Book description
Imagine seeing the Queen that close as she goes by in her golden
carriage! The kiddies will have something to tell their kiddies, won't
they? And a drink of real champagne to go with it!
Coronation Day, 2 June 1953! A humble, working-class family from
Sheffield is desperate to buy train tickets to London to see the
coronation, but doing so means forsaking their annual seaside holiday.
After some scrimping and saving, and a family meeting in which the
enthusiasm of the children overrules the reluctance of their
long-suffering mother and grandmother, the Clagg family take the plunge
and buy premium, champagne tickets for the big day.
But alas, not everything goes smoothly. Will their tickets be
everything they hoped for and dreamed? Will granny stop grumbling that
it's all a waste of money? And, most importantly, will they all get to
see their beloved Queen? In this tender and heartwarming story, Paul
Gallico brings to life the joy and fervor that swept the nation.
Beautifully written, as you'd expect from the author of the Snow Goose
, it's a wonderful evocation of that special day in the life of so many
Britons Paul Gallico was born in New York City, of Italian and
Austrian parentage, in 1897, and attended Columbia University. From 1922
to 1936 he worked on the New York Daily News
as sports editor, columnist, and assistant managing editor. In 1936 he
bought a house on top of a hill at Salcombe in South Devon and settled
down with a Great Dane and twenty-three assorted cats. It was in 1941
that he made his name with The Snow Goose
, a classic story of Dunkirk which became a world-wide best-seller.
Having served as a gunner s mate in the U. S. Navy in 1918, he was again
active as a war correspondent with the American Expeditionary Force in
1944. Paul Gallico, who later lived in Monaco, was a first-class fencer
and a keen sea-fisherman. He wrote over forty books, four of which were
the adventures of Mrs Harris: Mrs Harris Goes to Paris
(1958), Mrs Harris Goes to New York
(1959), Mrs. Harris, M. P
. (1965) and Mrs Harris Goes to Moscow
(1974). One of the most prolific and professional of American authors,
Paul Gallico died in July 1976.
