84 Charing Cross Road: a review

A review of a short book that is a joy to read, and which was made into a highly successful stage play and film.

84 Charing Cross Road

“84 Charing Cross Road” was published in 1971 by Helene Hanff (1916-97), an American writer of TV scripts and magazine articles whose reputation depends almost solely on this one short book of fewer than 100 pages. However, the gentle humour of the book, depending in part on an American and a Brit getting to learn about each other’s preoccupations and customs, has had a lasting appeal on both sides of the Atlantic.

The address in question was that of Marks and Co, a small bookshop in central London that specialised in out-of-print titles. The “Co” was short for “Cohen”, one of the joint owners, and not “Company”. Helene Hanff wrote a letter from New York in October 1949 to the bookshop, inspired by an advertisement in the “Saturday Review of Literature”, to ask if they could supply any of the books she wanted on an enclosed list. The bookshop replied, Helene replied to the bookshop’s letter, and so began a correspondence that was to last for twenty years. It is the letters from Helene and the replies she received that comprise the book.

Most of the letters from Marks and Co were written by their chief buyer, Frank Doel, whose death in 1969 brought the correspondence to an end and gave Helene the inspiration to collect all the letters together as a book. Some of the letters were presumably lost, because there are some long gaps in the chronology at places, and mention is sometimes made of events that have clearly been referred to in letters that are not part of the collection.

As time passes, the formality of the earliest letters breaks down and they become much more friendly in tone, with mention made of more personal matters than just the buying and selling of books. The ice is cracked quite early on when Helene, in only her second letter, adds as a PS: “I hope Madam doesn’t mean over there what it does here”.

Before the end of 1949 Helene has offered to send a gift of food to the staff at Marks and Co, as Britain was still suffering from post-war rationing. These gifts continued into the 1950s and were very well received by the bookshop staff, some of whom wrote their own letters back to Helene, these being generally more chatty than those written by Frank Doel.

However, even Frank’s letters gradually turn more personal, although he never loses his professionalism when it comes to discussing books that he is able to offer Helene or which he regrets he has not been able to find.

The discussion of books is, not surprisingly, a recurrent theme in the letters, and Helene is clearly a true book-lover in that she enjoys the look, feel and smell of old books as well as the words they contain. She sometimes gets annoyed when the wrong edition of a book is sent, but also waxes lyrical with joy when she finds evidence that a previous owner has enjoyed a book just as much as she is doing. She would have hated to own a Kindle!

A theme that soon enters the correspondence is Helene’s desire to visit London, and the bookshop, as soon she can afford to do so. Letters are exchanged between Helene and Frank’s wife Nora, discussing how she might be accommodated when she arrives, but something always crops up that prevents this from happening.

The tragedy of the book is that, with no warning of any health issues on the horizon, Helene receives a letter in 1969 to announce that Frank Doel has died from a ruptured appendix. The final letters are between Helene, Nora and Frank’s daughter (from his first marriage) Sheila.

The beauty of this book is the development of the friendship between Helene and Frank, his family and colleagues. There is real warmth in these pages, and the reader knows that, had they ever been able to meet, Helene and Frank would have been very good friends. The reader also feels that all the people encountered in the book are well-rounded characters whom it would have been a real pleasure to know.

Helene Hanff wrote a sequel to the book which is a diary of her eventual visit to London in 1971, after “84 Charing Cross Road” had been published and she became a minor celebrity on the strength of it. By this time the bookshop had closed and Helene could only visit the empty shell and imagine how it would have looked when her letters were being delivered to it. The second book was entitled “The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street” and was published in 1974.

84 Charing Cross Road was made into a stage play (in 1981) and a film starring Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins in 1987.

Incidentally, Charing Cross Road is still a good place to shop for books, both new and second-hand, although the site of “84”, as pictured, is now part of a fast-food restaurant.

© John Welford