The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding

Really great story. I was sad to come to the end. The author is excellent at character development. I want to listen to her other books.

I am a 82 year old lady this book brought a lot of memories both good and not so good it thoroughly enjoyed it and well deserved a five star. Thank you ♥️

Such a beautiful story of life and friendship. Very well performed.

Etwas zu viel Liebesgedöns für meinen Geschmack. Aber ansonsten eine gelungene Geschichte.

Amazing read! I def was blown away by the story and I didn’t realize I would gobble it up so quickly!

Once you get passed the first few chapters, and start realising how everything connects, it´s quite a good book. If you like The Crown, you will also like this book

***Trigger Warning***
.
.
.
.
.
TW: rape
.
.
.
There is a graphic rape scene about halfway through the book. It was so good until then. I had to stop reading after that part so I can’t review beyond that.

I loved every chapter of this book. What a great writer and descriptor Jennifer Robson is! The characters were precious-I liked every one of them.

The friendship of two women who by strength, encouragement, talent, and faith made it through the most difficult times

Loosely based historical novel of 1947 London and the making of the wedding gown of Princess (now Queen) Elizabeth to the Duke of Edinburgh. It was hard to remember that it wasn't totally fact based; however, Robson conducted enough research to make it feel so. It's also a book about the women of that era, after the war, and how they were not cowed by the adversities they faced. Highly recommend "The Gown".

This book was amazing. Love, love, loved it! Just wonderful.

For me, the subject was unique. Hearing it read with accents and feeling made envisioning the characters and background so much more real. Now I really need to do some research!

The Gown is ostensibly about Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown – and yes, the book does spend some fair amount of time in the workroom of Norman Hartnell but this is really the story of two of the girls who worked on the dress. In the period after WWII England was still suffering from the aftereffects. Everything is rationed and it’s one of the coldest winters London has seen with little coal to be had for heat. The joy of a Royal Wedding is giving the country something to celebrate.Ann is a senior embroiderer working for Mr. Hartnell. She loves her work adorning the dresses for the royal ladies and other wealthy clients. Miriam is a young woman from France who is escaping the horrors of the war and the loss of her family to the Nazis. She uses her determination and skills to land a job at Hartnell’s and soon becomes friends with Ann. The two of them are soon living together and find themselves selected to work on the princess’s wedding dress.Soon after the royal wedding Ann leaves England for Canada and Miriam goes on to become a famous artist. Ann never speaks of her time at Hartnell’s with her family and none of them know of her history. It’s only when a box with her granddaughter Heather’s name on it is found after her death that the questions start being asked about Ann’s life before she came to Canada. Heather decides to go to England to find some answers.I cannot write enough about how much I enjoyed this book. Usually when I read a dual timeline story I prefer one time’s tale to the other’s but in The Gown’s case I loved both. The bulk of the story was spent in the past with Ann and Miriam as is to be expected but Heather’s part of the story is quite interesting as well.I was pulled into the story from the very beginning and I read the book in one day. It was hard to put it down and the only reason I did was to cook dinner. The portion that takes place in the present is perhaps one third of the book but it’s a vital part of the book and it pulls everything together. Given the premise, the heart of the story lies in the portion and Ms. Robson brought post WWII London alive in all of it’s gritty glory. She also develops her characters slowly and deftly so that as a reader you become invested in their lives.Her descriptions of the Hartnell workshop were fascinating. I felt like I was there with the young women as they went to work every morning and lived their excitement when they learned they would be making a wedding dress for the Princess Elizabeth. In a world that is grey, crumbling and bitter cold the joy of a wedding is contagious.The book is more than just the making of this iconic wedding dress, it is also the story of Ann and Miriam; of their friendship and of the relationships that move them into the future. Their friendship is a strong one and the women’s separate tales also make for fascinating reading. Miriam has been through so much as a Jewish woman in France; her family has disappeared and she has survivor’s guilt. Ann has lost family in the war and life is just hard for everyone in its aftermath.Ms. Robson brings post war London alive in vivid detail so that I felt the bitter cold and could taste the weak tea. The stories were captivating in both eras. It’s a book than any history buff or fan of Queen Elizabeth II will love.

One of the best books I have read this year.

A good story. Very poignant. Parts of it are very moving, at other times it was a little slow moving for me. I enjoyed listening to the narrator. I liked her voice and I thought she did quite a good job with the various accents.

Historical fiction novel which takes place in 3 alternative voices and 2 timelines.
The first timeline, told in the two voices of Ann and Miriam, takes place in 1947's London and surrounds the royal wedding of the late Queen Elizabeth. Anne and Miriam are both skilled embroiderers who work at an atelier where the wedding gown/veil and accompanying wedding party attire is being produced.
The second timeline is in 2016 and alternates between Miriam and Heather, a Canadian from Toronto who travels to London to learn the story behind some embroidery pieces.

Glimpses of occupied Paris, survival during the Holocaust, London after WWII and the effort/excitement of the royal wedding all work together to learn of the complicated, oftentimes sad, lives of Ann and Miriam and show how precious their friendship became.

The 1947 and 2016 timelines worked together and gave me a satisfying conclusion for which I had hoped.

Listened to this on audio.
What a wonderful story, told in two interweaving timelines.

First is Ann and Miriam in 1947 in post WWII London. The second timeline is Heather in modern day Toronto.

Ann and Miriam are both embroiderers, working on Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown (current Queen Elizabeth). Their war-time stories are told in flashbacks, and are heartbreaking.

In the modern timeline, Heather (Ann's granddaughter) has only just discovered a small clue about her grandmother's involvement in the Princess's wedding gown.

The author does a good job of building up suspense around both story lines, along with some romance (both good and "gone wrong"), history of the holocaust and the blitz, post WWII rationing and conditions in London, and life-long friendships.

