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Letter from New York: BBC Woman's Hour Broadcasts
For six years, Helene Hanff held captive audiences all over the world with her monthly broadcasts on the BBC'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 whose social life (and wardrobe) put Hanff's one-and-one-half room apartment and simple writer's life in perspective. We walk through Nina's garden, 16 stories up, and witness famous New York rites of passage, from the hysteria of St. Patrick's Day to Shakespeare's Garden and the neighbors who saved it, to block parties, with their 'sizzling Italian sausages and shish kebab and flossy plates of pate and brie,' all told in Hanff's inimitable style. We join Hanff as she flies to London to realize a lifetime dream at the Ambassador Theatre: opening night for the play, 84, Charing Cross Road. And we witness the elegant Arlene as she meets and falls in love with a New York City cop.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 1992
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1629 people want to read
About the author
Helene Hanff
28 books721 followersHelene Hanff (April 15, 1916–April 9, 1997) was an American writer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she is best known as the author of the book 84 Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a play, teleplay, and film of the same name.
Her career, which saw her move from writing unproduced plays to helping create some of the earliest television dramas to becoming a kind of professional New Yorker, goes far beyond the charm of that one book. She called her 1961 memoir Underfoot in Show Business, and it chronicled the struggle of an ambitious young playwright to make it in the world of New York theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. She worked in publicists' offices and spent summers on the "straw hat" circuit along the East Coast of the United States, writing plays that were admired by some of Broadway's leading producers but which somehow never saw the light of day.
She wrote and edited scripts for a variety of early television dramas produced out of New York, all the while continuing to try and move from being what she called "one of the 999 out of 1,000 who don't become Noel Coward." When the bulk of television production moved to California, her work slowly dried up, and she turned to writing for magazines and, eventually, to the books that made her reputation.
First published in 1970, the epistolary work 84 Charing Cross Road chronicles her 20 years of correspondence with Frank Doel, the chief buyer for Marks & Co., a London bookshop, on which she depended for the obscure classics and British literature titles around which her passion for self-education revolved. She became intimately involved in the lives of the shop's staff, sending them food parcels during England's post-war shortages and sharing with them details of her life in Manhattan.
Due to financial difficulties and an aversion to travel, she put off visiting her English friends until too late; Doel died in December 1968 from peritonitis from a burst appendix, and the bookshop eventually closed. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.
In the 1987 film of 84 Charing Cross Road, Hanff was played by Anne Bancroft, while Anthony Hopkins took the part of Frank Doel. Anne Jackson had earlier played Hanff in a 1975 adaptation of the book for British television. Ellen Burstyn recreated the role on Broadway in 1982 at the Nederlander Theater in New York City.
She later put her obsession with British scholar Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to use in a book called Q's Legacy. Other books include Apple of My Eye, an idiosyncratic guide to New York City, and A Letter from New York (1992), which reprinted talks she gave on the BBC's Woman's Hour between 1978 and 1985.
Hanff was never shy about her fondness for cigarettes and martinis, but nevertheless lived to be 80, dying of diabetes in 1997 in New York City. The apartment building where she lived at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named "Charing Cross House" in her honor. A bronze plaque next to the front door commemorates her residence and authorship of the book.
Her career, which saw her move from writing unproduced plays to helping create some of the earliest television dramas to becoming a kind of professional New Yorker, goes far beyond the charm of that one book. She called her 1961 memoir Underfoot in Show Business, and it chronicled the struggle of an ambitious young playwright to make it in the world of New York theatre in the 1940s and 1950s. She worked in publicists' offices and spent summers on the "straw hat" circuit along the East Coast of the United States, writing plays that were admired by some of Broadway's leading producers but which somehow never saw the light of day.
She wrote and edited scripts for a variety of early television dramas produced out of New York, all the while continuing to try and move from being what she called "one of the 999 out of 1,000 who don't become Noel Coward." When the bulk of television production moved to California, her work slowly dried up, and she turned to writing for magazines and, eventually, to the books that made her reputation.
