The Dressmaker (Bainbridge novel) 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 an
The Dressmaker (2015 film) and manages to serve as revenge tragedy, romantic comedy and stylish entertainment all at once" and saying, "Winslet is smashing as Tilly Dunnage and Davis is sublime." Jon Frosch in his review for "The Hollywood Reporter" said, "The Dressmaker is about as far from essential viewing as one could imagine, but, for all its brightly glaring flaws, much of it qualifies as a glossy, goofy guilty pleasure." However, Kevin Jagernauth in his review for "Indiewire" criticised the film, writing that it "wants to be a saucy and absurd tale of small town scandal, only to then attempt to try and