Guest post by The Paris Gown author Christine Wells
Christine Wells writes historical fiction featuring strong, fascinating women. From early childhood, she drank in her father’s tales about the real kings and queens behind popular nursery rhymes, and she has been a keen student of history ever since. She began her first novel while working as a corporate lawyer and has gone on to write about periods ranging from Georgian England to post World War II France. Christine is passionate about helping other writers learn the craft and business of writing fiction and enjoys mentoring and teaching workshops. She loves dogs, running, the beach, and fossicking for antiques, and lives with her family in Brisbane, Australia.
About The Paris Gown: From perennially popular historical novelist Christine Wells, the delightful tale of three young women in 1950s Paris who share a single dazzling Christian Dior gown.
Studies show that generally speaking, women live longer than men, and one of the reasons for this is the continued deep connection women tend to have with the other women in their lives as they grow older.
I’m incredibly grateful for the women in my life, and THE PARIS GOWN, a novel set in 1950’s Paris, is my heartfelt tribute to the power of female friendship. In this novel, three friends, Margot, Gina, and Claire reunite in Paris after life has dealt each of them a body blow. Together, they regroup and heal as they support each other to pursue their dreams—while also sharing one exquisite Dior ballgown.
This story follows a long tradition of wonderful books and films about female friendship and the major part such friendships play in our lives.
1. Steel Magnolias
In a tight-knit southern community, these women with the poufy hairdos and perfect nails have steel right down their spines—hence the wonderful title of this film. They might have their differences, but these women form the backbone of the community and support each other through great loss, heartbreak and pain.
2. Big Little Lies
A book and television series this time, but I’m including it here because it has such powerful resonance with the themes of friendship I like to draw out in my books. While the three women central to the story (played by Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, and Shailene Woodley) are friends, there are a couple on the periphery who irritate the heck out of them—notably Laura Dern’s character, who is one of those mothers who seems to have it all and is horribly judgmental of everyone else, and the character played by Zoë Kravitz, who is Reese’s ex-husband’s new wife. However, what is ultimately so empowering about this book is that when tragedy strikes, veneers are stripped away, and these very different women all pull together in support of each other in a truly satisfying way.
3. How to Marry a Millionaire
One of my all-time favourite movies, this classic is a fun look at friendship, as three young women, played by Marilyn Monroe, Lauren Bacall, and Betty Grable, go on the hunt for their chosen rich husbands. I can’t decide whether I love Marilyn’s wide-eyed, self-serving but faultless logic or Lauren Bacall’s dry-as-a-bone zingers more, but I love that these three women stick together and don’t compete or put each other down in their quest for the perfect husband.
4. Pitch Perfect
A fun movie with a large ensemble cast—what I love about Pitch Perfect is the way these young women start out thrown together by circumstance, none of them particularly liking each other, but as deeper layers of each character are revealed, and they work together towards a common goal, they come to like and respect each other and ultimately to work brilliantly as a team.
5. Thelma and Louise
And of course, how can any list of movies about female friendship leave out this iconic movie of the nineties, Thelma and Louise? When this film, starring Susan Sarandon and Gina Davis came out, it was unlike anything we’d seen—an all-female road trip, with a doomed ending. These women were running, not just from the law, but from patriarchy itself. The end of their journey was strangely satisfying but also exquisitely poignant, an expression of frustration and anger that these women can never be free except in death.
