The Bras and the Bees: The Extraordinary Life of BJ Sherriff
FA Notley

£12 from the Museum of Cornish Life Shop.

Brian Sherriff came to Cornwall in the 1950s to run the family business, Langridge Ltd, in Camborne. The company made corsets. When competition rose up from cheaper imports the business folded. By then Brian had taken up beekeeping, but kept getting stung. It was the genius of his wife, Pat, that worked out that materials and construction from the corset/bra making could work for a beekeeping suit. Sherriff’s was born. Today the garments are still made in Cornwall by machinists working at home with the operation run from a series of buildings (Brian’s former home) near Mylor.

Much of the book covers Brian’s backstory, and is an indulgent examination of the different phases in the life that made the man. The author, FA Notley, narrates the story, not always from an omnipresent point of view. The tone is lively and charming, befitting of its eras, showing Sherriff’s humour and sense of play. The legacy is presented in terms of BJ Sherriff, but it is really his wife that was the revolutionary creator (in the Langridge story and in Beekeeping suits) and sadly overall the book misses the mark. The subtitle and title need to be switched!

It is a lively, entertaining read and anyone who enjoys the high jinks of a true eccentric will be sure to enjoy it.

By Julia Webb-Harvey, research volunteer.

Cover illustration by Lucy H Smith at Illustrations by Lu.