Penrose Halson

The true story of a marriage bureau, the first of its kind, in London around World War II. An idea that many saw as an impossibility, two young women knew they could make work. Heather Jennifer and Mary Oliver succeeded when no one thought they could. The book begins just prior to the decision to open the Bureau and ends on its 10th anniversary. The Bureau helped 3,000 couples meet and find love.

The book was a quick read that detailed stories of the owners and those who they interviewed. They go through their application process and tell horror stories of some of their worst clients. They also detail heartbreaking stories of some of their poorer customers who were looking for someone to grow old with. It wasn't exactly the book I thought it would be but it was still a fairly decent read.… (mehr)

This is a charming book about a matchmaking bureau started in 1939 London by two young women. This book is full of stories of men and women - quirky, individual, with unique needs and desires - looking for spouses. It's fascinating reading about this type of system before computers, when everything was kept on note cards or in one's head. The backdrop of the book, 1939-1949 London, provides a fascinating look at life during the war and directly after. Overall this is fun, interesting, and sad at times. Recommended.… (mehr)

A delightful book! By turns humorous, serious, and at times heartbreaking with characters that are pompous, humble, and everywhere between Mary Oliver pitched her Uncle George's idea of the a match-making business. Mary was looking for a job that interested her so she could be independent and not marry a tediously respectable individual and wind up presiding over a tea plantation somewhere. Heather Jenner thought she was jesting when Mary told her of her idea. The book follows the Marriage Bureau from its inception through 1949 and the changing demands of its clientele, the changes in staff, and the couples that turned up for the business's tenth anniversary. An interesting and wonderful read!… (mehr)

"They all want to get together but they never meet. Let's introduce them!"

My parents met through the Heather Jenner marriage bureau and are still together! So this account of the first ten years of the first British marriage bureau, was quite an interesting and entertaining read.
When independent farmer's daughter Audrey Parsons (aka Mary Oliver) disappointed her parents by failing to settle down to marriage, she took on board the idea of an uncle in India - that there were many wife-less colonials, many lonely spinsters in England, and they could do with bringing together.
In the company of her friend, Heather Jenner, she started up a bureau in London in 1939. Despite the fears of some that it would foster immorality, it became unbelievably successful; this light-hearted account gives some of the lifestories- romantic, comical and tragic. As World War 2 took hold, the women had to cope with the blitz going on around them, widows, injured servicemen, GI's...
They came to be seen as agony aunts, writing for newspaper problem pages, judging baby shows, appearing on radio shows. And meanwhile their own lives too moved on..
Easy reading, quitye fun- and the appendix, featuring the clients' often eclectic requirements had me laughing out loud.
The author was a later owner of the bureau.… (mehr)