First published in 1970, the epistolary work 84 Charing Cross Road chronicles her 20 years of correspondence with Frank Doel, the chief buyer for Marks & Co., a London bookshop, on which she depended for the obscure classics and British literature titles around which her passion for self-education revolved. She became intimately involved in the lives of the shop's staff, sending them food parcels during England's post-war shortages and sharing with them details of her life in Manhattan.
Due to financial difficulties and an aversion to travel, she put off visiting her English friends until too late; Doel died in December 1968 from peritonitis from a burst appendix, and the bookshop eventually closed. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.
In the 1987 film of 84 Charing Cross Road, Hanff was played by Anne Bancroft, while Anthony Hopkins took the part of Frank Doel. Anne Jackson had earlier played Hanff in a 1975 adaptation of the book for British television. Ellen Burstyn recreated the role on Broadway in 1982 at the Nederlander Theater in New York City.
She later put her obsession with British scholar Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to use in a book called Q's Legacy. Other books include Apple of My Eye, an idiosyncratic guide to New York City, and A Letter from New York (1992), which reprinted talks she gave on the BBC's Woman's Hour between 1978 and 1985.
Hanff was never shy about her fondness for cigarettes and martinis, but nevertheless lived to be 80, dying of diabetes in 1997 in New York City. The apartment building where she lived at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named "Charing Cross House" in her honor. A bronze plaque next to the front door commemorates her residence and authorship of the book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
July 29, 2024
I think I love Central Park and dogs almost as much as Helene Hanff
January 23, 2022
Click here to hear my thoughts on Helene Hanff, this book, and all her other books over on my Booktube channel, abookolive!
May 26, 2020
Having recently re read 84 Charing Cross Road I began to look for what else Helene Hanff had written and came across this wonderful book. I managed to get a second hand copy as the book was published in 1994 and covers the "Letters from New York" that Helene Hanff wrote for the BBC Woman's Hour programme.
I just love the authors voice, I think it's what today they call a smart mouth! It's the minutiae of her life in a New York apartment in 1979 to 1984 and I loved every word of it. There's also the fascinating social history side to it like when she talks about booking a seat for smoking on the BA flight to London. I do remember smoking on flights but it seems so alien today. I also learnt so many things about New York that I didn't know, things that only a true New Yorker can tell you about.
I'm going to be re reading this book, it's pure escapism. I felt it was like an older relative telling you about things you wished you asked them when you had a chance to.
I just love the authors voice, I think it's what today they call a smart mouth! It's the minutiae of her life in a New York apartment in 1979 to 1984 and I loved every word of it. There's also the fascinating social history side to it like when she talks about booking a seat for smoking on the BA flight to London. I do remember smoking on flights but it seems so alien today. I also learnt so many things about New York that I didn't know, things that only a true New Yorker can tell you about.
I'm going to be re reading this book, it's pure escapism. I felt it was like an older relative telling you about things you wished you asked them when you had a chance to.
June 11, 2017
Once a month, for five years, beginning in 1978 Helene Hanff read to a BBC audience stories of her life as a citizen of New York City. Letter from New York is a collection of the scripts from this series. Ms Hanff is a more modest and less introverted version of Carrie Bradshaw. Her letters reflect a world almost oblivious to the conspicuous consumption and totally absent the dating, mating and man vs woman battle of the sexes that are center of the Carrie Bradshaw stories of New Your life.
The New York of Miss Hanff is one of parks, free church concerts, people, dogs and sharing kitchen space with apartment house neighbors. She has built for herself a world at once complete in herself and peopled with New Yorkers who look out for each other, performing major acts of kindness. Nowhere does she write of her existential angst over her many disappointments or of her need to add a life mate to her tiny apartment. Instead we get a flow of friends, urban adventures of the pleasant kind and some basic orientation to the ways a city responds to its unique experiences of the seasons. All grouped by month in a series of short sociable letters.
