[Jean's] writing is so vivid, her confessions so frank and her character so attractive. You root for her again and again, then you shake a fist at the world for letting her down . . . unbearably moving
Her longings to be elsewhere or to be someone else are utterly recognisable; her frustrations and disappointments poignant . . . These journals are a priceless find
London Review of Books - ALISON LIGHT
What a find! Jean's voice sings across the decades, fresh, vivid and desperate for love - a woman with so much to offer, who kicks against the stuffy society in which she finds herself. I grew to love her sharp observation, her vulnerability and her passion
A Bridget Jones of the 1920s . . . What Garfield is really good at is distilling meaning from a time that we don't really know about . . . extraordinary
Immensely poignant . . . On the face of it, Pratt's life appears unexceptional. Yet her diaries are utterly enthralling: intimate, occasionally barbed, frequently funny and filled with her hopes and dreams, friendships and love affairs, as well as her observations on Britain's rapidly changing society in the 20th century. It is a life laid bare in all its passion and anger, love and longing, sadness and acceptance. Pratt herself wrote: "Ordinary living isn't humdrum...there is so much pleasure to be had from apparently trivial things." It's a sentiment that could encapsulate this entire extraordinary project
Jean's honesty and unpretentiousness is very striking, and at times very moving too. I'm so pleased to see that an edition of her diaries, in which her full story can emerge, is at last seeing the light of day. She is unquestionably worthy of this, and A Notable Woman will find a valued place on my bookshelf
The sort of reading that will have you grip the arm of your chair in joy
The Debrief - ALEXANDRA HEMINSLEY
You root for Jean, so wanting her to find love, and you feel her heartbreaks and embarrassments acutely. Her diaries are a record of the quiet stoicism and loneliness of the women who were left behind by the war. She may never have met her man, her overpowering, tall, divine dancer, but what a victory to see her diaries in print
Engrossing, spiked with wit and charm, keenly observant and consistently humane . . . Shows us, in closeup, how extraordinary the business of an "ordinary" life can be - how much complexity and feeling and humour it can contain
Throughout this wonderful book, Pratt demonstrates acute descriptive powers and a piercing intelligence
Delightful . . . an extraordinary woman with a dry, wicked sense of humour and such a longing for love and recognition. I inhaled the 700 pages and still wanted more
Deliciously frank and funny
One of my favourite books of the year . . . the little details are fascinating and the overall portrait of one woman's life in the twentieth century is a must read. I can't recommend this highly enough
Stylist - CATHY RENTZENBRINK
There is no doubting the cumulative interest of this troubled record of a lonely life . . . In her private diary, Pratt swung between regret and resolution in her search for poise
What makes Pratt a great diarist is her honesty. The true diarist must never avoid looking bad
A glorious gut-wrenching read . . . A Notable Woman makes my heart sing. Jean's diaries are a life in its entirety, in all its glorious mess
Miss Pratt hoped for an audience, which she will now find, even in the most intimate act of documenting her private life. Her entries read novelistically at times. There is beauty and humour and a fantastic, page-turning narrative, even as a teenager, when, Adrian Mole-like, she writes about her girl-crushes and first kiss. Too often we dismiss the value of ordinary life. Miss Pratt reminds us that it makes for its own kind of literature
Spend Christmas with Jean Lucey Pratt, the siren of Slough: you will not regret or forget it . . . wholly absorbing and deeply entertaining
What makes these diaries such pleasurable reading is one's sense of the diarist herself: her vibrancy and humour, her idea of life as a battle to overcome and, most of all, her endless supply of hope and her refusal to be beaten
The most moving and important book I read this year by a mile: funny, tender and gripping
New Statesman - RACHEL COOKE
A Notable Woman shows us, in close up, how extraordinary the business of an 'ordinary' life can be - how much complexity and feeling and humour it can contain
A Notable Woman shows us, in close up, how extraordinary the business of an 'ordinary' life can be - how much complexity and feeling and humour it can contain." —Guardian
