{"product_id":"hop-step-and-jump","title":"Hop, Step and Jump","description":"\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cimg alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/wmfTTdJCxJfyQYsSn9PiuPhJiCR-1200-1200-675-675-crop-000000.jpg?v=1753278727\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003ePREFACE BY ROWAN PELLING\u003cbr\u003e261pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263433\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: left;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Persephone Books edition of much-loved bestseller \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMiss Pettigrew Lives for a Day \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eby Winifred Watson\u003cstrong\u003e, \u003c\/strong\u003ewe are pleased to publish another neglected novel by the same author, \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"padding-left: 20px; padding-right: 40px;\"\u003eIn the beginning, the love story of Jenny Dennet and Bert Murray ran the appointed course of all similar love stories in their neighbourhood. It differed in the end because Jenny had character as well as charm and Bert had only charm.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJenny wants more. Much more. Born into poverty in a small industrial town in the north of England, she is determined to find a way out. After taking up with a handsome rotter named Bert who works in the same factory as her, it’s not long before she gives in to his pleas to marry him. But he turns out to be a drunk and a philanderer with an occasional propensity to violence and she soon walks out on him (the ‘hop’ of the title). ‘You can’t leave me. Where’ll you go?' asks Bert. ‘I’ve got my hands an’ I’ve got my brains and I can work,’ Jenny replies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSure enough, Jenny quickly gets a job as a housemaid. She falls into an affair with her employer’s son, Hugh (the ‘step’), but, finding herself both morally compromised and – even worse – bored, she borrows some money from him to open a bakery (the ‘jump’). But will running her own business be enough to fulfill her? And what about love? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis spirited tale of upward mobility, written in Winifred Watson’s distinctively direct style, was first published in 1939 in the same week as the outbreak of war. The \u003cem\u003eGuardian\u003c\/em\u003e described it as ‘unusual and entertaining’; ‘subtle and romantic’ was L P Hartley’s verdict in the \u003cem\u003eObserver \u003c\/em\u003eand,\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003eaccording to the \u003cem\u003eSketch\u003c\/em\u003e, ‘Without being hard, Miss Winifred Watson is a matter-of-fact writer and endows her heroine with these qualities. She reminds one a little of Arnold Bennett.’ Certainly, there is an explicitness in \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e that in some ways makes it more akin to a realist novel. For example, the impoverished surroundings in which Jenny and her husband Bert have to live are described in great detail, as is the way they are virtually imprisoned because of their circumstances. The novel is brutal at times and doesn’t gloss over squalor or poverty. Yet at the same time, it is extremely entertaining and flows along like the best kind of light fiction.\u003cbr\u003e    \u003cbr\u003eSo \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e should be read on several levels. It is a very good read in the romantic novel tradition; it dissects moral values and makes the reader think hard about what is involved in Jenny’s search for freedom and love; and it is fascinating about an ordinary working class woman’s life in 1930s England. As Rowan Pelling writes in her Persephone Preface: ‘What elevates the story is the odyssey through Britain’s social classes, the candidness about sex, and the exploration of female self-determination.’ A seemingly light novel turns out to be curiously radical.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpapers\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe endpapers for \u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eHop, Step and Jump\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e are ‘Stanford’, a hand-screen printed chintz designed in 1937 by Marion Dorn for Donald Brothers, exhibited in 1939 at the British Industries Fair © Marion Dorn \/ Victoria and Albert Museum, London. We chose ‘Stanford’ for a number of reasons. It is by the same designer as the endpaper for \u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eMiss Pettigrew Lives for a Day\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e; the brown and yellow work well for a novel set in a northern industrial town where life is tough i.e. it’s not overly pretty or jolly; and the sheaves of wheat in the design recall Jenny's bakery and thus her freedom and independence. Lastly, there is a sentence on p.207 of the book describing Jenny's 'room of one's own' after her friends kindly redecorate it for her: ‘A new easy chair, together with her old one, were both draped in loose cretonne covers of a soft brown background, patterned in dull golds and yellows and sepias and paler browns. New curtains, of the same material, had been hung at the windows.’ Which does seem to describe 'Stanford' almost exactly, doesn't it? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMovie stars Hedy Lamarr and Charles Boyer, 1938.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Winifred Watson","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098809684275,"sku":"tbe1789695086282","price":24.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098809717043,"sku":"avb1789695086283","price":38.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098809749811,"sku":"mcp1789695086284","price":34.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098809782579,"sku":"juz1789695086285","price":45.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/hop-step-and-jump_1.jpg?v=1789695091","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/hop-step-and-jump","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}