Helene Hanff is always charming and is herself charmed. I had thought that I had had my fill of her rarely downbeat view of the world, but Letter from New York proved me wrong. Almost any tale of her friendly neighborhood Sheep Dog , Bentley is going to get you smiling , and if her friend and well to do socialite Arlene is involved, you can expect to laugh. Yes Ms. Hanff is rarely more than charming. Her letters lift your spirits and give you hope and pleasure. And entertainment and lifted spirits accomplished without one pair of $400 Manolo Blahniks. The added plus for some will be that there is no sex in this city.
The New York of Miss Hanff is one of parks, free church concerts, people, dogs and sharing kitchen space with apartment house neighbors. She has built for herself a world at once complete in herself and peopled with New Yorkers who look out for each other, performing major acts of kindness. Nowhere does she write of her existential angst over her many disappointments or of her need to add a life mate to her tiny apartment. Instead we get a flow of friends, urban adventures of the pleasant kind and some basic orientation to the ways a city responds to its unique experiences of the seasons. All grouped by month in a series of short sociable letters.
Helene Hanff is always charming and is herself charmed. I had thought that I had had my fill of her rarely downbeat view of the world, but Letter from New York proved me wrong. Almost any tale of her friendly neighborhood Sheep Dog , Bentley is going to get you smiling , and if her friend and well to do socialite Arlene is involved, you can expect to laugh. Yes Ms. Hanff is rarely more than charming. Her letters lift your spirits and give you hope and pleasure. And entertainment and lifted spirits accomplished without one pair of $400 Manolo Blahniks. The added plus for some will be that there is no sex in this city.
June 28, 2025
Such a gem of a book! If you want to love NYC vicariously, you need to read this. Helene Hanff has the best sense of humor too. She captures little daily happenings with a dry wit using the exact right words. I loved opening the book and seeing what her neighbors were up to, what New York tradition I’d get to learn about, or what amusing thing Helene herself was up to. This and Judy Blume’s Fudge books and You’ve Got Mail make me almost want to live in Manhattan. 😂 Thank you Dominika for the nudge to pick this up! The Manderley Press edition is gorgeous, though any edition would be a treat.
December 15, 2022
Helene Hanff, scriptwriter and lover of literature and life, lived in New York City most of her life. She achieved a measure of fame from her book "84, Charing Cross Road."
In this book, Letter from New York, Hanff shares with readers excerpts from monthly broadcasts she made to the UK via the BBC radio program Woman's Hour between 1978 and 1984. These excerpts convey with amazing vividness and richness what living in New York was like for Hanff who lived in a small high-rise apartment in the heart of Manhattan. Where she lived was made up of an amazing microcosm of characters no reader will soon forget.
For instance, there was Hanff's friend Arlene, 20 years her junior, twice married and divorced, who lived alone "in an eight-room penthouse, with a bedroom suitably decorated for Marie Antoinette, and a living room positively alive with silver and china ornaments and glittering chandeliers." She and Hanff were of the same size. But unlike Hanff, who described herself as plain and mousy, Arlene was "black-haired, flamboyantly beautiful, and the last word in high-fashion chic." What's more: she has always lived a high-powered social life in which her job often brought her into contact with some of New York's most prominent people. And, unlike Hanff, Arlene was no dog lover, something she made abundantly clear to Hanff, once firmly saying to her: "I don't want to hear about your dogs."
Well, imagine Hanff's surprise when she had invited Arlene to a Thanksgiving Day dinner with friends, one of whom had brought along his old English sheepdog named Bentley. Hanff hadn't told Arlene about this. Here is how Hanff described the evening ---
"... Bentley - who is a huge, snowy mop of a dog - was at the door to greet [Arlene] when [she] arrived, wearing a flame-coloured shimmering blouse and high black stormtrooper's boots with six-inch heels. While RIchard [Bentley's owner] made the drinks, I was busy passing hors-d'oeuvres and checking on everything in the kitchen, so it was some time before I settled with my drink and glanced at Arlene.
