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GLAD TIDINGS by Joyce Warren

GLAD TIDINGS

By

Publisher: Harper

A continuation of Our Glad (1957) this continues the comfortable chronicle of Gladys Miller's climb to fame and, starting in 1933, carries through to the blitz -- when her fortunes have an end. Glad, a flop in a big revue, is prodded by her producer into pictures, under Sir Jonas Wood at Zodiac films; her little part is padded, and suddenly she has a new career. She is picked up by Sam Park, Wood's competitor on a more commercial level, and becomes a household word; Wood, in trying to get Glad back, works his peculiar way -- and brings her right along, with her whole family in tow. But with the achievement of national popularity, Glad is aware of moving outside of that family perimeter, and, with a collapse at a benefit, she finds the care of Dr. Robert Waring a new stimulus. Her fame growing, his interest increasing, it is the family bulwark that creates an impasse that neither can surmount. World War II makes her even more of an adored celebrity, but more lonely and, when she learns that Robert has married, when suicide is her choice, there is the underground in a blackout that revives her desire to live and brings her a proper ending. A crowded, stout and cheerful English panorama that never loses its feel for the basis of traditional pierrot shows with their ability to create a tea-cosy type of story. Something to like -- without effort.