SocialhistoryMarriages areMade in Bond StreetPenrose Halson(Macmillan, el6.99 .e14.99)

;T MACINE if. at the head-I quarters of today's internet

= I datingagencies.therewere-Q two wise, compassionate, practicalfi laclies who really thoughl about

*X the men andwomen searching for$ love and had sudden brainwaves

0_'6 about who simply rziusl be intro-$ duced to whom. Wouldn't the! world be a happier place?3 This was what I couldn't helpii thinklng while reading this fas-E cinatingtrue storyof the Marriage$ Bureau at 124, New Bond Street,p founded in 1939 by two youngI ladies, Mary Oliver and Heather! Jenner. I thought thiswas going

$ to be afrivolous romp throughthea frolicks of wartime matchmak-$ ing and, indeed, it is a book full6 of charm and hilarity, written infi u rlo-.,ons"nse style by an accom-$ pHshed writer and story,teller, butS it uOA. uo Lo far more lhan that.-\^== Itdepictstheharshworldo[the

i marriage market. only 75 yearsr ago, when daughters in l,heir earlyE twenties were desperate to get

90 Country Life, March 30, 2016

away from deathly spinsterhoodunder their parents' shadows andhomesick men were desperateto find a nice young gal to fallin love with and marry duringtheir short leave.

The book contains hundredsof stories of successful and failedintroductions, all presided overby the marvellous, unshockableladies in the Bureau, includinggrey-haired Dorothy Harbottle,known as Bottle, who chain-smoked and had an unfailinginstinct for inspired introduc-tions. So vividly does Penrose

Halson write, quoting directlyfrom letters and index cards,that you care about each mini-Iove story, whether it's sweet,impoverished Myrtle who even-tually finds her soulmate in thedelightful Irishman Rory O'Raweor the adorable, sensitive Ivyand diffident Archibald Bullin-Archer, whose love story endsin traledy. There's always a senseof jubilation when a couple getsmarried-and not just becausethey pay the After Marriage Fee.

The ladies at the Bureau cameup with shorthand terms to put

the Marriage Bureau

on the index cards to denote thesocial classes of the people ontheir books: Lady and Gent, NearGent and Near Lady, Gentishand Ladyish and then WorkingClass, divided into MBTM(much better than most) andMBTS (much better than some).

It sounds a rather brutalsystem, but it worked, and intro-ductions could certainly bemade across the social divides:an MBTM could be introducedto a Gentish and a Near Ladyto a Gent.Ysenda Martone Graham

A licence for love: Heather Jenner was one of the co-founders of

!'.Jri!"lry.e+u *t:'y' if +. **. ii i{

Marriages Are Made in Bond Street

TRUE STORIES FROM A 1940sMARRIAGE BUREAU

By Penrose HalsonPublished by Macmillan

In April 1939 Heather Jenner and MaryOliver, aged 24, opened a Marriage Bureau

in Bond Street. They wanted to help expatriate men - soldiers, businessmen,

tea-planters, missionaries, colonial servants- who came to England on leave to find a wife.

In September 1939 war was declared. In thegrowing uncertainty and fear, clients of all

kinds sought the Bureau’s help. It blossomedinto a national institution.

A television series based on the bookis currently in development