Barbara Parker/Sophie Straw

Sophie is billed as the main character, although a lot of the action pulls away from her toward the male characters about halfway through the book. She's smart, funny, and quick with a put-down. She's beautiful, but she can't do anything about that, and it's a blessing and a curse. It gets her work, but makes people judge her on her beauty and not on her brains.

Initially, the reader meets Barbara Parker while she's still living in Blackpool. She's just won another beauty pageant but it leaves her feeling unfulfilled. She doesn't want to be viewed only as a pretty face, whose future mimics the Mayor's wife (a previous beauty queen), whose life is obviously miserable. Barbara leaves that week for London.

While in London she must face the harsh reality of coming from a small, impoverished background and trying to make her way...