BOOK REVIEW: The Shoe Seller's Daughter
Set in 1950s Cleveleys, the moving tale of a shoe seller’s
daughter and her struggle to overcome prejudice in a male-dominated profession.
WARNING: This review may contain loafers.
The Shoe Seller’s Daughter is the third in J.R.R. Withers
hugely unsuccessful series of footwear novels which began with A Tale of Two
Slippers and was followed by To Kill A Moccasin. Fourteen years on from the
events of Moccasin we find Iain Smithers’ daughter Clarabelle has come of age
and is preparing to take over the family business, but she has a rival in the
form of her evil uncle Clark Startrite who believes a woman has no place in the shoe
trade and wishes to take over his brother’s business himself.
Withers appears to have taken on board criticism of his
previous works, that they were “disturbingly shoe-obsessed” (Times) and “entirely
lacking in coherent prose” (Independent). Blackpool’s Evening Gazette was
slightly kinder with their review when they said his previous work “reads more
like a shoe catalogue than a novel”. This time the drama flows as evidenced
from this brief excerpt:
Clarabelle awoke sharply and quickly dressed. She paused
for a moment as she pondered whether she should wear her soft-soled boat-shoes
or her thigh-length leather fashion boots. Opting for neither she instead chose
a pair of sturdy, ankle-high brogans and started down the staircase. As she
neared the foot of the stairs where the family kept their shoes she noticed
that her father’s pair of Oxford brogues were missing. “That’s odd” she thought.
Not only was it unusual for her father to have left the house this early, but
his pair of buckled monk shoes would have offered better protection from the
weather than the laced Oxfords, which sometimes let in water through the
eyelets.
“Father!” Clarabelle called out. Silence. “Father! Are
you there?” she called again. From the distance her father called back “I’m out
here Clarabelle”.
“Father! What are you doing outside in this awful
weather, and in your Oxford brogues?”
“I’m not wearing my Oxford brogues, Clarabelle. I’ll be
inside in a moment.”
“Not wearing your Oxfords? Then which pair of shoes are
you wearing, father?”
“I’m… trying out some new wellingtons. They are a
knee-length waterproof boot made from rubber or plastic, ideal for
harsh outdoor conditions”.
“I’m aware of what wellington boots are, father. I am a
shoe seller’s daughter after all! Let me see them”.
“No Clarabelle” said her father firmly, “stay where you
are, don’t come outside. I’ll be inside in a moment”.
But Clarabelle had already reached the kitchen where her
father was standing. Their eyes met briefly, before Clarabelle’s eyes fell to
his feet. That was when she noticed he was wearing a pair of Audrey
Hepburn kitten heels.
The Shoe Seller’s Daughter is available now in blue recycling
bins everywhere.
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