The Women in Black

(Paperback, New edition)

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Description

Sydney in the 1950s. On the second floor of the famous F.G. Goode department store, in Ladies' Cocktail Frocks, the women in black are girding themselves for the Christmas rush. Among the staff - Patty Williams with her wayward husband Frank, the sweet but unlucky Fay, faithful Mrs Jacob of the measuring tape - is Lisa, the new sales assistant (temporary), who is waiting for the results of her Leaving Certificate. Across the floor and beyond the arch, Lisa will meet the glamorous Continental refugee, Magda, guardian of the rose-pink cave of model gowns. With the lightest touch and the most tender of comic instincts, Madeleine St John conjures a vanished summer of innocence.

Reviews

`Seductive, hilarious, brilliantly observed, this novel shimmers with wit and tenderness.
-- Helen Garner
`An exceptional writer. Those of us who knew her at Sydney University back in the late 1950s are still trying to forgive ourselves that we never guessed what she would become.
-- Clive James
`A knockout - ironic, sharp, alive, and then you're stopped in your tracks by the warmth of her insights.
-- Joan London
`A little gem...shot through with old-fashioned innocence and sly humour.
* Vogue *
`A highly sophisticated work, full of funny, sharp and subtle observations...a small masterpiece.
* Sunday Times (UK) *
`There is something special about...The Women in Black. St John's tone is...a joy: brisk, perfectly managed and, in its disdain for clutter, oddly life-affirming. She casts an airy spell with the deftness of her prose, which moves gracefully, swiftly and with perfect manners...[St John] conjures a Sydney on the cusp of modern promise; a place where her characters can meet the future with a bright face and step out of the past like an old dress, where limits can be lightly shaken off.
-- Delia Falconer * Australian *

Author Bio

Madeleine St John is the author of A Pure Clear Light, The Essence of the Thing (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), and Stairway to Paradise. She died in 2006.