Mrs Harris Goes to Moscow

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Mrs Harris, with not too many points of reference, could only think of it as a combination of a bejewelled fairy city and an amusement park with only the rollercoaster and other thrill rides missing. Gallico’s story is straightforward and well-constructed, and it moves along at a fair old pace to its conclusion within 200 pages. Unfortunately, the discreet passing of documents is an activity which can land even the most well-intentioned charlady in hot water with the KGB.

Russia in Fiction has no further reason to trouble ourselves with any other of the Mrs Harris novels, but we are not unhappy that we read this one. It’s of its time , maybe a little old fashioned attitude that wards women and class BUT it was an easy read , delightful, uplifting and great characters in a lovely imaginative plot. I was feeling in the mood for something silly and light, and Gallico’s series is entirely reliable for that.I'm somewhat sorry that this installment completed the series, but it hasn't spoiled my memory of my introduction to Mrs. Mrs Harris Goes To Moscow is the fourth and final in Gallico’s occasional series of books about the adventures of Mrs Ada Harris, a widowed London char woman. She decides to courier a message from one of her lovesick clients to the Intourist guide he fell in love with on a previous visit.

Mrs Harris is one of the great creations of fiction - so real that you feel you know her, yet truly magical as well. Mrs Harris is a two-dimensional stereotype of a 'working class' person (or rather, a romanticised view of what a middle class person of the era might think a 'working class' person to be).All sorts of complications eventually arise, especially once they realize their status and Liz becomes involved, much to her own peril. This 1970s farce has a simple premise - cleaning lady Mrs Harris and her friend Violet win a trip to Soviet Russia. Something definitely happened with this last book in the series: just looking at cover art leads me to believe there was a switch in publishers, their illustrator was lost, or there was a drastic shift in marketing strategy (perhaps all? Owen Matthews wrote about his parents’ troubles in this regard in Stalin’s Children (Bloomsbury, 2009)). Harris wins a trip for two to Moscow and hopes to help one of her clients, who is in love with a Russian woman.

If you want something comfortable, easy-to-read, and faintly ridiculous, then it is fine — it’s a cold Sunday afternoon, put the heating on, make a cup of tea, may be a slice of Dundee cake, and curl up on the sofa with Mrs Harris Goes To Moscow.Plot-wise, Keystone cop KGB officers mistake a char lady as Lady Char, an aristocrat and therefore clearly a spy.