Full Marks for Trying
An unlikely journey from the Raj to the rag trade
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- 9,99 €
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- 9,99 €
Publisher Description
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The hilarious, outrageously witty, and surprisingly touching memoir about growing up in India and coming of age in sixties London, by the author of Diplomatic Baggage
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'Charming' - The Times
'Magical and stylish' - Daily Mail
'Wherever in the world she is writing from, her warmth and her sharp observations won't fail to delight' - Financial Times
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Brigid Keenan was never destined to lead a normal life. From her early beginnings – a colourful childhood in India brought to an abrupt end by independence and partition, then a return to dreary post-war England and on to a finishing school in Paris with daughters of presidents and princes – ordinary didn't seem to be her fate. When, as a ten-year-old, she overheard her mother describe her as 'desperately plain', she decided then and there that she had to rely on something different: glamour, eccentricity, character, a career – anything, so as not to end up at the bottom of the pile. And in classic Brigid style, she somehow ended up with them all.
Fate often gave Brigid a helping hand – in the late fifties, in her teens, she landed a job as an assistant at the Daily Express in London, and by the tender age of twenty-one she was a Fashion Editor at the Sunday Times. It was the dawn of the swinging sixties, and London was the place to be. Brigid worked with David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton, had her hair cut by Vidal Sassoon, drove around London in a mini-van, covered the Paris Collections and was labelled a 'Young Meteor' by the press. Despite always trying her hardest, Brigid's enthusiasm - and occasional naivete - could lead to embarrassing moments, such as when she turned up to report on the Vietnam war in a mini skirt …
Candid, wickedly funny and surprisingly touching, Full Marks for Trying is a coming-of-age memoir that will delight, entertain, and make you cry with laughter.
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'So funny and frank and moving' - Deborah Moggach
'Brightly funny … adorably different, and memory-sharp' - Saga
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this breezy memoir, fashion editor Keenan (Diplomatic Baggage) details her early childhood in India in the waning years of the British Raj, and then coming of age in postwar England and becoming a journalist in 1960s London. With her father, an Englishman, stationed in India, Keenan and her two sisters grew up in Ambala, considering it "home." It certainly felt more like home than drab London with its food rations and general restrictions. They returned to England in 1948, when Keenan was eight. She details a colorful childhood full of make-believe games (and looking out for snakes) with cousins, followed by finishing school in Paris. Soon she was on her way to working in the fashion world as a writer, though women were seen as qualified only for secretarial work. After enduring menial typing jobs, she found a position as a fashion assistant at the Daily Express, which was the cutting-edge newspaper at the time. She moved on to a similar position at the Sunday Times (where her sister worked), an experience she likens to The Devil Wears Prada, and in 1961, at 21, she became the Times's young fashion editor, an enviable post that brought her into the orbit of fashion icons such as Jean Shrimpton and Vidal Sassoon. Keenan's witty, touching reminiscences about her early life will please more than just fashion fans.
