Catherine Cookson The Cultured Handmaiden

The Cultured Handmaiden

Catherine Cookson

Simon & Schuster, Dec 2005, $25.00, 256 pp.

ISBN: 0684808552

Her fianc Ray Collard dumps twenty-one years old Jinny Brownlow insisting her roommate registered nurse Emily Houselea is much warmer. At work Jinny is part of the typing pool at Henderson & Garbrook Engineering when the senior partner Bob Henderson needs office assistant help with his long time aid in the hospital. After several girls are run off by the demanding Bob, Jinny is kicked upstairs and calmly handles the curmudgeon refusing to bow to his nastiness.

Jinny becomes indispensable at work but eventually in her boss' personal life too especially when Henderson's wife dies. Concerned over her growing influence on their father and how much he likes Jinny's company, Bob's four daughters worry that their dad will marry his young assistant. However, though she likes her boss, who obviously finds Jinny helping him to overcome his loneliness and grief, she finds herself quite attracted to his son John. Her feelings are awkward because he acts strange towards her as one moment he seems in love with her and the next he acts like she is beneath him.

Though the tale takes place in the 1970s, class distinctions still remain a part of English society as this reprint by the late great Catherine Cookson portrays. The story line focuses on the relationships between Jinny and the Collard family including the wife before she dies. Fans will appreciate this fine English relationship drama while wondering who the lead female will choose, if anyone.

Harriet Klausner