"She was sitting on the sofa, Bentley at her feet sitting with his back to her and his head locked in a vice between her high black stormtrooper boots. As Richard and I gawked at her, Arlene yanked Bentley's head back, peered down into his eyes - one brown, one blue - and informed him, 'I like you. You're a very sophisticated dog.' "
Arlene and Bentley struck an immediate rapport with each other. So much so, that Arlene told him: "No dog has ever crossed the threshold of my penthouse... But you're special. You're coming to my New Year's Eve party."
And so it was that Bentley, sporting a bow tie at his neck, was among 50 guests at Arlene's penthouse on New Year's Eve for a breakfast that lasted from 2:30 AM until sunrise on New Year's Day. The party was a resounding success, though in a somewhat unusual way. A couple of days later, when Arlene phoned Hanff to discuss the party, this is what she said ---
"People have been phoning all day. Would you like to know what they talked about? Never mind the gorgeous buffet table, never mind the champagne. Never mind the great piano player. Never mind I looked sensational. All anybody talked about was Bentley. Will you tell me how I can go bananas over a dog who took the stage away from me at my own party?"
For all its 178 pages, LETTER FROM NEW YORK was a delight to read. As someone who spent a few hours in Manhattan with some of my high school classmates on the Saturday before Easter Sunday in April 1982, this book evoked happy memories for me. Any reader will want to experience New York City for him/herself after reading it.
In this book, Letter from New York, Hanff shares with readers excerpts from monthly broadcasts she made to the UK via the BBC radio program Woman's Hour between 1978 and 1984. These excerpts convey with amazing vividness and richness what living in New York was like for Hanff who lived in a small high-rise apartment in the heart of Manhattan. Where she lived was made up of an amazing microcosm of characters no reader will soon forget.
For instance, there was Hanff's friend Arlene, 20 years her junior, twice married and divorced, who lived alone "in an eight-room penthouse, with a bedroom suitably decorated for Marie Antoinette, and a living room positively alive with silver and china ornaments and glittering chandeliers." She and Hanff were of the same size. But unlike Hanff, who described herself as plain and mousy, Arlene was "black-haired, flamboyantly beautiful, and the last word in high-fashion chic." What's more: she has always lived a high-powered social life in which her job often brought her into contact with some of New York's most prominent people. And, unlike Hanff, Arlene was no dog lover, something she made abundantly clear to Hanff, once firmly saying to her: "I don't want to hear about your dogs."
Well, imagine Hanff's surprise when she had invited Arlene to a Thanksgiving Day dinner with friends, one of whom had brought along his old English sheepdog named Bentley. Hanff hadn't told Arlene about this. Here is how Hanff described the evening ---
"... Bentley - who is a huge, snowy mop of a dog - was at the door to greet [Arlene] when [she] arrived, wearing a flame-coloured shimmering blouse and high black stormtrooper's boots with six-inch heels. While RIchard [Bentley's owner] made the drinks, I was busy passing hors-d'oeuvres and checking on everything in the kitchen, so it was some time before I settled with my drink and glanced at Arlene.
"She was sitting on the sofa, Bentley at her feet sitting with his back to her and his head locked in a vice between her high black stormtrooper boots. As Richard and I gawked at her, Arlene yanked Bentley's head back, peered down into his eyes - one brown, one blue - and informed him, 'I like you. You're a very sophisticated dog.' "
Arlene and Bentley struck an immediate rapport with each other. So much so, that Arlene told him: "No dog has ever crossed the threshold of my penthouse... But you're special. You're coming to my New Year's Eve party."
And so it was that Bentley, sporting a bow tie at his neck, was among 50 guests at Arlene's penthouse on New Year's Eve for a breakfast that lasted from 2:30 AM until sunrise on New Year's Day. The party was a resounding success, though in a somewhat unusual way. A couple of days later, when Arlene phoned Hanff to discuss the party, this is what she said ---
"People have been phoning all day. Would you like to know what they talked about? Never mind the gorgeous buffet table, never mind the champagne. Never mind the great piano player. Never mind I looked sensational. All anybody talked about was Bentley. Will you tell me how I can go bananas over a dog who took the stage away from me at my own party?"
