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London Holiday
by Richard Peck

Published: 1999-06-01
Paperback : 254 pages
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The perfect beach read and armchair travelogue--a wry, engaging, stylish novel of three women's escape into carefree London.

London Holiday opens in Mrs. Smith-Porter's cozy, prestigious London bed-and-breakfast, where the hotelier curiously awaits her three new American guests...

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Introduction

(The perfect beach read and armchair travelogue--a wry, engaging, stylish novel of three women's escape into carefree London.

London Holiday opens in Mrs. Smith-Porter's cozy, prestigious London bed-and-breakfast, where the hotelier curiously awaits her three new American guests...

Best friends since long-ago childhood days, Lesley, a St. Louis society matron and do-gooder, Julia, a successful but lonely Manhattan interior designer, and Margo, a newly-divorced Chicago teacher with a teenage daughter, are all harboring unfulfilled dreams and desperate for a change from their ordinary lives. When a shocking act of violence reminds them how fragile life really is, the three friends decide it's time for a reunion and embark on a long-awaited trip to London.

Safe in the confines of Mrs. Smith-Porter's bed-and-breakfast, the women enter a whirlwind of tea in the garden, antique markets, picture-perfect countryside and ...romance. For each of them, the London holiday holds many surprises and "the epiphanies [they] experience pour over readers with the light, dry sparkle of good champagne" (Publishers Weekly).

**Penguin Readers Guide Bound into Every Book

In London Holiday, three middle-aged American women take a trip to London that changes their lives. Les, Julia, and Margo grew up together in a small Missouri town and have remained friends ever since childhood. They're all getting older and becoming increasingly dissatisfied with their lives. Les is a restless St. Louis society woman; Julia's a driven, single, interior designer; and Margo is a recently divorced schoolteacher. Les decides they all need to escape their lives for a while and go on an adventure together. It works wonders. On their first day in London, Julia takes off on her own and returns very late with a delightful story to tell: "I was picked up by a strange man in a south London slum who took me to a deserted barn in the country, and then a dying baronet thought I was the Duchess of Windsor." In other words, she went shopping for antiques and met a cute guy who might possibly be royalty. This book seems to be a fantasy specially designed for women of a certain age who particularly enjoy antiquing. The three friends stay in a beautifully decorated bed and breakfast run by a secretive, charming old woman named Mrs. Smith-Porter. Mrs. Smith-Porter has a knack for saying just the right thing to solve a problem then vanishing magically, which is a good thing because these women have plenty of problems. Les is stuck in a loveless marriage; Margo has just learned that her teenage daughter is pregnant and her former husband is gay; Julia is just plain lonely. England and Mrs. Smith-Porter improve these women's lives immeasurably. This is not a very profound book but it is rather fun, a good one to read at the beach. --Jill Marquis



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  "The London Holiday"by Patty O. (see profile) 01/20/11

The London Holiday is a very quick fun read. Setting the scene of women traveling to London to sort our thier lives which happen very quickly. Though Richard Peck has written more detailed books this... (read more)

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