Gladys Reunited: A Personal American Journey

by Sandi Toksvig

In 1971, Sandi Toksvig was sent to Mamaroneck High in New York, where at age 13, she fell in love with the theater. The school production that year was Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, and she was among the three girls chosen to play the lead role of Gladys Antrobus. Before long, the three “Gladyses” were inseparable friends, and by the time the play debuted, “The Gladys Society” had stretched to twelve members. Thirty years on and living in England, Sandi decided to return to the States to discover what had happened to her eleven fellow Gladyses and, in the process, revisit America. By turns hilarious and moving, this is a delightfully engaging story of friends united and a country rediscovered.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Biography, Travel

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2002

About the author

Danish/British writer, presenter, comedian, actress and producer on British radio and television. She currently presents The News Quiz on BBC Radio 4 and 1001 Things You Should Know on Channel 4. In October 2012 she succeeded Sheila Hancock as Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all let me say that I love Sandi Toksvig, especially after seeing her at the Hay Festival last year. Her stories about being at school in America are what inspired me to start finding out more about her. My husband found this book at a car boot sale, I was so pleased. I love her style and wit. She's so open to experiences and interested in the people and world around her. In this book Sandi talks about travelling to America to reunite with some of her old school friends and describes the events as they happen and her thoughts along the way. Away from America for some time, its like she's trying to find a place for the Sandi that was within her present life. She soon discovers that she's much more English than she thought. I love her anecdote about the flight at the end and the sheer Britishness of the humour. I'd love to read more by her.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sandi is Danish born, brought up in American then sent to an English boarding school to eventually appear on British TV with much wit and humour. She recalls stories with antidotes that belie her sharp mind. Eventually ending up in a Cambridge college she then entered the world of TV writing and appearing. But it was her childhood upbringing that she longed to go back to and meet up with the friends she had made there during her formative years, her Gladys’s she called them.

Well in fact that is what they named their little group themselves although none of them were actually called Gladys but had names like Rita, Anne and Sue. They were all budding Thespians, that is how they came together in the first place, a school production in an American school, and from that friendships were made over time. All ideals and idea's both of which the young have in abundance even though Sandi was born Danish she became a converted American. But then she was sent to an English girls boarding school and life would never be the same again in many ways

The years rolled by and Sandi had an urge to look up her 'Gladys' friends once more and this is what the book is all about. As I have said she is witty and funny and the book is told in that way along with some serious stuff along the way. Middle age beckons them all and Sandi finds that not only have many of her friends have changed but so has the America she once knew. The highs and lows of her journey to discover her friends are told with a kind of pathos but still worth reading as it could be a marker for any of us contemplating the same journey.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik vind Sandi Toksvig een rasvertelster van anecdotes dus dit boek is zeker geen opgave om te lezen. Wat tegenvalt zijn de mensen die ze ontmoet. Die dragen niets bij tot het verhaal, de ontmoetingen zijn kort en oppervlakkig en ik kan me ook niet voorstellen dat de dames in kwestie blij zijn met de manier waarop ze hen beschrijft. Dit was dus eigenlijk een beter boek geweest als ze gewoon had rond gereisd zonder die ontmoetingen.

[Bambola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars really. An interesting jaunt into the author's past as she catches up with friends from her year at high school in America. Some quite hilarious parts, notably her visit to Margaret Mitchell's house, and some fascinating tidbits of history intertwined with personal stories and some introspection. She has a lovely turn of phrase a la Bill Bryson in places.

[Wendy Greenberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sandi Toksvig writes as she talks which makes this is a book to savour and to giggle along. Travelling across the US she re-connects with women who were an important part of her thespian beginnings. Facinating raconteur-led travelogue and memoir

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the fact that this book took me a relatively long time to read (over 5 months for all of its 300 pages) I actually really enjoyed it, as I have every Sandi Toksvig book I've read. Certainly worth reading.

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this because I like Sandi Toksvig but it's more of a personal indulgence than a shared experience so I didn't enjoy it particularly.

[Louise Snowdon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Laugh out loud funny at times which can be embarrasing if like me you read on your journey to work. Frank and honest account, beautifully told with flair and the love of travel and seeing new things.

[Fiona · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got bored with this very quickly as I didn't really care what the author's ex school friends had made of their lives. Fortunately this isn't typical of ST's writing which I generally enjoy.

[Theo Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

On LibraryThing I wrote: 'Warm memoir of a series of visits to America to visit old school-friends. The visits are woven through with meditations on identity and a wistful funniness.'

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Sandi Toksvig. I watch her on QI and have read most of her books. I love her intelligence and wit. Sandi was born in Denmark but she spent much of her childhood in the U.S. before moving to England where she has spent her adult life. In this book she revisits the U.S. to reunite with a group of girls she bonded with through her drama education in high school forty years earlier. They called themselves the Gladyses. She is able to find and meet with all of the original women and realize how all of their lives had changed. The book tells of hilarious occurrences both current and past. We learn much about Sandi's early life beyond the Gladys episodes.

[Misha Herwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Sandi Toksvig revisits the girlfriends from her happiest year in the USA. All nicknamed Gladys from the high school play they were involved in their lives have gone in directions none of them could have foreseen and as Sandi reconnects with them she is forced to come to terms with her own view of herself and where she belongs.
The book made me laugh out loud, but it is more than a funny account of a road trip it is also a meditation on what makes us who we are and what is truly important in our lives.
Can't recommend it highly enough. Brilliant.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew Sandi Toksvig from QI and got curious about her as a writer. I was not disappointed. She is really a fantastic, funny, humble, author. Some parts were a little slow for me, but not very many. I thought she was at her best when she was discussing herself and her friends and what she observed about the US. The parts I didn't like as much were when she was tackling American History. She lost a bit of her unique voice there.

I'm going to read more of her stuff.

[Richard Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is often witty and has more than a touch of the Bill Bryson travel style to it. The narrative carries you nicely through and my only problem is that, especially at the end, Sandi seems to almost intentionally misunderstand the basic American psyche, even in the aftermath of one of the most traumatic events in the nation's history. She seems to love individual Americans but as a group struggles to find much to like about them.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

There really is nothing not to love about Sandy Toksvig's writing.

I love the detached observer role and her wry observations of normal Americana and American life, yet this is strangely a tale of self discovery, or if not discovery, acknowledgment of her truth.

When you play that game about who would you invite to dinner, she is top of my list, if only because a woman with slippers in under impressed by underfloor heating

[Joanna Goldin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I laughed out loud a lot during the reading of the is book. Written by an English celebrity (well Danish born) but now lives in England but spent a lot of her formative years in the US. She makes some very good observations on English versus American life. Became a little redundant but still a good book.

[H.K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Sandi very much,and enjoyed reading this glimpse into her life. She writes well. I missed some of the British references but no matter.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a couple of Sandi Toksvig anecdotal autobiographical books and loved them both, i like her style,, her stories and they make one feel you are on the journey, as well as giving a good chatty narrative about the people she meets and the places she goes to. Within her books are a glimpse too of how she came out and challenges she faced, but her books always seem to me very well balanced