The Quality Street Girls - Penny Thorpe

Description

At sixteen years old, Irene ‘Reenie’ Calder is leaving school with little in the way of qualifications. She is delighted to land a seasonal job at Mackintosh’s Quality Street factory. Reenie feels like a kid let loose in a sweet shop, but trouble seems to follow her around and it isn’t long before she falls foul of the strict rules.


Diana Moore runs the Toffee Penny line and has worked hard to secure her position. Beautiful and smart, the other girls in the factory are in awe of her, but Diana has a dark secret which if exposed, could cost her not only her job at the factory but her reputation as well.


When a terrible accident puts supply of Quality Street at risk, Reenie has a chance to prove herself. The shops are full of Quality Street lovers who have saved up all year for their must-have Christmas treat. Reenie and Diana know that everything rests on them, if they are to give everyone a Christmas to remember…

Review

I was drawn to this book by the beautiful cover and the wonderful end papers. It really reminded me of the long ago Quality Street tins and not the ones today. The writing style unfortunately didn't grab me, but once I got to know the characters I was drawn in. Especially Renee who wanted to do so much good but didn't always get it right.

It certainly captures the naivety of a different time with the girls not being very worldly and plenty of misunderstandings afoot.

The book was written by the archivist from Mackintosh. I didn't discover this until the end of the book and actually her notes were so interesting that she could have just written a book without the story. This explains the well written social aspects of the book and for those alone it was worth reading for me.

Not particularly Christmassy you could read it at any time of the year.