The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John is a little treasure – a deep and true message delivered with humour and fun.
The film version, titled Ladies in Black, is charming, and the casting is spot on. But the film is not quite as charming as the book. And not quite as funny as the musical.
The musical used St. John’s dialogue basically word-for-word, and added a little razzle-dazzle. The dialogue in the film was different – still good, still appropriate, but different.
That said, the film is sumptuously nostalgic – the frocks, the food, the good manners, the stereotypes – I loved it.
If you had to choose – book, musical or film – I’d probably say toss a coin between the book and the musical and then go from there – but don’t miss the film – it really is superb.
Hanging out to see this… suspect it’ll be a long wait in the UK. Would have loved to see the musical…wasn’t Tim Finn involved somehow?
Yes, Tim Finn wrote the musical – was so much fun.
Hopefully the film makes its way to the UK.
All versions are unknown to me! I’m going to see if I can hunt the book down.
Bloomsbury published this in the UK about a decade ago, so not sure it’s still in print. But you should be able to get the Text Classics edition; I purchased mine in Waterstones a few years back.
Great, thanks Kim 🙂
I reckon you’ll enjoy it (and it’s a read-in-an-afternoon length book).
This sounds great, I haven’t heard of any version so must look out for it!