84 Charing Cross Road: A Review

A story about a relationship between two people who never met but shared a love of books

A review of a short book that is a joy to read, and which was made into a highly successful stage play and film.

84 Charing Cross Road

“84 Charing Cross Road” was published in 1971 by Helene Hanff (1916–97), an American writer of TV scripts and magazine articles whose reputation depends almost solely on this one short book of fewer than 100 pages. However, the gentle humour of the book, depending in part on an American and a Brit getting to learn about each other’s preoccupations and customs, has had a lasting appeal on both sides of the Atlantic.

The address in question was that of Marks and Co, a small bookshop in central London that specialised in out-of-print titles. The “Co” was short for “Cohen”, one of the joint owners, and not “Company”. Helene Hanff wrote a letter from New York in October 1949 to the bookshop, inspired by an advertisement in the “Saturday Review of Literature”, to ask if they could supply any of the books she wanted on an enclosed list. The bookshop replied, Helene replied to the bookshop’s letter, and so began a correspondence that was to last for twenty years. It is the letters from Helene and the replies she received that…