a question - has anyone ever seen the film with Frances McDormand?

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 01/03/2023 14:14

I'm starting mine tomorrow evening. I have two mega-busy days and an evening event tonight so no time. Looking forward to the chat about this one!

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MotherofPearl · 01/03/2023 17:28

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 01/03/2023 14:12

Just a question - has anyone ever seen the film with Frances McDormand?

No, but I really love Frances McDormand, so am going to seek this out. Thanks for mentioning it.

On a separate note I see I failed to put the book emoji in our thread title, and now don't know how to edit it! Sorry. Blush

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Neverknowinglysensible · 01/03/2023 17:34

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is one of my favourite comfort reads. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s feeling a bit down. I love the illustrations in the Persephone edition too.

FinallyHere · 01/03/2023 18:21

One of my favs, too. Comfort reading at its finest.

Suggested it for BookGroup when it was my turn to choose and they (sob) really, really hated it. I even went back to check I had posted a link to the correct book.

Some to find some other fans here.

frustratedacademic · 01/03/2023 18:34

Thanks for the shiny new thread, @MotherofPearl. I've read and seen the film, so looking forward to this discussion.

N.b. If you report your own post you can ask MNHQ to add the book emoji. They've done so for me in the past .

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 01/03/2023 19:19

Thank you, MotherofPearl. Looking forward to this!* *

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MotherofPearl · 01/03/2023 20:35

frustratedacademic · 01/03/2023 18:34

Thanks for the shiny new thread, @MotherofPearl. I've read and seen the film, so looking forward to this discussion.

N.b. If you report your own post you can ask MNHQ to add the book emoji. They've done so for me in the past .

Thanks @frustratedacademic. I'm afraid I am in fact so inept that I began by reporting your post instead of reporting the whole thread. Blush Then I wasn't specific enough about the book emoji so we have white books instead of red and green! Still, it was good of MNHQ to try to help. I'll do a better job next month I promise!

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ASimpleLobsterHat · 01/03/2023 20:52

Good choice, I loved that book. I shall go back and read it next. I probably won't get to it before the end of the month as I only read on the train to work and while DS swims, which doesn't add up to much each week, but I'll enjoy the discussion nonetheless. I'm currently on Elizabeth von Arnim's 'Father', which actually reminds me slightly of Miss Pettigrew.

ChessieFL · 02/03/2023 18:50

I love this book. I love how you can see Miss Pettigrew grow in confidence as the day goes on, and realise how different her life could be.

I haven’t seen the film, but I have listened to the audiobook read by Frances McDormand and I hated it. The book is set in London and is very British, so to have it read in an American accent was really jarring. Is the film set in America? I have when they do that.

Walkinginthesand · 03/03/2023 10:48

I’m just about to start reading ‘Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.’ I took a rather delightful diversion as I mistakenly downloaded the charming but poignant ‘Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont’ by Elizabeth Taylor. It was a fortuitous error!

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 04/03/2023 08:44

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.

NormaJeanne · 04/03/2023 11:29

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.

VeronicaBeccabunga · 07/03/2023 13:17

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

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 07/03/2023 17:11

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.

Crumbcatcher · 07/03/2023 17:22

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.

AndMiffyWentToSleep · 07/03/2023 17:30

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

TodayInahurry · 07/03/2023 17:49

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

StellaOlivetti · 07/03/2023 17:50

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?

Scout2016 · 07/03/2023 22:23

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.

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 08/03/2023 14:21

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.

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MotherofPearl · 09/03/2023 13:00

I finished reading Miss Pettigrew last night (stayed up well past midnight to finish it!), and I really loved it. Here are my thoughts, with spoilers.

I struggled at first with the concept of the whole novel set over one day, but got into the swing of it pretty quickly. Like others I really loved the illustrations, which beautifully brought to life the 1930s looks and fashions.

I felt that though the novel could be read as fun and frivolous, it was also subtly laced with commentary on both class, and the limitations of the choices women at the time faced. Miss Pettigrew is an impoverished gentlewoman, and her choices are miserably constrained, but she also realises that some of those constraints are rooted in snobbery and convention - when she shrugs these off, she feels liberated. Joe is presumably rather nouveau riche and not terribly respectable, but is kind and charming, and once Miss Pettigrew casts off her class-based worldview, she can enjoy his attentions and flattery.

I really loved the writing, too. There were lots of brilliant lines, though I especially loved Miss Dubarry's comment (as they're dressing Miss P for the cocktail party), "Glittering stones are not Guinevere's medium of expression."

I thought the ending was well-handled, and I was relieved that there was a happy ending. This book was really a joy, and I am going to seek out Winifred Watson's other novels.

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Buttalapasta · 12/03/2023 14:54

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!

StellaOlivetti · 13/03/2023 10:26

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!

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