This was a great book for me to be reading right now - took me right out of current events and into a different world.

Jennifer Robson's books are a refreshing and enlightening glimpse of the past, and SO well-written! I've enjoyed ALL of her books immensely!!

4.5 stars if I could. Really enjoyable read

I was in England during the week of mourning for Queen Elizabeth. It was a unique experience to see the throngs of people who came out to honor their monarch. There were everyday people from everywhere — she certainly touched a lot of lives. My book club chose The Gown by Jennifer Robson, which didn’t feature the then Princess Elizabeth as a main character, but rather all of the fanfare surrounding her wedding and in particular the making of her gown. The book is told in two timelines with fictional main characters that were true reflections of the era — two women finding a way in the world after the devastation of WWII. The novel brought the time and place to life with rich historical detail. I would call The Gown women’s fiction because of its emphasis on women’s changing roles in a new world, while fighting against obstacles and prejudices from the past. Both characters face struggles, some heart-breaking, with determination and an eye to a hope-filled future. The modern day thread is a smaller part of the book, yet I found it be a wonderful way to bring all the storylines to a satisfying conclusion. (Special note, including a spoiler: there is a scene that features some sexual abuse some may find triggering.)

Recommended.

Audience: adults.

(I purchased this book for my Kindle. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)

I am not a person who is enamored with British royals or with fancy wedding gowns, but I still very much enjoyed this tale of the creating of Princess Elizabeth's wedding gown. The story centers around the lives of two young embroiderers, Ann and Miriam. Though they come from radically different backgrounds, they become fast friends when they meet at the fashion house of Norman Hartnell. Expert artists with a needle, they create patterns of embroidery for the expensive gowns of important ladies. Eventually, they are chosen to create the embroidery for the wedding gown of Princess Elizabeth. Much of the story, though, concerns the harsh lives these two young women experienced during and after the war. The novel vacillates between 1947 with Ann and Miriam, and 2016, with the additional character of Ann’s granddaughter Heather. The mysteries of her grandmother’s past are finally exposed when Heather travels to England from Canada to see an exhibition of the famous gown. This novel is well written and extensively researched, and the fictionalized characters are so real, you might just forget they never really existed. If this fictional account has whetted your appetite for more information about the royals and that time period, the author has kindly included a list of suggested books for just that purpose.

4.5. Sweet story, and well-written historical fiction about women who did the custom embroidery work on (then) Princess Elizabeth’s wedding gown and veil in 1947. Ann Hughes was a single woman supporting herself by sewing at Hartnell’s. Miriam Dassin was a Jewish French emigre who survived the war and Ravensbruck and came to England highly recommended to Norman Hartnell. She and Ann become friends and co-workers and have significant roles in the embroidery on the dress. This part is all fiction, but well done, following the women through the post-war depression in England and their dating lives and what a pick-me-up the wedding was for the British People. The story switches to present-day Toronto, Canada and Heather Mackenzie whose grandmother has just died. She is given a set of elaborate embroidery samples and this opens a whole search for what she didn’t know about her grandmother, who turn out to be Ann. All the years in between get filled in with a love interest for Heather and what she learns about her family and its role in history make the entire story arc complete. Very enjoyable read with a lot to investigate later.

The story of two women who both worked as embroiderers in the design shop that made Princess Elizabeth's wedding dress. Ann finds a new roommate in Meriam who has recently fled France after WWII. The design of the dress is a huge secret.

Another character is Heather, the granddaughter of Ann. Before the wedding, Ann was seduced and raped by a man wanting information regarding the dress. In shame, she emigrated to Canada where she had family but never talked about her life in England. After her death, she left Heather a small piece of fancy embroidery. Curious about her grandmother's past, Heather goes to England and is actually able to meet Meriam and her grandson.

Interesting but light read.

In 1947 London, Ann works as an embroiderer for Norman Hartnell, a major dressmaker whose clientele includes the Royal family. Miriam is newly arrived in England for a fresh start after the horrors she faced during the war and her inability to return to normal life in France. Meanwhile, in 2016 Toronto, Heather is reeling from the loss of her beloved grandmother and trying to figure out why her grandmother left her a box with beautiful embroidery samples within.

I received an ARC of this book at a library conference in early 2019 and finally got around to reading it over two years later (to be fair, it technically wasn't an ARC at the time I received it as the book was out at that point). It's a really lovely tale with three fascinating women as the protagonists. Each chapter is written in alternating points of view and the plots beautifully intertwine, with both the 1947 and 2016 timelines revealing details that reflect back and forth. The descriptions of embroidery work are beautiful, and while Queen Elizabeth's wedding dress is a major feature that ties the three women together, readers who aren't fans of the royal family are likely to find just as much to enjoy. A solid choice for book clubs, I really enjoyed my time with this historical fiction novel.

I requested The Gown to review, however I wasn't chosen so I purchased it on my own, and I wasn't disappointed. This was one of the best books I have read in a long time. It takes you inside the work room of the embroiders who work on the painstaking details to prepare the work of art on the gowns for the elite and the gown for the princess wedding. However, the lives of the women and those around them are just as captivating as those who lived it and those who followed. I definitely recommend this read.

Sweet. I am getting a bit tired of the different time frames.

I loved learning about the process of the gown and the connection that the women making it had. So neat to hear the designer Hartnell's name back in the news with the most recent royal wedding. A great historical fiction read!

A very “ British” story that I found quite delightful. It was very interesting to read about what life was like in London right after the war. It was also interesting to learn about the making of Queen Elizabeth‘a ( then Princess Elizabeth) wedding gown. Very enjoyable.

This was really a wonderful read. I am not a fan of historical fiction but I sure am a fan of this book.

Excellent book. I recommend it.