Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson — a woman transformed
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day was a late addition to my #20booksofsummer reading list, filling in a gap I had deliberately left blank so I could include titles selected by the book club.
Winifred Watson’s 1938 novel is a sweet tale about a governess in straitened circumstances whose life is turned around as the result of a mistake. She arrives at the job agency one morning, desperately hoping they can find her a new position. Without it she’ll be kicked out of her flat and become destitute.
She’s despatched to meet a Miss La Fosse, supposedly to be interviewed as a nursery governess. But the agency has muddled up the positions and Miss La Fosse turns out to be a glamorous nightclub singer with a very complicated love life. As a result of this mix up, Miss Pettigrew is thrown into the kind of glamorous world she’s only heard of hitherto or glimpsed in the cinema and the day and night she spends with Delysia LaFosse transforms her outlook on life and her future.
Delysia LaFosse is a magnificent creation, a young woman who drifts about her apartment in a diaphanous negligee late into the morning and has no reservations about stripping off in front of a stranger. Guinevere is taken aback by the scenes she encounters in her prospective employer’s flat but it’s all very exciting. Men come and go; there’s a lot of kissing and changing of frocks and strong drinks before noon.
She was past remonstrance now, past bewilderment, surprise, expostulation. Her spirits soared. Everything was happening too quickly. She couldn’t keep up with things, but by golly she could enjoy them.
Before the day is out Miss Pettigrew has encountered a whirl of new experiences — cocktails, a night club; new clothes and hairdo and her first kiss.
She’s also found her voice. The down-at-heel mouse of a woman who knocks on Delysia LaFosse’s door is transformed into a woman whose wise counsel on love and marriage is cherished by her new found friends.
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is a wonderfully comic tale with a rags-to-riches feel good story at its heart. The narrative is considerably over-the-the- top (lots of exclamatory language) but it all works. It’s impossible not to be drawn into Miss Pettigrew’s world and relish in her transformation and her change in fortune
Miss Pettigrew stared. She caught the back of a chair for support. She felt faint. Another woman stood there. A woman of fashion: poised, sophisticated, finished, fastidiously elegant. A woman of no age. Obviously not young. Obviously not old. Who would care about age? No one. Not in a woman of that charming exterior. The rich black velvet of the gown was of so deep and lustrous a sheen it glowed like colour. An artist created it. It had the wicked brilliant cut that made its wearer look both daring and chaste.
This was the perfect novel to help lift me out of my recent reading slump.
Liz Dexter
I loved this (apart from moments of “of their time” attitudes and words of course, but we have to be used to those in books of this vintage). It was charming but had a lot to say about the predicament of the single woman, and I’m definitely due a re-read!
BookerTalk
The “of their time” attitude did catch me unawares. Luckily it wasn’t a dominant feature of the book.
Reading Update July 2024 and New Directions : BookerTalk
[…] did follow Kim’s advice in part though, instead of a thriller, I read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. This was certainly a quick read and though it did have some elements of social […]
20 Books of Summer 2024 — decisions made at last : BookerTalk
[…] Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day […]
TravellinPenguin
I love this story. It is so much fun.
BookerTalk
It is – deliciously over the top humour.
tracybham
You have certainly motivated me to read this book. I am often in need of this kind of book nowadays.
TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery
BookerTalk
I desperately needed something that wasn’t too challenging – I’ve had such a run of bad experiences with books lately, picking them up and finding them far too pretentious….
Emma
I loved this book. Wonderful entertainment with an unexpected depth.
BookerTalk
I did enjoy the social history context too
kaggsysbookishramblings
It’s pure joy isn’t it? Always brings a smile to my face!!
BookerTalk
It’s such a wonderful feel good novel
Lory
I’ve seen the movie and enjoyed it. The book sounds even better!
BookerTalk
I suspect the book has a subtlety that the film can’t capture.
Davida Chazan
The Netflix movie is available now, and I might watch it, although the book also sounds lovely.
BookerTalk
We’ve cancelled our Netflix account – too many times when we’d go looking for a movie/series and find nothing of interest
kimbofo
This was the first Persephone book I ever read and I remember loving it a lot but my hackles were raised by some anti-Semitic language.
BookerTalk
Yes that did come as a shock. I was glad it wasn’t a recurring feature
Margaret
I could do with reading a feel good story! this sounds just right.
BookerTalk
I think you’d love it Margaret
Nordie
There is also apparently a film, though I’ve never watched it as I loved the book too much.
I have a long backlist of books to read, including those from Persephone. Their 6/12 subscriptions are a great resource
BookerTalk
Oh don’t tempt me!!! I already have several Persephone editions yet to read but if I see one in a charity shop I can’t resist getting it. It doesn’t happen often though – I suspect people who buy them can’t bear to let them go
A Life in Books
An absolute delight! I’ve sometimes wondered about watching the film as Frances McDormand stars in it.
BookerTalk
It’s on Netflix apparently though that’s no use to me since i don’t have a subscription any longer
margaret21
This sounds quite a summer treat from a book – and an author – I’d never heard of.
BookerTalk
I’d never heard of it either but hadn’t been blogging very long when I started noticing it
Lisa Hill
I thought that there was more to it than just a Cinderella story…
https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/12/26/miss-pettigrew-lives-for-a-day-1938-by-winifred-watson/
BookerTalk
That’s true. I was going to mention some of those elements – like the predicament of single women without family or other means of support – but was rushing to get the review done before we headed off for a few days.
Lisa Hill
Oh, I know that feeling!
villabijou
I loved this book. Can we use the word charming to describe it? It was the first Persephone book I purchased and it sent me on a journey to buy and read more from this wonderful publisher.
BookerTalk
It does have a charm. I found I wanted to just keep reading and reading