The Misadventures of Margaret Finch

Eve
I found this book rather difficult to fully understand. I knew Margaret had a new job and it was very important, but I could not fully understand what this job was. As the book went on I found myself reading it at speed and wondering if I was missing something. As it was the beginning of the war I was wondering if Margaret was getting local information for use by German spies. Unless I missed something, this was not the case. But the book was OK and fairly easy to read. If rather disappointing. I would give it a 4.

Arleen
This story I found almost unbelievable. The story starts in 1938. The year I was born, that to me was the best of this story! We start off as Margaret was excited to find work with a group of people in Blackpool. Her job was to follow people to find out how they spent their money, how they behaved when on holiday and anything else that she found interesting. I found this went on and on for a long time as she went around filling her pad with all she had seen and heard of the holidaymakers.
I had thought she was recruited by the Russians as a spy. I could then have understood that, but just to go around all day long with a pad and pencil to follow folk.
I couldn't make sense of it.
Now we come to the Rev Davidson. He was accused of being too friendly with young women. He had to leave the Church and was trying to keep himself in the headlines of the local papers so people would remembered him when he had to go to court. Margaret would follow him around and listen to him while writing in her pad. He did several odd
things to say the least, things. like sitting in a large barrel for weeks at a time, going on a hunger strike. The last thing he did was to go into a cage with two lions. Unfortunately one of the lions got spooked and that was the end of the Rev Davidson. I couldn't say I was heartbroken about it.
The only thing I was happy about was the fact that Margaret was so good at her work and she noticed things that other people missed. She was offered a job working for a Government department at a large house at Bletchley Buckinghamshire.
I give this book 5/10

Mabe
I read the misadventure etc.
I found I wanted to get to the end .
It is interesting to learn what government departments did in that era.
I quite enjoyed it
I give it 7

Helen
I found the book to be well written, but felt that it was overly long, and at times it felt a little jumbled in terms of the structure. This meant I had to reread and check sections. I would have liked an introduction to the Mass Observation project at the start to set the context. However, the real life elements were fascinating and I was curious enough to look into these, I had not heard of the project or indeed the unfortunate incident with the lions before! Because of that I would give this a 6/10

Carolyn
It took me a while to get into this book and I nearly gave up on it. I found Margaret irritating with her getting drunk, taking morphine and walking down dark alleys. She may have been very clever but didn't have a clue about normal life. It wasn't until I realised that Harold Davidson was a real person that I became interested. Although he was a rector he had a previous career in the theatre. Some of his shows and his death were very bizarre. I quite enjoyed the last third of it.
I score it 5.

Kirsty
I wasn't a huge lover of this one unfortunately. I found it on audiobook on borrowbox so ended up listening to it. I think if i had read it I would have struggled even more. It was an interesting concept and some of the things that were discussed in the book itself was quite intriguing such as the Rector Of Stiffky and the lion, especially knowing it was based on a true story and also the mass observation. However I found the main storyline quite uninteresting and thought it could have been a lot shorter than it was. We went to Blackpool in 2022 and was there when the Queen passed so I enjoyed "reliving" some of the Blackpool experiences. I would have enjoyed it more if she had focused on the sections such as the lion, two headed man etc.
Overall I would only give it a 5

Chris - from notes taken by Eve
We found the book a little boring, and we were .not sure if the point of the story. Helen had been told of something called mass observation. This was about the same time as book and could very well be the job that was being referred to. Even so, this was not referred to and could have been used to make the book more interesting. Some of us thought that the era was right for spying - possibly the Germans wanting to find out how life was in Britain. It did have the making of a good book, but did not expand in that way. Basically despite promise the book was disappointing.
Chris's score - 4 out of 10

Sonia
I found this book a little odd even if you were aware of the era - there were parts that needed much more information like the mass observation and also how practically the Rev Stiffkey went from being a preacher to being a seaside entertainer. Obviously there were no decent HR practices or Health and Safety regulations then. However, the strangest thing to me was how Margaret Finch went from being a very prime and proper young lady to being a promiscuous alcoholic drug addict in a very short time.
Having said that I did quite enjoy the story so I would give it a 5 out of 10

Average score : 5 out of 10