Miss Guinevere Pettigrew, who begins her day desperate for work and in pursuit of what she presumes will be just another demanding position as Nanny, very soon finds herself completely out of her depth and loving every minute of it.
Judging her best course of action to tell the truth Miss Pettigrew counsels her sophisticated prospective new employer, nightclub singer Miss LaFosse and her lady visitors, using common sense and giving them an insight into her own morality. This proves very popular and surprisingly useful to the ladies who initially appear very worldly until they show their vulnerability.
Miss LaFosse leads an ambitious and unstable existence using drugs to keep her sanity and relies on the patronage of a nightclub manager who is a wealthy and powerful man. Miss Pettigrew has very little experience of life, knows nothing about romance or the entertainment business, but somehow manages to save the day.
Our reading group liked the 1920s’ setting for the book and appreciated the daring antics of the ladies. Despite all the excitement and an engaging plot, we felt it was a bit predictable in places. The structure of the book was clever with the chapters being divided into timed slots.
Most of the main characters were likeable although we predicted that Miss LaFosse would eventually go back to her old ways.
The question was raised ‘who was this book written for?’ as we wondered about the author and whether she had the same background as any of the characters.
A film with the same title was made in 2008 and will have given this amusing fairytale another new audience.
This ‘Cinderella for grown-ups’ story was first published in 1938 and this was a facsimile of the original edition that included the amusing black and white illustrations. Our group's average was 6 out of 10.