The Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee

As an amanuensis, I was intrigued by the title.  It turned out to be a really good story.

Elisabeth (Betsey) Dobson is a skilled typist, but unfortunately, that does not keep her from being fired.

After Betsey, loses her job she keeps it moving – with no money and the hopes of a potential job in another town.

Set in London in 1890’s this story contains all the things they normally didn’t talk about during that time period – sex, women, men, relations, etc.

Betsey Dobson is a force to be reckoned with.  She faces trials and tribulations head-on and is not afraid to speak her mind. After losing her job (which she was leaving anyway), jilted by her lover, and moving to a new town with just a suitcase in hand and no train fare, she starts a life that leads to new beginnings for her.

 Betsey is career-minded.   She takes her jobs seriously and performs them professionally and calculating. She mostly deals with men bosses who have their own ideas and agendas about women, but she does not let that stop her. 

In the beginning of the story she has a confrontation with her boss and I like how the author brings it to a close near the end of the story when she has to confront him again, this time on her terms.

Betsey’s new boss, John Jones has built a seaside paradise meant to attract visitors from all over and he hires Betsey as Manageress of Excursions for group visitors that come for the day. John met her at a company meeting where Betsey was the typewriter girl and he offered a job right away.  Personally, he is about to propose to another woman, but the more he is around Betsey he begins to have second thoughts.  He also knows that his almost-intended has designs on other beaus.

While Betsey has similar feelings for John, she is battling her own demons in the fact that she has had sexual relations with different men who only used her for sex.  However, she also realizes that she chose them as well.  Betsey and John openly communicate their feeling and thoughts to each other and the story does have a happy ending!

On a side note, I like how the author heads each chapter with a saying from a typewriting course that Betsey took:

-        “As in music so in type-writing; it is the repeated practice of the same thing that brings improvement”.

-        “Alphabet sentence: Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs”.

-        “Exact rules cannot be given for every emergency in life”.

I like the chapter headings that the author quotes from a fictional book called “How To Become Expert in Type-Writing.  I was actually looking for the book until I realized it wasn’t a real publication!  Without quoting verbatim, the very first one says that you should know the keyboard so well that you can type with your eyes closed!  How about that!! I’m practicing. 

Note: Author gave me permission to use above quotes from the book.