For all its 178 pages, LETTER FROM NEW YORK was a delight to read. As someone who spent a few hours in Manhattan with some of my high school classmates on the Saturday before Easter Sunday in April 1982, this book evoked happy memories for me. Any reader will want to experience New York City for him/herself after reading it.
May 30, 2018
Reading “Letters from New York” is like listening to your favorite relative or friend who you see only once a year telling you amazing stories of her adopted city over a bottle of Pinot Noir during that magical week between Christmas and New Year’s.
Author Helene Hanff turns the quotidian into marvelous, relatable tales even if you have never lived in New York City. My cousin lived and worked in Manhattan in the 70s and 80s - the time covered in Hanff’s memoir- and I remember he always said that despite the skyscrapers and urbanity, the interactions of many Manhattan offices and apartment buildings were not that different from living in a small town. Hanff echoes that calling Manhattan “the last small town in America”. This is a fun, well written read with lots of juicy details. I have already added all of Hanff’s other works to my Goodreads list.
Author Helene Hanff turns the quotidian into marvelous, relatable tales even if you have never lived in New York City. My cousin lived and worked in Manhattan in the 70s and 80s - the time covered in Hanff’s memoir- and I remember he always said that despite the skyscrapers and urbanity, the interactions of many Manhattan offices and apartment buildings were not that different from living in a small town. Hanff echoes that calling Manhattan “the last small town in America”. This is a fun, well written read with lots of juicy details. I have already added all of Hanff’s other works to my Goodreads list.
November 22, 2024
Helene Hanff can do no wrong in my opinion. I loved all these vignettes about New York, her friends and neighbors, and all the local dogs. What a treat it would have been to listen to these stories broadcast on the BBC. But I’m more than satisfied with getting to read them in print. Wonderful.
March 7, 2025
A delightful look at life in New York in the late 1970’s. Helene Hanff was asked to do a 5 minute spot on the BBC’s Woman’s Hour once a month about her life in NYC. This is a collection of that radio segment over the next 6 years.
January 24, 2021
Eine zauberhafte, unterhaltsame und wundervolle Liebeserklärung an New York!
Die Autorin erzählt in ihren Briefen mit viel Feingefühl, Detailreichtum, Witz und Liebe von den berühmtesten Straßen der Welt, dem Central Park oder der Upper East Side. Es geht um die Metropole, die Bewohner und ihr eigenes Leben und man kann das Buch in einem Rutsch wegatmen.
‚Wer noch niemals in New York war, wird, wenn er dieses Büchlein zugeklappt hat, das kaum zu zähmende Verlangen verspüren, eine Reise dorthin zu buchen, umgehend.‘
Die Autorin erzählt in ihren Briefen mit viel Feingefühl, Detailreichtum, Witz und Liebe von den berühmtesten Straßen der Welt, dem Central Park oder der Upper East Side. Es geht um die Metropole, die Bewohner und ihr eigenes Leben und man kann das Buch in einem Rutsch wegatmen.
‚Wer noch niemals in New York war, wird, wenn er dieses Büchlein zugeklappt hat, das kaum zu zähmende Verlangen verspüren, eine Reise dorthin zu buchen, umgehend.‘
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February 16, 2025If you've already read Hanff's previous books (Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Q's Legacy and Apple of My Eye in particular) a lot of "Letters from New York" will be familiar territory. This volume collects the chronicles she wrote for BBC Radio Women's Hour between 1978 and 1984, mostly collecting various anecdotes of living in New York. As this particular theme is one of the big reasons I feel drawn to her writing, especially this time of year (for some reason, the beginning of the year is associated with New York landscapes in my mind) this was wonderful. Hanff writes with characteristic wit, charm and warmth about living in an apartment house where the neighbors are as much part of your life as family; the dogs of the neighborhood set the tone of the community (many play star roles in her life), celebrating holidays - Christmas, thanksgiving, with 'found' family; enjoying the city of New York in all its seasons, colors and moods. A delight, as always.
