The Susan Boyle of Fiction, 70 Years Ahead of 'Britain's Got Talent!'

Who is the fictional counterpart to Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who shot from obscurity to stardom on Britain’s Got Talent!? I’d vote for Guenevere Pettigrew, the virginal and unemployed ex-governess who ascends over 24 hours into a glamorous 1930s world of cocktails and evening gowns in Winifred Watson’s sparkling 1938 comedy, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (Persephone Classics, 234 pp., $15, paperback), reissued last year along with the movie version. My review of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day appeared on Nov. 10, 2008.

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