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feather_ghyll) wrote2018-09-01 08:01 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2018-09-01 08:01 am
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REVIEW: The Bridesmaids
The Bridesmaids: Pamela Brown. Brockhampton Press. 1966 in this edition.
Meet Polly Hamilton and Gwenda Guthrie, two terrible examples of Girl Guides! When Polly gets an idea into her head, Gwenda goes along with it even though it never goes as Polly intended. In this case, Polly’s older sister Joanna is the victim, and all because anther schoolgirl, Connie, was bragging that she’d been a bridesmaid at a posh wedding in London. Rashly and inaccurately, Polly claims to Connie that she and her chum Gwenda are going to be bridesmaids too, at Joanna’s upcoming nuptials, so there.
Although there’s a minor crisis of conscience at a Guides meeting when the commissioner talks about truthfulness and honour, Polly decides that if she makes her claim come true, it won’t be a lie. After that set-up, the book follow her very funny attempts to get Joanna engaged to any man Polly and Gwenda deem suitable. Polly is thirteen, Joanna eighteen, and the latter has just left school and started working. She’s buttoned up and restrained, which you could never accuse Polly of being, so one tends to feel sorry for Joanna, who is humiliated, drenched, given a cold and seasickness thanks to Polly’s plots. They’re well-meaning and mad, with Polly displaying a Susan-Lyle-like ruthlessness and inability to see things from Joanna’s perspective, which might matter when it comes to finding a husband for her.
Polly’s down-to-earth parents veer from suspicious to alarmed, while also playing peacemakers between their daughters. It slips into more familiar Pamela Brown territory as Joanna gets involved in the Amateur Operatics society (so many men for the match-makers to try to get to propose to her!), which leads to Polly and Gwenda helping out on stage and behind it. Or ‘helping out’ to be accurate.
Romance blooms for Joanna despite rather than because of her sister. I laughed very heartily at some passages after Polly gets an inspiration and decides to carry it through. The digression as to how the girls face exams is also fun. I admit than when I bought this, I didn’t expect it to be so funny.
[Lightly edited on 6/5/19].
Meet Polly Hamilton and Gwenda Guthrie, two terrible examples of Girl Guides! When Polly gets an idea into her head, Gwenda goes along with it even though it never goes as Polly intended. In this case, Polly’s older sister Joanna is the victim, and all because anther schoolgirl, Connie, was bragging that she’d been a bridesmaid at a posh wedding in London. Rashly and inaccurately, Polly claims to Connie that she and her chum Gwenda are going to be bridesmaids too, at Joanna’s upcoming nuptials, so there.
Although there’s a minor crisis of conscience at a Guides meeting when the commissioner talks about truthfulness and honour, Polly decides that if she makes her claim come true, it won’t be a lie. After that set-up, the book follow her very funny attempts to get Joanna engaged to any man Polly and Gwenda deem suitable. Polly is thirteen, Joanna eighteen, and the latter has just left school and started working. She’s buttoned up and restrained, which you could never accuse Polly of being, so one tends to feel sorry for Joanna, who is humiliated, drenched, given a cold and seasickness thanks to Polly’s plots. They’re well-meaning and mad, with Polly displaying a Susan-Lyle-like ruthlessness and inability to see things from Joanna’s perspective, which might matter when it comes to finding a husband for her.
Polly’s down-to-earth parents veer from suspicious to alarmed, while also playing peacemakers between their daughters. It slips into more familiar Pamela Brown territory as Joanna gets involved in the Amateur Operatics society (so many men for the match-makers to try to get to propose to her!), which leads to Polly and Gwenda helping out on stage and behind it. Or ‘helping out’ to be accurate.
Romance blooms for Joanna despite rather than because of her sister. I laughed very heartily at some passages after Polly gets an inspiration and decides to carry it through. The digression as to how the girls face exams is also fun. I admit than when I bought this, I didn’t expect it to be so funny.
[Lightly edited on 6/5/19].