Publisher's Synopsis
Joyce Grenfell died in 1979, just before she was due to become Dame Joyce Grenfell. But she is by no means forgotten, indeed she is thought of fondly by many of us who are too young to have been aware of her during her lifetime. It is interesting to think about the reasons for this, when many of her contemporaries are becoming more obscure as time passes. The two roles that she is most fondly remembered for are Policewoman Ruby Gates in the St Trinian's films; and the harassed nursery school teacher as portrayed in her monologues. Indeed, mention Joyce's name to a lot of people and they will smile and reply "George, don't do that!" These characters have similarities - at first glance they are failures. Ruby fails to secure marriage with her long-term fiance Sammy and she is hopeless at controlling the school girls while masquerading as a games mistress. The nursery school teacher loves children but it is not returned in the fashion that she probably envisaged. But, we British love an underdog, especially one that perseveres to the point of insanity. Of course it helps when they have a hilarious turn of phrase too. We adore Joyce as a character that has been lost to progress, to dumbing down and mass boorishness. She represents an England that we feel we have left behind. But Joyce herself was half American and she was no underdog. The world that she represents to many of us did not exist in the pure form that we sometimes imagine either. In my blog, The History Usherette, I look at nostalgic films and try to pick out pieces of real history. This history is often not as rose-tinted as we would like it to be. I have applied this thought to this collection of short stories. Each is inspired by a piece of Joyce's work, they run in chronological order from the 1930s to the 1970s. I hope - and I think that Joyce might approve of this - that this might encourage the reader to appreciate some the progress that we have made in more recent decades. It is fun to look back and think that maybe things were better. But they weren't. Not always."