February 3, 2025
A delightful slice-of-life look at living in New York City circa 1980. I really felt like I was there! I enjoy Hanff’s writing style so much and am sad I’ve finished all her books - guess it’s time to start all over from the beginning!
April 21, 2025
If I could choose anywhere and anytime to live in all of history and place, it’d be exactly where I am and who I’m with now. If it had to be anywhere but here and now, I might just choose the apartment next to Helene Hanff’s in 1960’s-1980’s NYC. What a fun woman who knew how to live alone but in community. Her writing just makes me smile. This was a joy to read through slowly.
December 5, 2025
dit was zo cute! alsof je vriendin die in een andere stad of een ander land woont en je allerlei random verhalen aan het vertellen is om je up to date te houden, also ik ben verliefd op bentley
December 21, 2025
Eine Liebeserklärung an Städte, Gemeinschaft und (bei mir keinen Anklang findend) Hunde.
Das Buch ist so toll, dass ich darüber hinweg sehen kann. Ich möchte es allen empfehlen, die Carol-Fans sind (vor allem die Winterkapitel) und die sich wünschen, es gäbe eine Version von SATC ohne Sex (vor allem die Sommermonate).
Das Buch ist so toll, dass ich darüber hinweg sehen kann. Ich möchte es allen empfehlen, die Carol-Fans sind (vor allem die Winterkapitel) und die sich wünschen, es gäbe eine Version von SATC ohne Sex (vor allem die Sommermonate).
June 28, 2024
I read the newly-released and lovely edition from Manderley Press. Thanks to Cincy Book Bus Depot for making these UK editions available in the U.S. Recommended for Hanff fans. Collectively the vignettes capture a time (late 1970s-early 1980s) and a lifestyle (middle-class!) on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
July 12, 2024
This book is a gem! In a series of vignettes Helene Hanff shares charming stories of her life living as a single writer in New York City. It’s full of whimsical stories of community life in her apartment building with a charming cast of friends, neighbors , and neighborhood dogs that make up her days. I loved every page.
February 3, 2021
I fell in love with New York City all over again with this book. I’ve been a Helene Hanff fan since way back when I first stumbled upon 84,Charing Cross Road and then saw the fabulous film version. Every year I really-watch the movie and every couple of years I re-read the book. Her observations of life in a NYC apartment building are spot on (and they felt even more accurate than ever in this pandemic year when taking care of each other in the building has become so necessary). Her descriptions of Central Park, which is only a block and a half away, almost made me brave the freezing temperatures and nearly two feet of snow to go there and romp around. I just kept thinking how much fun it must have been for the BBC listeners to hear her slice-of-life monthly broadcasts. This was exactly what I needed right now!
September 22, 2020
These transcripts of five minute broadcasts Hanff made for the BBC about her home at Second Avenue and 72nd St. in Manhattan were such fun to read.
Her itty-bitty apartment, in her apartment building, which is like its own little neighborhood (and even perhaps more community-minded than a neighborhood), is so far removed from my own suburbia that it was delightful to read about.
Reflective and personnel and charming.
Her itty-bitty apartment, in her apartment building, which is like its own little neighborhood (and even perhaps more community-minded than a neighborhood), is so far removed from my own suburbia that it was delightful to read about.
Reflective and personnel and charming.
October 6, 2020
Helene is a wonder.
February 11, 2023
ja shit, nu heb ik dus een ander treinboek nodig... t liefst een die kan tippen aan deze
November 26, 2025
7/10 💛💛💛💛💛💛💛
Look at this book - it combines yellow and New York and was kindly given to me by a friend in compensation for having to cancel our trip to NYC.
Helene Hoff used to give short soliloquies on Radio 4 in the late 70/ to early 80s about life in New York. This book is a collection of them.
She gives witty and colourful descriptions of her life in an apartment block with a strong community. She tells us a lot about the dogs in her neighbourhood- I wasn’t so keen on those bits. But, she explains the various traditions of the city and how some of street parties were invented. It’s very much given me some ideas of places to visit - Central Park sounds humongous and full of interesting things, she talks about a tourist couple who spent an entire day there and it being the best day of their lives!
