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Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Shelf Control #1: Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow by Paul Gallico



Shelf Control is a weekly feature created by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. Since early January 2023, Shelf Control has moved base to Literary Potpourri. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what it’s about, when/where you got it, why you want to read it and such.

This is my very first Shelf Control post. I've been meaning to do this before, but I was always catching up with reviews and other posts. Then an eleven days holiday came, and I was finally ahead of time. And so now I could do this post properly.

My first pick is Mrs. Harris Goes to Moscow by Paul Galico. I bought the e-book few years ago, but then forgot it until very recently.




Paul Galico has written four novels on various hilarious adventures of the memorable Ada Harris (Mrs. Harris or Mrs. 'Arris), an old char woman in London who works for prestigious households. My first encounter with Mrs. Harris was the first book, which has recently been adapted: Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris. I loved it so much, that I instantly picked up the sequel: Mrs. Harris Goes to New York - less charming but equally entertaining. The third book is Mrs. Harris Goes to Parliament, but it's not really appealing to me, so I skipped that, and went to Moscow instead.

In this adventure Mrs. Harris wins a trip to go to Russia, accompanied by her bosom friend, the loyal Mrs. Butterfield, also a char lady. Mrs. Harris was also charged with a love letter by her employer. Then things begin to go crazy when the two char women, through some administrative faults, were suspected by KGB as spies!

It promises a good hilarious reading, though I'm a bit worried, because many Goodreads reviewers said this was their least favorite of the four. Hmm... shall I just give it a go? Or no? Maybe I'll just keep it until I'm in need of a good laugh!

Have you read this book? Or any of Mrs. Harris series?

 

6 comments:

  1. I've only read Gallico's 'cat' book Thomasina before but not the Mrs Harris books yet. I do want to start with the first soon. This does sound like fun even if it doesn't live up to the first one. (I see these books have taken somewhat the same route as Delafield's provincial lady books.) I hope you do enjoy it if you decide to read it. Thanks for joining in with Shelf Control!

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    1. You'll love the first book, hilarious but heartwarming too.
      My first Gallico is his 'mouse' book: Manxmouse. I'd check later for Thomasina - and save it for when you decide to host Reading the Meow again next year! :D
      And now I need to check Delafield's The Provincial Lady books...

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  2. Hm... if you haven't read the others, I wonder if you should bother with this one.

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    1. I have read two of the series, and really loved them. So, I guess I might love this one also, when I'm in the perfect mood. ;)

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  3. Oh I loved the first two, had no idea this and Parliament existed!!

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    1. The first two are the most famous, I guess. And to be honest, I think they are the best, especially the 1st.

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What do you think?