Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics) [Paperback]

Winifred Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

Now a major motion picture starring Frances McDormand (Fargo) and Amy Adams (Enchanted)! 

“Why has it taken more than half a century for this wonderful flight of humor to be rediscovered?”—Guardian

“The sweetest grown-up book in the world.”—Sunday Times

“Everyone, no matter how poor or prim or neglected, has a second chance to blossom in the world.”—Daily Mail, in reference to Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

A major film released in 2008, Miss Pettigrew Lives for Day is a delightful, funny, lighthearted novel. First published in 1938, it was reissued in the United Kingdom in 2000, complete with thirty-five original illustrations, and has sold over 22,000 copies.

Miss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies. Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Winifred Watson (1907-2002) lived in Newcastle and wrote six novels in all; she chose to stop writing after the birth of her son in 1941. The Times interviewed her at age 94 when Persephone Books reissued the book in 2000. The headline was "Bodice-Ripping Fame at 94".

From AudioFile

A bestseller in Britain when first published in 1938, this charming novel was recently adapted to film, starring Academy Award winner Frances McDormand, who here makes a rare audiobook appearance. It's about a dowdy governess who, stumbling into the employ of a freewheeling nightclub singer, undergoes a psychological makeover while putting some order into her charge's unruly existence. New to this type of performance, McDormand creates her own technique. Neither a narrator nor a storyteller, she's a character actor, a particularly fine one, who "plays" the book with considerable skill, imagination, and animation. Though her style is a little disjointed, it is singularly enjoyable. She gives a sweet bit of fluff distinction by virtue of her unique talent. Y.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Persephone Books; Revised edition (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190646202X
• ISBN-13: 978-1906462024
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #74,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The literary equivalent of the Lubitsch touch, March 24, 2006

By 

Jay Dickson (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Paperback)

Winfired Watson's little 1938 fantasy has become the bestelling reissue for the terrific Persephone Books imprint in the UK, and its not hard to see why. Basically a Cinderella story set during the 30s, Watson's novel concerns a dowdy governess sent by mistake by her agency to the home of a glamorous and dithering nightclub singer, who comes to rely upon Miss Pettigrew to straighten out her love life. Miss Pettigrew not only rises to the challenge (much to her own surprise), but undergoes a makeover and finds some romance for her own life as well. While undeniably slim (and purposefully so), the novel is just about irresistible: it plays upon the same fantasy as Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK, the fantasy of being not only loved but also needed. Curiously, the trappings of glamour in this novel come not from the world of the wealthy and titled (as per usual in British fiction from this era, as in the novels of Waugh and Nancy Mitford) but from a world envisioned in American film: the world of night clubs, self-made men, and cocaine-dabbling gigolos.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Miss Pettigrew, January 16, 2005

By 

Ashes Sarrico "helpless book nerd" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Paperback)

It's incredibly that untill recently, this book was hardly known about, much less considered an important book. This book is sweet and delightful and funny. The dialouge is memorable, and so are the pictures. I'd love to see this turned into a movie. But i think maybe its the sort of book that shouldv'e been turned into a movie in the 50's...it just wouldn't be right unless it was shot in that wonderfully grainy old film with 1950's conceits and that fat cat dialougue.
Anyways, the book is about this dowdy old lady who going to an interview as a nanny, but she's given the wrong adress and ends up at the house of Delsyia, a sweet aspiring actress with three lovers and who romps about in classic 1920's flapper style. Miss Pettigrew is detirmined to save her from the wicked cociane snorting possesive man and the career-advancing director and have her marry the good guy, and in the mean time, Miss Pettigrew gets a make-over, finds a beau, and has a little jazz and booze fun of her own. Its a really funny subversive little story told in a very touching way.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Possibly the best book ever, February 6, 2004

By 

Megan "Megan" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Paperback)

Okay, the premise sounds a little strange but this is my absolute favorite book. I've never mat anyone who read this book who did not immediately go out and buy it for their best friend or their mother or their daughter. Most Persephone books are wonderful, but this one is far and away the one to start with!

Miss Pettigrew is a dowdy governess who doesn't much like children and is down on her luck. She accidentally gets sent to the flat of a glamorous nightclub singer who is having all sorts of man trouble, which Miss Pettigrew promptly fixes with a combination of her wits and her totally common sense attitude about life.

It's a light and very easy read, definitely loose on the realism. But really, I promise that you will NOT regret it if you buy this book.