Postscript

June 22, 2011 @ 7:37 pm | Filed under:

Well, it was inevitable that once I had opened 84, Charing Cross Road I would have to sit there and read clear through to the end, at the lamentable but unmourned expense of some work I ought to have done this afternoon but didn’t. And of course I had to make Scott read bits of it, and yes, we will be watching the movie very soon—thanks, those of you who suggested it in the comments.

I’m befuddled, though: the Shakespeare Garden passage isn’t in the book. I’m wondering what other book I’m mixing up with the Hanff. Katherine White, perhaps? I must have read Onward and Upward in the Garden three times that year, and certainly a Central Park garden would have been in Mrs. White’s wheelhouse.

I’ll look it up tomorrow.

UPDATED: Mystery solved: it’s Letter from New York. Thanks for the help!


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Comments

5 Reponses | Comments Feed
  1. Jessica @ My Ardent Life says:

    Perhaps Hanff’s “Apple of My Eye” is the one you are thinking of! “Underfoot in Show Business” is perfectly delightful, too, but Central Park is a major character in “Apple.”

  2. Melissa Wiley says:

    Aha!! Thanks for this suggestion (Jessica and others who mentioned Apple in the comments of the original post. I’ve just looked it up, and now that I see the cover, I think her book Letters from New York is the one I’m remembering—a collection of short radio broadcasts she did for the BBC. The cover rings a bell, the Amazon entry mentions the Shakespeare Garden, and it was published in 1992 which means I would have been very likely to stumble across it when I moved to NYC in the spring of 1993.

    We’ll know soon enough—of course you know I *had* to order a copy. 😉

  3. mamacrow says:

    Yes another vote for Apple of my eye! And have you read the DUchess of BLoomsbury Street? When she finally comes to England?

  4. Amy @ Hope Is the Word says:

    Funny–I have no idea what this post is actually about, but I just read The Story of Charlotte’s Web in which Onward anf Upward in the Garden was mentioned. Synchronicity!

  5. Lisa says:

    I’m with the others–having read all of Hanff including the New York book–maybe in one of the others. Her books are treasures though! I was a little (just a little) disappointed in the movie having loved “84..” for years, but it’s still high on my list of favorite movies-from-beloved-books list.