A great novel, a wonderful film, and with some of the finest lines in the English language (explaining expertly the misunderstandings that can so easily arise between speakers of British English and American English), 84 Charing Cross Road is a masterpiece.
The story of hilarious American author, Helene Hanff, and her epistolary relationship with terribly proper book seller, Frank Doel, in London, the book is amazing. Helene Hanff is a tremendous writer who has that rare gift of writing in the same way that she speaks. If you read her in perfect silence, you can hear her voice. I love that.
In the movie, you’ve got Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. I don’t really know what else you could possibly want.
If only for the line: “I hope ‘madam’ doesn’t mean over there what it means over here,” it’s an absolute favourite of mine.
Petrina Binney - Author 