Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 974.71 HAN | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
For six years, Helene Hanff held captive audiences all over the world with her monthly broadcasts on the BBC's Woman's Hour. In five-minute vignettes, she managed to convey the essential New York City: life in a high rise apartment building (the last small town in America); annals of Chester-the-Sheepdog, Duke, the German shepherd, and their friends; the tree-lighting, magic and music of Christmas in New York. We meet Arlene, Hanff's high-flying friend who's social life (and wardrobe) put Hanff's one-and-one-half room apartment and simple writer's life in perspective. We walk through Nina's garden, 16 stories up and witness famous New York rites of passage from the hysteria of St. Patrick's Day to Shakespeare's Garden and the neighbors who saved it, to block parties, with their sizzling Italian sausages and shish kebab and flossy plates of pate and brie, all told in Hanff's inimitable style. We join Hanff as she flies to London to realize a lifetime dream at the Ambassador Theatre: opening night for the play, 84, Charing Cross Road. And we witness the elegant Arlene as she meets and falls in love with a New York City cop.
Author Notes
Helene Hanff is the author of APPLE OF MY EYE, THE DUCHESS OF BLOOMSBURY STREET, LETTER FROM NEW YORK, Q'S LEGACY and UNDERFOOT IN SHOW BUSINESS. She wrote a number of books for young readers the best known being MOVERS AND SHAKERS and TERRIBLE THOMAS. Born in Philadelphia, Helene lived most of her life in New York City.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
From 1978 to 1984, Hanff ( 84 Charing Cross Road ) recorded a five-minute broadcast once a month for the BBC's Woman's Hour about her everyday experiences as a resident of New York City. Reproduced here, the selected scripts provide a witty, if somewhat rosy account of the adventures of Hanff and friends, fellow apartment dwellers in Manhattan. Included are reports on such events as author readings and free concerts, and observations on the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park, the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the ups and downs of city dogs. Hanff's love of her adopted city is reflected in upbeat anecdotes describing New Yorkers at their best--as good neighbors and charming eccentrics. A light diversion. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
What sort of perspective on the world is conferred by an observatory perched over the intersection of Second Avenue and 72nd Street in Manhattan? For six years (1978-84), Hanff looked out her window and each month for British radio scripted what she saw with the airy weight of artful, ephemeral teatime chats. Hence, nasty parlor subjects are disallowed (and, anyway, rarely seen in the Upper East Side) in favor of nice ones such as the weather; clothes--constrasting the author's frugal tastes with the flashy ones of socialite friend Arlene; Central Park's eminences and hallows, fields and brambles; holidays and gift giving; the behavior of canines and felines and their human masters (or is it the other way around?). Such tales, reinforced by Hanff's whimsical way of connecting two or three points, are undoubt~edly pleasing in themselves, creating an impression of New York as a benign, neighborly place, accurate enough for her world, which extends from the eighth floor to a radius of a few blocks. The image has a modest appeal to those who made Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road a best-seller, but little to grittier sensibilities for whom the image bears scant resemblance to the subways and boroughs of the metropolis. Consider pairing with E. B. White's classic Here Is New York (Warner Books). ~--Gilbert Taylor
Library Journal Review
In 1978, Hanff, author of the charming 84, Charing Cross Road ( LJ 9/1/70) and Q's Legacy ( LJ 7/85), began recording a five-minute monthly broadcast about her life in New York City for a popular BBC radio show called ``Woman's Hour.'' Gathered here in this slim volume are six years worth of Hanff's observances; her brief vignettes run the gamut of the Big Apple experience, from an unforgettable party for 18 people in a tiny studio apartment to the magic of a New York Christmas and the glories of a Central Park summer. While jaded New Yorkers and others familiar with the city may find her anecdotes a bit simplistic and, at times, outdated, rabid Hanff fans will find her enthusiasm for her adopted city irresistible. Buy where her books are popular.-- Wilda Williams, ``Library Journal'' (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
