This story is about the intersection of the lives of four American women and that of their bed and breakfast landlady.
Lesley, Margo and Julia all grew up together in Missouri and their lives have taken them in different directions: Margo is an elementary school teacher in Chicago, while Lesley has become a socialite in St. Louis and Julia owns her own interior design business in New York.
When Margo is shot by a disgruntled parent and Julia's mother dies, "Les" feels a need for connection with her old friends and proposes - or perhaps, steamrolls her friends into - a trip to London.
Les imagines a round of touristy sites and elegant tea at the Dorchester in the afternoon. But events quickly intervene: Margo is shattered when her daughter announces that she's pregnant, and Julia, who'd hoped to pick up some furniture for a new house on the West Coast, is swept off her feet by a disorganized antiques dealer in Bermondsey. Then an unexpected development finds them donning aprons to manage the bed and breakfast, and the ladies feel forced to postpone their return to America.
It all ends happily, and this is a perfect escapist read, as well as a little bit of a love letter to London. I wish I knew what prompted the author to write this story, but perhaps it was his fondness for London or the sheer incongruity of these ladies making themselves at home in Chelsea.
After I'd read it, I racked my brain, trying to put my finger on what about this book was so familiar. This book reminded me a lot of Alison Lurie's Foreign Affairs, perhaps for obvious reasons, and also of Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax novels, and especially, Caravan (also by Dorothy Gilman). Oh, and it reminds me of Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris, where a charlady wins a contest and travels to Paris to be fitted for her Christian Dior "New Look" gown.
I didn't know who Richard Peck was when I began this novel, and from Wikipedia I've learned that Richard Peck was born in Decatur, Illinois, although he now lives in New York (and teaches somewhere else, I believe). He's a well known author of young adult fiction, although he's also written novels for adults and nonfiction. He started his career as a teacher and began publishing in 1970. He won the Edgar Allan Poe award for Are You in the House Alone? and the Newbery Award for A Year Down Yonder.
From London Holiday:
The row had been thrown up to shelter the workers of some earlier century, jerry-built to begin with and then badly knocked about by Jerry. The ceilings were all down, and the scullery still had its earth floor and a single tap over a stone sink. Above, there were two floors of bedrooms roughly boxed in with a bathroom of sorts added and a leaking loo, though the original lav was still out back.
Now that some time has passed, I find myself feeling that however down home the folks from Missouri are, however charming Julia's ability to snag a lord wearing only Talbots, what stays with me is the landlady from Chelsea - the woman who was given an house when she was discarded by her married lover and who turns it into a successful bed-and-breakfast/antiques business. She interests me and I find myself wondering about her genesis and wishing I could ask Richard Peck about her origins.
Lesley, Margo and Julia all grew up together in Missouri and their lives have taken them in different directions: Margo is an elementary school teacher in Chicago, while Lesley has become a socialite in St. Louis and Julia owns her own interior design business in New York.
When Margo is shot by a disgruntled parent and Julia's mother dies, "Les" feels a need for connection with her old friends and proposes - or perhaps, steamrolls her friends into - a trip to London.
Les imagines a round of touristy sites and elegant tea at the Dorchester in the afternoon. But events quickly intervene: Margo is shattered when her daughter announces that she's pregnant, and Julia, who'd hoped to pick up some furniture for a new house on the West Coast, is swept off her feet by a disorganized antiques dealer in Bermondsey. Then an unexpected development finds them donning aprons to manage the bed and breakfast, and the ladies feel forced to postpone their return to America.
It all ends happily, and this is a perfect escapist read, as well as a little bit of a love letter to London. I wish I knew what prompted the author to write this story, but perhaps it was his fondness for London or the sheer incongruity of these ladies making themselves at home in Chelsea.
After I'd read it, I racked my brain, trying to put my finger on what about this book was so familiar. This book reminded me a lot of Alison Lurie's Foreign Affairs, perhaps for obvious reasons, and also of Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax novels, and especially, Caravan (also by Dorothy Gilman). Oh, and it reminds me of Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris, where a charlady wins a contest and travels to Paris to be fitted for her Christian Dior "New Look" gown.
I didn't know who Richard Peck was when I began this novel, and from Wikipedia I've learned that Richard Peck was born in Decatur, Illinois, although he now lives in New York (and teaches somewhere else, I believe). He's a well known author of young adult fiction, although he's also written novels for adults and nonfiction. He started his career as a teacher and began publishing in 1970. He won the Edgar Allan Poe award for Are You in the House Alone? and the Newbery Award for A Year Down Yonder.
From London Holiday:
I asked someone what they thought this escapist fantasy novel was about and they said, "Isn't it obvious? It's about getting up and out. Isn't that enough?" And so it is about the enigma of arrival, although this arrival is quietly triumphant.
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