The Gladys Society

By Sandi Toksvig

Book Overview

In the autumn of 1971, having been thrown out of a rather fancy private school, Sandi Toksvig was sent to the only remaining option - Mamaroneck High School, New York. Sandi was chosen for the lead role in a production of The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder. Three girls were cast in the part of Gladys Antrobus, playing her at different ages of her life, and Sandi was the youngest. This was the beginning of a friendship with a group of females that still influences her to this day. Soon all the girls in the cast and crew were becoming members of The Gladys Society. In the end there were 12 of them. The Gladys Society records Sandi's travels in America catching up with her 11 fellows.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316860972
• ISBN13: 9780316860970
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Length: 307 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.1" x 5.7"

Customer Reviews

Great book

This is a great book. Travel with humour and insight, it satisfies at every level.

Comedienne revisits her past

I much prefer Sandy Toksvig's non-fiction writing to her novels. Here she provides a twist to the (too easy) choice of a childhood memoir by focusing on a play put on by her high school drama class and links it with the current vogue for quest-based books by attempting to relocate her co-stars in a kind of "friends reunited " adventure. The structure of the book - a series of vignettes as she meets various chums of long ago - plays to Toksvig's strengths as she deftly outlines characters and finds the humor in some absurd social situations. She clearly embarked on something of a spitiual journey in trying to reunite the Gladys Society and it is a testament to her skill as a writer that she is able to take her readers along with her.