Euro
British Pound
Product Description
The Archbishop in question is the long dead Archbishop Bodkin, who has given his name to a large children’s orphanage in Putney, South-West London (500 of the poor little things from babies to teenagers). The story is set in the 1920s and 30s, before the Welfare State began to change the way we provide care for vulnerable children. In fact there are only two ‘children of the Archbishop’ who feature to any extent in the plot, being Sweetie, whom we first meet when she is being abandoned at three weeks old on the steps of this rather imposing institution, and the scallywag Ginger, whose origins are even murkier.
As in London, most of the humour and interest of the novel comes from the various adult characters who superintend the Orphanage, from Dame Eleanor who chairs the Board of Governors, and has fingers in every charitable pie in London, to the mysterious and beautiful nursemaid Margaret. The arrival of a new Warden, with an ambitious agenda of reforms and cost-saving initiatives, kickstarts the plot. He is a man with no sense of humour, not much intelligence, a massive and unwarranted superiority complex and a lust for power. His name, I kid you not, is Dr Trump.
Hardcover, Book Club Edition reprint, undated. dustjacket is bright and undamaged.
