The Dressmaker
1973
AKA The Secret Glass (US title).
‘The book I wish I’d written . . . Witty, chilling, every word in place’ - Hilary Mantel
Wartime Liverpool is a place of ration books and munitions factories. Seventeen-year-old Rita, living with her two aunts Nellie and Margo, is emotionally naïve and withdrawn.
When she meets Ira, an American soldier, at a neighbour’s party, she falls in love almost as much with the idea of life as a GI bride as with the man himself. Where Liverpool is grim and impoverished, America is gay and rich – Rita knows; she’s seen it in the movies. But Nellie and Margo, the wise characters of this novel, are not nearly so blind . . .
Shortlisted for the 1973 Booker Prize, The Dressmaker is a darkly comic tale about the unexpected consequences of a young girl’s heartbreak.
First published by Duckworth in 1973
Adapted into a film in 1988
Forthcoming edition published by Daunt Books
Beryl Bainbridge's The Dressmaker