Helene Hanff - 84, Charing Cross Road

 

Rating: 5/5

 

Review:

Still a delight 

 

It is almost 50 years since I first read 84, Charing Cross Road. I loved it then and, to my relief, I still love it after re-reading half a century later.

So much has been said about the book that a summary is scarcely necessary. The correspondence between Helene Hanff and “FPD” (soon revealed to be Frank Doel) is funny, affectionate and entirely charming. Beginning in the late 1940s, Frank is, of course, reserved and formal in his official correspondence while Helene is deliberately outrageously American – and as a playwright and scriptwriter, often very funny in her affectionate needling, railing and sometimes delighted and almost awestruck responses to the books she receives. There is also some fascnating social history as Helene sends commonplace items of food from the US which are rare luxuries in rationed London. To see just how much some ham, a few eggs or a pair of nylons meant to their recipients is quite humbling.

Chiefly, this is a story of friendship between two people who love books and share a sense of humour, although they express it very differently. The correspondence lasts for over 20 years; it is described in one blurb as “winsome and sentimental”, two adjectives which I regard as pejorative when applied to books, but I didn’t find it anything of the sort. It is funny, charming, rather touching in places and, quite simply, a delight.