The communications between Helene and Frank also become something special. She arranges for parcels of meats and fresh eggs to be sent from Scandinavia and, in return, she receives letters from all involved. The writer becomes aware of the post-World War II privations in England, with its severe rationing of foods. In the 20 years in between, the viewer follows Hanff’s life and that of the bookshop staff.
Not until 1969 does Hanff cross the Alantic and visit 84 Charing Cross Road. Still, old black-and-white British-made Trevor Howard movies are as close to England as she thinks she’ll ever get. Hanff receives her precious volumes, along with letters to fuel her dreams. Also exchanged are the writer’s feisty observations on politics, religion, culture and life, as Hanff learns about the bookshop staff - and personalities are as diverse as the titles on the crowded shelves.
Thus begins the exchange of wonderful letters from Bancroft in New York and Hopkins in London. We are sending nice copies of both these by Book Post and we trust they will arrive safely in due course and that you will be pleased with them.
“I am a poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books,” Hanff wrote to Marks & Co., in 1949, “and all things I want are impossible to get over here except in very expensive rare editions, or in Barnes & Noble’s grimy, marked- up schoolboy copies.” Hanff’s intimate journal, as it becomes, is a poignant and joyous statement not only about the camaraderie among bibliophiles - but about the caring attitudes of individuals as well.
Intermingled with book requests are Hanff’s observations, ideas and inquiries into the lives of people who are, at first, merely names without personalities. Anthony Hopkins is polite and efficient Frank Doel, senior clerk at the prim and proper London bookshop, Marks & Co.Īs Hanff’s letters cross the Atlantic to Marks & Co., a business relationship blossoms into a warm, humorous and energetic love story.
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