Favorite quote: “Duke, the German shepherd, comes to Christmas dinner, Chester, the Old English sheepdog, comes for dessert and coffee, and I haven’t filled their Christmas stockings yet. I’m going over to Saks’ Dog Shop to see what’s new. My high-fashion friend, Arlene, phoned to say she got her presents for the two dogs there.

‘It’s a canine aftershave called Sniffe. S-n-i-f-f-e. Is that chic?!’

Merry Christmas.”

From the publisher: For six years, Helene Hanff (author of 84, Charing Cross Road and The Duchess of Bloomsbury) held captive audiences all over the world with her monthly broadcasts on the BBC 4’s Woman's Hour. In five-minute vignettes, she managed to convey the essential New York City: life in a high rise apartment building (the last small town in America); annals of Chester-the-Sheepdog, Duke, the German shepherd, and their friends; the tree-lighting, magic and music of Christmas in New York. We meet Arlene, Hanff's high-flying friend who's social life (and wardrobe) put Hanff's one-and-one-half room apartment and simple writer's life in perspective.

Dimensions: 5.25 x 8 in / 172 pages

Hardcover

This Manderley Press edition is exquisitely produced, as a small hardback, quarter-bound in real cloth and printed on high quality uncoated paper, with tail bands and a foil-blocked spine.