Underfoot in Show Business

The countless admirers of Helene Hanff’s 84, Charing Cross Road will welcome this delightful account of her early days as a struggling writer on the edge of show business.

A favourite of Helene Hanff’s cousin Jean Hanff Korelitz and Bruce Eric Kaplan (the acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist who illustrated the front cover of Letter from New York), this memoir is charming, eccentric and written in the author’s trademark whimsical style.

When she became an apprentice playwright with New York’s prestigious Theatre Guild, Helene was high on the champagne of her hopes. What did she care about living chiefly on coffee in meagre bed-sitters when she could always borrow her best friend’s best blouse for lunch with a producer, and was meeting awe-inspiring people. She was young, stage-struck and determined have fun.