Twenty-one Locks

by Laura Barton (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2011

  $3.27

  Jeannie is twenty years old and she's Lancashire's worst perfume girl. She works in her small town's department store, where all the other girls have perfect make-up (if a little too orange, and a mite too thick) and hair in buoyant ponytails. Jeannie, with wet hair and pale skin, doesn't fit the bill. And she doesn't really care - she arrived as a temp two years ago and has never got round to leaving. Being bored by work gives her plenty of time to think about her impending nuptials to Jimmy, her teenage sweetheart who's now a mechanic. He's a local lad and like everyone in the town, he lives for Saturday nights: beer, brawls and bare flesh. Jeannie is happier at home on the sofa, or better still, day-dreaming about leaving the town behind. Just as her feet are at their most cold, she stumbles upon Danny at the train station. He's a well-read, well-travelled, sophisticated ladies' man and represents everything her life is not. Or at least that's how it seems. And before long, it all becomes complicated.

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.89

  In a small North-Western town where it always rains, the factories have closed and everyone lives for beer, bare flesh and brawling on Saturday nights, Jeannie works in the perfume hall of Pemberton's department store. A little dowdy, a little dog-eared, she is not the most impressive of perfume girls, and largely passes her days counting down to her marriage to Jimmy, her teenage sweetheart, now a mechanic. The course of Jeannie's life has always seemed plotted out - she will remain in the town where she was raised, settle down, have children. But since Jimmy's proposal she has begun to question whether this is what she really wants. Her confusion is not aided by Daniel, a drifter she meets at the railway station. Well-read, comparatively well-travelled, and with a cultivated air of mystery, he suggests excitement, possibility, and a life beyond the town. As her wedding day nears she must decide whether to stay and get married, or take a chance on a man who may not be all he seems.

• New

  Paperback
  2011

  $12.28

  Jeannie is twenty years old and she's Lancashire's worst perfume girl. She works in her small town's department store, where all the other girls have perfect make-up (if a little too orange, and a mite too thick) and hair in buoyant ponytails. Jeannie, with wet hair and pale skin, doesn't fit the bill. And she doesn't really care - she arrived as a temp two years ago and has never got round to leaving. Being bored by work gives her plenty of time to think about her impending nuptials to Jimmy, her teenage sweetheart who's now a mechanic. He's a local lad and like everyone in the town, he lives for Saturday nights: beer, brawls and bare flesh. Jeannie is happier at home on the sofa, or better still, day-dreaming about leaving the town behind. Just as her feet are at their most cold, she stumbles upon Danny at the train station. He's a well-read, well-travelled, sophisticated ladies' man and represents everything her life is not. Or at least that's how it seems. And before long, it all becomes complicated.