I approached the book wrong at first, reading large swathes of it. But, it was much more enjoyable when I dipped in and out of it.
A charming ditty about an older way of life. It would have been interesting to hear how what she would make of the Big Apple these days.
Look at this book - it combines yellow and New York and was kindly given to me by a friend in compensation for having to cancel our trip to NYC.
Helene Hoff used to give short soliloquies on Radio 4 in the late 70/ to early 80s about life in New York. This book is a collection of them.
She gives witty and colourful descriptions of her life in an apartment block with a strong community. She tells us a lot about the dogs in her neighbourhood- I wasn’t so keen on those bits. But, she explains the various traditions of the city and how some of street parties were invented. It’s very much given me some ideas of places to visit - Central Park sounds humongous and full of interesting things, she talks about a tourist couple who spent an entire day there and it being the best day of their lives!
I approached the book wrong at first, reading large swathes of it. But, it was much more enjoyable when I dipped in and out of it.
A charming ditty about an older way of life. It would have been interesting to hear how what she would make of the Big Apple these days.
March 8, 2023
Lovely collection of vignettes to read before bedtime. If you like Helene Hanff's other books than you will love this. Probably not the best introduction to her, I'd suggest 84 Charing Cross road as your gateway book to Hanff.
Her depictions of life in NYC in the early 1980s and her stories of apartment living were such a pleasure to read.
Her depictions of life in NYC in the early 1980s and her stories of apartment living were such a pleasure to read.
October 4, 2024
Helene Hanff hat einfach eine unterhaltsame Art Geschichten zu schreiben.
December 30, 2024
Getting to read another of Helen Hanff’s works is an absolute privilege and delight.
August 14, 2025
A romp through New York back when it was a livable , unique city before it became a place for the mega rich. You knew the neighbors and their pets and together you were one community. There was culture, shops and restaurants on every block. In the summer tickets to Mostly Mozart were dirt cheap and you could go down to the Seaport and have a great inexpensive dinner at Sloppy Louie’s
November 13, 2025
What a fun look at life in NYC in the early 80’s, by the author of 84 Charing Cross Road.
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August 6, 2011After I treated myself to 84, Charing Cross Road, it was only a matter of time before I reread Helene Hanff’s Letter from New York. This was the book in which I first encountered Miss Hanff—I don’t remember whether I bought it myself or was given it by someone, but I know I read it the year I moved to New York City, and it profoundly influenced my first experiences there. Helene Hanff taught me how to see the quirky and charming characteristics of a neighborhood; she enticed me out of my midtown office building during many a summer lunch hour and sent me scurrying all over Manhattan in search of streets and buildings she’d mentioned.
Letter from New York is a collection of radio transcripts: a monthly series of five-minute talks Miss Hanff for the BBC Women’s Hour, to share a slice of New York life with London listeners. She describes her building, her neighborhood, her favorite haunts in the city; she tells colorful and wry tales about the customs and opinions of her fellow New Yorkers. Delicious stuff.
Of all the talks, the story I remembered the most clearly was the one about the Shakespeare Garden. If you recall, I kept waiting for that part of Charing Cross Road and only realized halfway through that I’d got the wrong book.
It was in May 1979 that Miss Hanff told her BBC listeners about the corner of Central Park known as the Shakespeare Garden.
Unfortunately, as Miss Hanff explains, New York City had budget troubles and let the park gardeners go. The Shakespeare garden fell into ruin, such a depressing sight that Helene stopped walking past it; she couldn’t bear to see.
But the story doesn’t end there. The following June, Miss Hanff had this to say to her BBC audience:
Most wonderful wonderful, out of all hooping.
(Originally posted at Here in the Bonny Glen.)
Letter from New York is a collection of radio transcripts: a monthly series of five-minute talks Miss Hanff for the BBC Women’s Hour, to share a slice of New York life with London listeners. She describes her building, her neighborhood, her favorite haunts in the city; she tells colorful and wry tales about the customs and opinions of her fellow New Yorkers. Delicious stuff.
