Novel set mainly in 1940s London (hitches and stitches…the royal wedding gown)

25th February 2019

The Gown by Jennifer Robson, novel set mainly in 1940s London.

This is the fictional story of the gown which the then Princess Elizabeth wore for her marriage to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten on 20th November 1947. It is a natural follow-on for anyone who enjoyed the Netflix series “The Crown”.

Photo: The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor

Ann and Miriam are thrown together in the atelier of Normal Hartnell, the chosen couturier for the creation of Princess Elizabeth’s iconic wedding dress. The war had only recently concluded and austerity Britain yearned for some colour and change from the monotonous and dispiriting life of rationing and coupons

Miriam has exceptional skills having trained with Dior at Maison Rébé in Paris but she also has a really difficult recent history. It is a time when friends discuss few personal issues and that proves integral to the story as the narrative progresses.

Both the design and then execution of the dress are all beautifully and evocatively detailed in the novel, and the pressure on the workers to keep their counsel about the style is well portrayed. There are of course plenty of hitches and stitches along the way. In her research, the author talks at length to one of the women who actually worked on the dress and gains a real feel for what went on.

In Toronto 2016 Ann’s granddaughter, Heather, discovers a great deal about Ann’s part in the creation of the gown after Ann’s death. Once Heather is forced to leave her job as a journalist, she is soon on a plane bound for London to uncover more details about Ann’s intriguing story and her involvement in the creation and completion of the dress. The chapters in the novel alternate between Ann, Miriam and Heather.

This is an excellent subject for a novel. The author has researched the postwar era with pleasure and competence and she differentiates clearly between the modern day story of Heather and the 1940s stories of Ann and Miriam.

For me the storyline relies quite heavily on coincidence to drive the narrative forward and the backstory of Ravensbrück Concentration Camp and a life changing sexual attack are fed in with quite some hesitancy; it felt like there was a wavering confidence to really embed these factors into the storyline. The storytelling is very competent, yet it can, at times, feels a little dispassionate, Nevertheless it was an interesting read and readers will, I am sure, be charmed by the detail and evocation of era.

London past and present is brought to life with panache and there is a good scene where the modern day characters view the collection of dresses from 1947.

Tina for the TripFiction Team

Follow Jennifer on Twitter Facebook and connect via her website 

Come and join team TripFiction on Social Media:

Twitter (@TripFiction), Facebook (@TripFiction.Literarywanderlust), YouTube (TripFiction #Literarywanderlust), Instagram (@TripFiction) and Pinterest (@TripFiction)

Subscribe to future blog posts