Overview

For fans of Muriel Spark, a dazzling novel about a young woman thrust into in the opulent world of 1940s Hollywood, where dirty dealings, undercover agents and off-camera romances abound It is September 1940 and Evelyn Murdoch, a translator from the Postal Censorship department, is uprooted from her home in wartime Woking and transferred to Hollywood. She is to assist a mysterious British agent in his attempts to outwit the Los Angeles German delegation and boost the British propaganda war effort. The unhappy young widow is supplied with a new Californian wardrobe, a Bel Air bungalow and her own desk in the writers' block of Miracle Studios. At first bewildered by the glamorous excesses of this strange new world, she is gradually seduced by the sunlight, orange groves and clever, fast-talking men. But, just as she begins to blossom, her new technicolor ending threatens to slip from her grasp.

Full Product Details

9781408878798

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Reviews

For the perfect piece of Bank Holiday escapism, look no further ... A whip-smart comedy, chock-full with glamour, secret agents and sun-drenched Californian orange groves - seriously, what could be more heavenly? * Saga * Levene is a zesty storyteller and a master of the needle-sharp one-liner * Sunday Telegraph * She writes with such energy and panache * Barbara Trapido * Levene has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue * Observer * Levene's sharply observed comedy mixes affectionate satire of the stylistic oddities of the time with an invigorating sparkle of real dislike for authority -- Jane Shilling * Evening Standard * A seamless knack for drawing characters that fully inhabit their historical setting * The Lady * Levene is a gifted writer with a cinematic way with words * Sunday Express *

Great fun ... As a heroine, [Evelyn] is a triumph. Orphaned and severed from her roots, she is the worthy heiress of Jane Eyre, Becky Sharp and, particularly, Flora Poste, in her steeliness, her steady eye and her use and appreciation of wit ... [Happy Little Bluebirds] is a bit of a romp, full of sharp one-liners and acerbic apercus, the kind of novel that makes you want to read paragraphs out to strangers, to share the joy * Financial Times * For the perfect piece of Bank Holiday escapism, look no further ... A whip-smart comedy, chock-full with glamour, secret agents and sun-drenched Californian orange groves - seriously, what could be more heavenly? * Saga * Brilliant * Spectator * [Levene] fires out a wisecrack a page ... Very much satire in the Evelyn Waugh vein * Express * A book to set you up for summer? This hyper-witty, sharp-eyed escapist comic thriller will hit the holiday spot with style. Read it slowly. Levene's elaborate epithets and contrived gags are not to be gobbled down. In fact, her dazzling whip-smart dialogue and acid asides make Dorothy Parker sound like a dullard. This is a novel of exquisite creative vignettes, colourful, charming and outrageous in turns ... [A] bold evocation of a golden world * Jewish Chronicle * She writes with such energy and panache * Barbara Trapido * Levene is a zesty storyteller and a master of the needle-sharp one-liner * Sunday Telegraph * Levene has a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue * Observer * Levene's sharply observed comedy mixes affectionate satire of the stylistic oddities of the time with an invigorating sparkle of real dislike for authority -- Jane Shilling * Evening Standard * A seamless knack for drawing characters that fully inhabit their historical setting * The Lady * Levene is a gifted writer with a cinematic way with words * Sunday Express *

Author Information

Louise Levene is the author of A Vision of Loveliness, a BBC Book at Bedtime, which was also longlisted for the Desmond Elliott first novel prize, Ghastly Business and The Following Girls. She is the dance critic of the Financial Times and writes for the Spectator. She has also been an advertising copywriter, a window dresser, a radio presenter, an office cleaner, a crossword editor, a university tutor, a college professor and a saleslady. Louise Levene lives in London with her husband and their two children.

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