Of all the talks, the story I remembered the most clearly was the one about the Shakespeare Garden. If you recall, I kept waiting for that part of Charing Cross Road and only realized halfway through that I’d got the wrong book.
It was in May 1979 that Miss Hanff told her BBC listeners about the corner of Central Park known as the Shakespeare Garden.
It was perched on a small hilltop and reached by high stone steps. It had flower beds blooming in spring, summer, and autumn, and a famous mulberry tree; it had a little stone moat for irrigation, with a small footbridge across it…The first park gardener I met there told me it was begun in the 1900s and was modeled on Shakespeare’s garden in Stratford. A later gardener said that the garden contained every flower mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays. He used to identify them, for ignoramuses like me. And he always pointed out the big mulberry tree grown from a cutting of a tree in Shakespeare’s own garden."
Unfortunately, as Miss Hanff explains, New York City had budget troubles and let the park gardeners go. The Shakespeare garden fell into ruin, such a depressing sight that Helene stopped walking past it; she couldn’t bear to see.
But a young couple who lived near the park couldn’t avoid it. They walked past the abandoned hilltop on their way to work on pleasant mornings. And so, on Sunday in May a couple of years ago, Peggy-the-schoolteacher and John-the-lawyer climbed the stone steps—with buckets of earth and buckets of water and garden tools—and began to dig. They worked all day; and the next Saturday they went back to the hilltop and worked all weekend.
A few neighbors and passersby saw them working and joined them. From then on, the volunteers worked weekends all spring and summer, and all the net spring and summer. And this year the garden is beginning to bloom again.
It’s not the Shakespeare Garden it once was. Peggy told me we can’t get English wildflower seeds over here. So the garden has no cowslips or harebells, and there’s no border of English roses anyore. But we still call it the Shakespeare Garden. And in a city of cliff dweller, it’s a small miracle to have Central Park’s only garden growing again, even if it’s not the English garden I loved.
But the story doesn’t end there. The following June, Miss Hanff had this to say to her BBC audience:
A year ago, I told you about the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park which had gone to seed when the city could no longer afford gardeners, and which a handful of New Yorkers had begun to recreate here. I said that the new garden could never be a real Shakespeare garden, since we couldn’t get English wildflower seeds over here. Well, a few generous Woman’s Hour listeners promptly rushed out and mailed us wildflower seeds, and I am now able to report that the cowslips and harebells are blooming, and so is the dyer’s work. And along the rustic wooden fence at the far rim of the garden—for the first time in ten years—the gold-centered, white English garden roses are blooming again. The Shakespeare Gardeners thank you, New York thanks you, and I can’t tell you wahat it meant to me, to see the long row of yellow buds flower into white roses again, like a like of small Phoenixes rising from the ashes. Thank you!
Most wonderful wonderful, out of all hooping.
(Originally posted at Here in the Bonny Glen.)
January 19, 2022
She tells about the city of New York from a resident's view. She describes her neighbors, the stores in the neighborhood, the dogs and the dogwalkers and what they do during the year. It is a wonderful view of the city in the late 70's and early 80's.
It isn't quite as good as 84 Charing Cross Road, but she really set a high bar with that one!
It isn't quite as good as 84 Charing Cross Road, but she really set a high bar with that one!
May 20, 2023
Reading #letterfromnewyork by #helenehanff @manderleypress was a pure joy!
A celebration of New York’s history, traditions and landmarks - all unapologetically brash, individual and iconic.
Loved these insights from Helene about a city I’ve visited twice but both times well after this particular timespan.
New Yorkers have truly carved their own way of living in the city and are a rare breed which makes them both endearing and formidable the world over.
A celebration of New York’s history, traditions and landmarks - all unapologetically brash, individual and iconic.
Loved these insights from Helene about a city I’ve visited twice but both times well after this particular timespan.
New Yorkers have truly carved their own way of living in the city and are a rare breed which makes them both endearing and formidable the world over.
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