The Dressmaker (Bainbridge novel) role. The Dressmaker (Bainbridge novel) The Dressmaker (US title The Secret Glass) is a gothic psychological novel written by Beryl Bainbridge. In 1973, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Like many of Bainbridge's earlier works, the novel is semi-autobiographical. In particular, the story was inspired by a relationship that she had with a soldier as a teenager. The characters of Nellie and Margo were based upon two of her paternal aunts. Set in Liverpool and Lancashire during World War II, a repressed dressmaker and her sister struggle looking after their 17-year-old niece, who is having a delusional affair with
The Man Who Pays The Piper type by the scruff of its neck." The theatricalism referred to in both reviews has to do with the characters other than Daryll who are portrayed more as caricatures than fully developed portraits. Morgan wrote that "Stern has introduced to her play characters that her taste and judgment would have excluded from a novel." Reviews of the 2013 production sounded similar notes. For "The Independent", Paul Taylor wrote, "There's often too little narrative impetus but the problems the piece raises are still pertinent." Laura Thompson, reviewing for "The Telegraph" wrote, "Stern is no Ibsen, and she rarely says something once