Mrs Harris Goes to Paris & Mrs Harris Goes to New York by Paul Gallico

Mrs Harris Goes to Paris & Mrs Harris Goes to New York by Paul Gallico

***A BOOK CLUB PICK FROM THE QUEEN CONSORT'S READING ROOM***

Now a major film, starring Leslie Manville, Isabelle Huppert, Jason Isaacs and Lucas Bravo

'Mrs Harris is one of the great creations of fiction - so real that you feel you know her, yet truly magical as well. I can never have enough of her' Justine Picardie

'It is almost impossible not to succumb to Gallico's spell' Times Literary Supplement

Mrs Harris is a salt-of-the-earth London charlady who cheerfully cleans the houses of the rich. One day, when tidying Lady Dant's wardrobe, she comes across the most beautiful thing she has ever seen in her life - a Dior dress. In all the years of her drab and humble existence, she's never seen anything as magical as the dress before her and she's never wanted anything as much before. Determined to make her dream come true, Mrs Harris scrimps, saves and slaves away until one day, after three long, uncomplaining years, she finally has enough money to go to Paris.

When she arrives at the House of Dior, Mrs Harris has little idea of how her life is about to be turned upside down and how many other lives she will transform forever. Always kind, always cheery and always winsome, the indomitable Mrs Harris takes Paris by storm and learns one of life's greatest lessons along the way.

Paul Gallico (1897-1976) was a well-known sports columnist, scriptwriter, and author of both adult and children's novels. He was born in New York City to an Italian immigrant musician father and a singer mother, and he supported himself at Columbia University by teaching children and working as a longshoreman. He began his career as a reporter for the New York Daily News, where he quickly became known for his encounters with notable athletes of the time. He switched to fiction after publishing the essay Goodbye to Sport in 1937 and pieces in Cosmopolitan, The Saturday Evening Post, and The New Yorker. The novella The Snow Goose (1941) is one of his forty-one books, as is Manxmouse (1968), which is frequently quoted by J.K. Rowling.

Mrs. Rowling as a favorite author); Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris (1958) and its four sequels; and The Poseidon Adventure (1969), which served as the inspiration for the massively popular 1972 blockbuster. Gallico spent most of his life abroad of the United States, primarily in England, Antibes, and Monaco, from 1950 till his death.