Now if my head really exploded over Monica Dickens’ My Fair Lady novelization (and it almost did but we live in Moderate Income Apartments and exploded head is really really really hard to get out of cream walls and tan carpet), I am positive Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh (it’s like something out of a soap opera isn’t it?) would have a handy tip for stain removal, an inexpensive and delicious treat to give the Hazmat clean up crew AND find a use for all those delightful rubber gloves. Martha Stewart and Amy Dacyczyn, ladies you are on notice! Bow before Queen Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh.
I don’t know how (well living in New England vs Tasmania might be a tiny factor) I reached the age of almost forty-one without encountering the housewife goddess of goddesses Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh. But I have seen the light! Thanks to my bottomless craving for books, I found myself at the Plainville Public Library book sale last week. Because my hip was hurting like a melon farmer at harvest time I took the elevator vs the stairs to the sale. And while waiting for the elevator to arrive, saw the book that is making me trawl eBay, Awesome Books, Thrift Books and Book Barn for everything Marjorie. I mean I could just break down and order copies from Amazon but a) expensive b) the thrill of the hunt and c) Marjorie of all people would understand wanting to stretch my book buying dollar right?
Shimmering like a retro beacon, a vision in mint green and clutching gaudy orange flowers, Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh beamed from the cover of Danielle Wood’s Housewife Superstar: Advice (and Much More) from a Nonagenarian Domestic Goddess. It was as if Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh knew I was weak and the worst housewife ever and would scoop up the book the second I was done with the book sale. And scoop it up I did just in cause there were retro housewife fanatics lurking in the mystery section to race out and snatch right from under my poor scratched to heck hands. (And yes, I just know Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh has a cure for that and a replacement for the expensive RX cream I should be using every day).
Danielle Wood could not have engineered a book more perfect for me because Housewife Superstar: Advice (and Much More) from a Nonagenarian Domestic Goddess hits all my “YESSSSSS” buttons. Biography. Healthy snippets from Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh’s books. Dame Edna Everage. COLOR photo section. But enough swooning right?
Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh (am copying and pasting that over and over because my poor hands) is a treasure from the island state of Tasmania (yes, where the Tasmanian Devil and Errol Flynn come from) who for over sixty years has been perfecting the art of being a housewife. She’s won endless prizes, written more books than I ever will and has a museum in her house. She’s also survived grinding poverty, an abusive first husband (Mr Blackwell), over forty year estrangement from her eldest son, the tragic death of her beloved second husband, battles with stepdaughters and poor health. But her life hasn’t been all sadness. She’s designed two houses (the 1950s Cli-mar makes me want to go to Tasmania and see it in person), given books to the Queen, is adored by Barry Humphries and in her nineties still does more in one day than I will do in my whole vacation next month.
If you trawl through the stacks at Goodwill, Savers and Salvation Army, block the aisle in the cooking/crafts/gardening section at library book sales (hands off those Time-Life Art of Sewing because they are MINE!), scour estate sales for treasures and can make your own Oxi-Clean then Housewife Superstar: Advice (and Much More) from a Nonagenarian Domestic Goddess is tailor made for you. Heck if you’ve even picked up a duster or tried one of Heloise’s hints, Housewife Superstar: Advice (and Much More) from a Nonagenarian Domestic Goddess is for you. Now time to wrap up this review and do a little housekeeping of my own.
***
Sad news…Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh died last month.
whiskeytangowendymarie.com 