BooksBarbecue
Back When Life Gives You Lemons
Chapters (54)
  1. Cover
  2. WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS
  3. Dedication
  4. Part One
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Part Two
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. Chapter Ten
  16. Chapter Eleven
  17. Chapter Twelve
  18. Chapter Thirteen
  19. Chapter Fourteen
  20. Chapter Fifteen
  21. Chapter Sixteen
  22. Chapter Seventeen
  23. Chapter Eighteen
  24. Chapter Nineteen
  25. Chapter Twenty
  26. Part Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-One
  28. Chapter Twenty-Two
  29. Chapter Twenty-Three
  30. Chapter Twenty-Four
  31. Chapter Twenty-Five
  32. Chapter Twenty-Six
  33. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  34. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  35. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  36. Part Four
  37. Chapter Thirty
  38. Chapter Thirty-One
  39. Chapter Thirty-Two
  40. Chapter Thirty-Three
  41. Chapter Thirty-Four
  42. Chapter Thirty-Five
  43. Chapter Thirty-Six
  44. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  45. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  46. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  47. Chapter Forty
  48. Chapter Forty-One
  49. Chapter Forty-Two
  50. Acknowledgements
  51. Keep Reading …
  52. About the Author
  53. By the same author:
  54. About the Publisher
  • The reasons why it’s precisely the right kind of event for our city.
  • The wide appeal it would have to fashion students, fans of Seventies style, people who remember the boutiques and shopped there for their weekend outfits (the nostalgia aspect).
  • How we would go about amassing a Girl Friday collection (I’m deliberately not focusing too closely on this aspect right now, as I don’t want fear to dent my sudden burst of confidence. I just keeping trying to picture myself standing on my kitchen table, and shouting, with Jules looking on encouragingly).
  • The key pieces from the shops’ heyday. This part has been particularly fun to research. I’d assumed Girl Friday was mainly about dresses and separates, but now I’ve discovered that accessories were a big thing too: the ‘Jinty’ handbag, the ‘Carly’ floppy hat, the ‘Rita’ belt in rust-coloured suede. And the knitwear; by God, it was gorgeous! Along with the cute sweaters and tank tops there were woolly dresses and crocheted tops – and, best of all, the apparently iconic ‘Pippa’ Poncho, an explosion of red, orange and yellow with an extravagant fringe edging and pompoms on strings at the neck. Featured in all the magazines, and worn by models and celebrities, it summed up the whole Girl Friday spirit: fun, bright, joyful. We must have a ‘Pippa’. That’s the piece that’ll appear on the posters and all the advertising. Even if it means driving to Cornwall to fetch one, I’ll do it somehow.
  • How we would stage the actual show (with models from local agencies? And perhaps older women who wore the outfits back in the day?).
  • Costings: tricky to figure but, as I work away steadily into the night, I’m aware of something happening, something building in me: a tight ball of excitement that I haven’t felt for a very long time.

Whatever it takes, I have to make this happen. In the way that Penny ‘just’ created the outfits from the pictures in her head, so I ‘just’ need to convince the museum bigwigs that this would be the most amazing event, and that they would be utterly mad not to say yes.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Thursday, September 12

My proposal is finished, having been polished way into the night, to the occasional sound of Lara crying next door. I think I’m happy with it. It certainly seems to convey my enthusiasm and passion. It was quite a beast by the end, having grown from my brief points into a splurge about how great Penny is, such an asset to our city who has never been properly recognised – at least, not in recent years.