Rating: 
Summary: Witty and charming.
Review: How I wish I could have known Helene Hanff. She's the kind of person who enriched the lives of all around her. As her friends in London said, "It was hard to let her go home." When the book was done, I nearly mourned. I wanted to go with her again. Somewhere. Anywhere.
Rating:
Summary: required reading for any booklover visiting London
Review: I first read this book and 84, CHARING CROSS ROAD ten years before visiting London for the first time. Before I made my second trip (this time travelling with my mother), I reread them and all but forced my mother to do the same. So strong an effect did they have on both of us that when we walked past the Kenilworth Hotel and I mentioned to my mother that that was where Helene had stayed, she didn't even ask, "Helene who?" And we were both touched to see that, although Marks and Co. is long gone, there is now a plaque on Charing Cross Road indicating where it once stood, so that all who loved the books can feel a little closer to Helene and Frank.
Rating:
Summary: Another wonderful book from Helene Hanff!
Review: I love this book, I love this book, I love this book! I give it to friends and they become hooked, and they pass it along. Book lover? Anglophile? Get this book. Read it. You'll become a Helene Hanff evangelist in no time.
Rating:
Summary: Witty and informative
Review: I loved Hanff's book, 84 Charing Cross Road, and I have to say this sequel to the story is fantastic. Hanff was a witty, intelligent, and incredibly well read writer who does not mince words. Her opinions are stated without apologies, and even if you don't always agree with her assessments of literature, history, and England, you have to admire her for telling things like they are or rather were in 1971. Despite the nearly 30 years, her observations do not come across as dated or trite but sharp and, I believe, useful for any traveler venturing to London. Even if you never get over to the U.K., this book offers a vicarious thrill for those who (like myself) dream of doing and seeing exactly what Hanff did in London. Only complaint, the book is too short!
Rating: 
Summary: Be Prepared To Hop A Plane To London
Review: Perhaps nothing will make you want to see London as much as reading this inspired sequel to "84, Charing Cross Road." Reading this book was like visiting London with a dear friend. I loved the images Helene evoked: entering Claridge's for a fashionable lunch just like Noel Coward's characters; gawking at Elizabeth Barrett's home in Wimpole Street; thrilling at the sight of Dickens' home in Doughty Street; seeing a play at the Old Vic; watching the flag fly at Windsor Castle signalling the Queen is in residence; making a purchase at Harrod's , and so much more. What a great book to read before flying across The Pond yourself.Duchess chronicles the second part of Helene's story when she finally makes the trip of a lifetime and visits the England she has hungered for all her life. Her meeting with the Doel family and other characters is heartwarming and proves that dreams do come true!
Rating:
Summary: Be Prepared To Hop A Plane To London
Review: Perhaps nothing will make you want to see London as much as reading this inspired sequel to "84, Charing Cross Road." Reading this book was like visiting London with a dear friend. I loved the images Helene evoked: entering Claridge's for a fashionable lunch just like Noel Coward's characters; gawking at Elizabeth Barrett's home in Wimpole Street; thrilling at the sight of Dickens' home in Doughty Street; seeing a play at the Old Vic; watching the flag fly at Windsor Castle signalling the Queen is in residence; making a purchase at Harrod's , and so much more. What a great book to read before flying across The Pond yourself. Duchess chronicles the second part of Helene's story when she finally makes the trip of a lifetime and visits the England she has hungered for all her life. Her meeting with the Doel family and other characters is heartwarming and proves that dreams do come true!
Rating:
Summary: Be Prepared To Hop A Plane To London
Review: Perhaps nothing will make you want to see London as much as reading this inspired sequel to "84, Charing Cross Road." Reading this book was like visiting London with a dear friend. I loved the images Helene evoked: entering Claridge's for a fashionable lunch just like Noel Coward's characters; gawking at Elizabeth Barrett's home in Wimpole Street; thrilling at the sight of Dickens' home in Doughty Street; seeing a play at the Old Vic; watching the flag fly at Windsor Castle signalling the Queen is in residence; making a purchase at Harrod's , and so much more. What a great book to read before flying across The Pond yourself. Duchess chronicles the second part of Helene's story when she finally makes the trip of a lifetime and visits the England she has hungered for all her life. Her meeting with the Doel family and other characters is heartwarming and proves that dreams do come true!
Rating:
Summary: A writer takes her dream trip to London
Review: This is the true story of a writer's dream trip to London, when her decades-long correspondence with a London antiquarian book shop becomes an unexpected best-seller. Helen Hanff wrote television scripts and juvenile histories, but what she really was was a passionate and highly eclectic reader. Almost entirely self-taught, based on the writings of Quiller-Couch (which she wrote about in a book called "Q's Legacy), her unpretentious and ferociously curious mind and charming (if irasasible) personality are as delightfully engaging to the reader as they were to the staff at 84 Charing Cross Road. In this real-life Cinderella story, Hanff's dream of a trip to England finally comes true. She visits the places she has always dreamed of and finds friends and fans everywhere she goes. What a pleasure to be able to accompany her
Rating:
Summary: A book for anyone who has ever dreamed of going to England
Review: When people dream about going somewhere for a very long time, their hopes are often let down when they get there because they have idealized it for so long. This is certainly not the case for Helene Hanff. After the publishing of her correspondance with a London second-hand bookshop,(titled "84 Charring Crossroad"), Ms. Hanff finally visits her beloved England and feels London's sidewalks beneath her feet. She went looking for the "England of English Literature", and it was indeed there. The truth in this statement unravels with each line of this wonderful book. By the end, one has not only read an account of a trip to England full of humor and happiness, but also met a true kindred spirit who will never be forgotten by her readers.
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