- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Abacus (2 Jun 2011)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0349123381
- ISBN-13: 978-0349123387
- Product Dimensions: 12.6 x 19.8 x 1.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 713,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Women In Black
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
* A lost Australian classic, from the Booker shortlisted author, Madelaine St John
Product Description
On the second floor of the famous F. G. Goode department store, in Ladies' Cocktail Frocks, the women in black are girding themselves for the Christmas rush. Among the staff are Patty Williams with her wayward husband Frank, the sweet but unlucky Fay, faithful Mrs Jacob of the measuring tape, and Lisa, the new Sales Assistant (Temporary), who is waiting for the results of her Leaving Certificate. Across the floor and beyond the arch, Lisa will meet the glamorous Continental refugee, Magda, guardian of the rose-pink cave of Model Gowns.
With the lightest touch and the most tender of comic instincts, Madeleine St John conjures a vanished summer of innocence. THE WOMEN IN BLACK is a great novel, a lost Australian classic.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Women in Black is first of only four published novels by Madeleine St John. This edition includes a perceptive introduction by her contemporary, Bruce Beresford, and an obituary by Christopher Potter. Under the guise of a story about the staff of the Ladies' Cocktail section at F.G. Goode's (the Women in Black), St John takes us back to Sydney in the late 1950's. St John manages, with very few words, to bring back the feel of those times, the ideas and attitudes, in full living colour. Nostalgia overtakes the reader at the mention of prices in guineas, frocks (as opposed to dresses), men and women in hats, shops closing at 5.30, local calls for four pennies, the school Intermediate and Leaving certificate results posted at the newspaper offices.........the list goes on. With mention of "reffos" and "continentals", and salami as a novel food, Sydney of the late 50's is perfectly depicted. The dialogue is so authentic, it has the reader alternately laughing out loud and cringing ("......don't say anythink......"). St John's characters are convincing and easy to love. It was such fun to be a fly on the wall at F.G.Goode's (which was fairly obviously David Jones) and how lovely to realise that those formidable Women in Black were real people with the same insecurities as the rest of us!
The Women in Black has been aptly described as an Australian Classic. It truly was a delight to read!
The Women in Black has been aptly described as an Australian Classic. It truly was a delight to read!
Format:Paperback
The Women in Black is first of only four published novels by Madeleine St John. This edition includes a perceptive introduction by her contemporary, Bruce Beresford, and an obituary by Christopher Potter. Under the guise of a story about the staff of the Ladies' Cocktail section at F.G. Goode's (the Women in Black), St John takes us back to Sydney in the late 1950's. St John manages, with very few words, to bring back the feel of those times, the ideas and attitudes, in full living colour. Nostalgia overtakes the reader at the mention of prices in guineas, frocks (as opposed to dresses), men and women in hats, shops closing at 5.30, local calls for four pennies, the school Intermediate and Leaving certificate results posted at the newspaper offices.........the list goes on. With mention of "reffos" and "continentals", and salami as a novel food, Sydney of the late 50's is perfectly depicted. The dialogue is so authentic, it has the reader alternately laughing out loud and cringing ("......don't say anythink......"). St John's characters are convincing and easy to love. It was such fun to be a fly on the wall at F.G.Goode's (which was fairly obviously David Jones) and how lovely to realise that those formidable Women in Black were real people with the same insecurities as the rest of us!
The Women in Black has been aptly described as an Australian Classic. It truly was a delight to read!
The Women in Black has been aptly described as an Australian Classic. It truly was a delight to read!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Sydney life, 1960
10 July 2009
Format:Paperback
Set in the 1960s in a fictional department store in Sydney, this delightful book is pitch perfect.
The story focuses on the women working in Ladies' Cocktail Frocks and in Ladies' Evening Frocks sections of the store. The demarcation relates not only the class of customer, but also to the Aussies (Mrs Williams, Fay and Miss Baines, Patty) in Cocktail Frocks and the very Continental Magda in Evening Frocks. Enter Lesley/Lisa, a naive young thing doing a short stint during the holidays after completing her Leaving Certificate.
We learn a little of their private lives and aspirations, and the attitudes of the time (especially how men and women relate to each other, and the education of women) are spot on.
If you didn't live through this era, this book will make you feel as though you did. And for those of us who DID live through it, it is a wonderful time capsule - but with the addition of sophisticated wit and humour. Very good
The story focuses on the women working in Ladies' Cocktail Frocks and in Ladies' Evening Frocks sections of the store. The demarcation relates not only the class of customer, but also to the Aussies (Mrs Williams, Fay and Miss Baines, Patty) in Cocktail Frocks and the very Continental Magda in Evening Frocks. Enter Lesley/Lisa, a naive young thing doing a short stint during the holidays after completing her Leaving Certificate.
We learn a little of their private lives and aspirations, and the attitudes of the time (especially how men and women relate to each other, and the education of women) are spot on.
If you didn't live through this era, this book will make you feel as though you did. And for those of us who DID live through it, it is a wonderful time capsule - but with the addition of sophisticated wit and humour. Very good
fifties feelgood
2 Feb 2011
Format:Hardcover
The Women in Black is first of only four published novels by Madeleine St John. This edition includes a perceptive introduction by her contemporary, Bruce Beresford, and an obituary by Christopher Potter. Under the guise of a story about the staff of the Ladies' Cocktail section at F.G. Goode's (the Women in Black), St John takes us back to Sydney in the late 1950's. St John manages, with very few words, to bring back the feel of those times, the ideas and attitudes, in full living colour. Nostalgia overtakes the reader at the mention of prices in guineas, frocks (as opposed to dresses), men and women in hats, shops closing at 5.30, local calls for four pennies, the school Intermediate and Leaving certificate results posted at the newspaper offices.........the list goes on. With mention of "reffos" and "continentals", and salami as a novel food, Sydney of the late 50's is perfectly depicted. The dialogue is so authentic, it has the reader alternately laughing out loud and cringing ("......don't say anythink......"). St John's characters are convincing and easy to love. It was such fun to be a fly on the wall at F.G.Goode's (which was fairly obviously David Jones) and how lovely to realise that those formidable Women in Black were real people with the same insecurities as the rest of us!
The Women in Black has been aptly described as an Australian Classic. It truly was a delight to read!
The Women in Black has been aptly described as an Australian Classic. It truly was a delight to read!
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