The Misadventures of Margaret Finch
Blackpool, 1938, and Margaret Finch, who has just begun work for Mass Observation, carefully observes the sideshows on the Golden Mile. Among them is the disgraced Rector of Stiffkey, aka Harold Davidson, attempting to raise money to clear his name. But Margaret is watching more than the sideshows. She records the people who flock to them, their appearance, behaviour, and conversations. All the while, Margaret herself tries to blend in, to become invisible. While Margaret concentrates on her work, the Rector believes she’s a journalist, triggering a series of misunderstandings. These trigger the series of misadventures that are initially comic, but ultimately touching.
Like Margaret, this book is deceiving. Beneath crisp, entertaining prose lies strong research and an underlying serious theme. Mill workers, in Blackpool for the ‘wakes’, surge onto the beach and into Margaret’s life, hungry to be entertained by anything and everything, from a flea circus to the disgraced Rector. Lancashire dialect rings off the page, the sea sparkles, the grubbiness of the pubs hidden beneath glittering mirrors and crowds round the piano belting out popular songs. But Margaret is not one of them. She has been schooled to be ‘proper’. Margaret is terrified that a misstep, a misplaced word, will expose her. Hence, McGlasson portrays the multiple, subtle layers of social strata. Strata that will shortly experience the greatest ‘levelling’ of all time: the Second World War. But here in 1938, a person’s place is of prime importance. Male, female, working class, middle class, ‘respectable’, or ‘disgraced’. Where does Margaret fit? Who is the true Margaret?
This is a beautifully observed tale of both 1930s Blackpool, and also of a woman who struggles to find her place. Recommended.
