Rachel Joyce is the award-winning author of the the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, The Music Shop, and Miss Benson’s Beetle, as well as a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.
Rachel Joyce
Rachel Joyce
Miss Benson’s Beetle
The Research Process
Inspiration for Miss Benson’s Beetle
New Caledonia
Inspiration for Miss Benson’s Beetle
Rachel Joyce
From Miss Benson’s Beetle
Golden Tortoise Beetle
Inspiration for Miss Benson’s Beetle
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Olivia Colman
Reads Miss Benson’s Beetle
Online Exclusives
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Rachel Joyce
On the Inspiration for Margery and Enid
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Rachel Joyce
On Writing About and For Women
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Rachel Joyce
On the Stories and People She’s Drawn To
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Rachel Joyce
On Adventure, Beetles and New Caledonia
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Rachel Joyce
On 1950s Women
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Rachel Joyce
On Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North
Featured book by Rachel Joyce
Miss Benson’s Beetle
It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist. Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves. This is a story that is less about what can be found than the belief it might be found; it is an intoxicating adventure story but it is also about what it means to be a woman and a tender exploration of a friendship that defies all boundaries.
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