Williamsburg Regional Library

The marriage bureau, the true story of how two matchmakers arranged love in wartime London, Penrose Halson

eng

no index present

non fiction

The marriage bureau

text large print

958459992

Penrose Halson

the true story of how two matchmakers arranged love in wartime London

"In the spring of 1939, with the Second World War looming, two determined twenty-four-year-olds, Heather Jenner and Mary Oliver, decided to open a marriage bureau. They found a tiny office on London's Bond Street and set about the delicate business of matchmaking. Drawing on the bureau's extensive archives, Penrose Halson--who many years later found herself the proprietor of the bureau--tells their story, and those of their clients. From shop girls to debutantes; widowers to war veterans, clients came in search of security, social acceptance, or simply love. And thanks to the meticulous organization and astute intuition of the Bureau's matchmakers, most found what they were looking for. Penrose Halson draws from newspaper and magazine articles, advertisements, and interviews with the proprietors themselves to bring the romance and heartbreak of matchmaking during wartime to vivid, often hilarious, life in this unforgettable story of a most unusual business."--, Back cover

Audrey's uncle has a brainwave -- No, it's not a brothel -- Open for matrimonial business -- The capitulation of Cedric Thistleton -- The perfect secretary and other learning curves -- New clients wanted -- but no spies, please -- Mary transforms Myrtle -- The mansion and the mating -- Mary's bones and babies -- While bombs fall the Bureau booms -- Sex, tragedy, success and bust bodices -- A sideline and two triumphs -- Other agendas, pastures new -- Heather chooses mating over chickens -- Picot and Dorothy hold the fort -- Peacetime problems -- Loneliness and heartbreak -- Mr. Hedgehog, journalists, a tiny Baptist and lies -- A chapter of accidents and designs -- Thanks to Uncle George

adult