Miss Benson's Beetle
Video Transcript
Narrated by Rochelle Hickey
Hi everyone! It's Ms. Hickey and I'm here to share a book with you for Women’s History Month that I absolutely love called Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce.
Picture it! It’s 1950 in war-torn London and Margery Benson, a school teacher and spinster, has had enough of her humdrum life [Belle from Beauty and the Beast singing “there must be more than this provincial life”] and wants to explore her childhood obsession with finding the elusive and some say mythical “Golden Beetle” of New Caledonia.
Now, have you ever felt like people aren't listening to you, or take you seriously? Well, she feels the same and she ends up getting fed up with her job, she walks out, and decides to go on an adventure! [Bilbo from The Hobbit running and saying "I’m going on an adventure"]
Of course, she can’t do a proper expedition without an assistant so she does interviews and ends up hiring Enid Pretty. Now, they are complete opposites. We're talking Old / Pretty [meant to say Young], Educated / Not, Serious / Full of life ... you get the idea.
[sound: boat horn]Their adventure begins on a ship across the sea where trouble has already found them. [sound: boat horn] And trouble continues to follow them in the name of the rejected assistant, Mundic, who is a traumatized war veteran suffering from PTSD.
Once Margery and Enid get to [New] Caledonia, things get worse. First, Enid drops this huge personal bombshell! First, she says that she's [sound bleeped for spoilers] and then she also also says that [sound bleeped for spoilers]. Second ... their expedition is not going as planned.
[rain storm sounds] Then Margery’s, Enid’s, and Mundic’s worlds collide [BANG] in the worst way possible. [rain storm sounds]
Miss Benson’s Beetle brings you on a roller coaster of lows, then highs, then lows, but ends on a hopeful look at the future not only for Margery Benson, but for all women trying to succeed in a male-dominated profession.
You should check it out.
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