Miss Pettigrew Lives for the Day by Winifired Watson

Recently reprinted by Persephone Classics.

Set during the 30s in London. 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 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.

I really enjoyed the introduction/preface by Henrietta Twycross-Martin as she really investigated this obscure author and even got to interview her. This is one of those books I had heard about vaguely but never read. So it was a nice to finally see it back in print and read it for myself. At first I was distracted by the dialog as Miss Pettigrew's thoughts are written like she is speaking them outloud. But I quickly got over that and enjoyed the witty dialog and observations and situations separated by chapters of period of times.

This is a fabulous weekend read and makes us all wonder if we could change how we are would we do it?