Three women, three eras, surprising things in common…

On 4th August 1962, the night she should have died, Marilyn Monroe – the biggest star in the world – receives a visitor who changes the course of her destiny. The Virgin Mary appears in her kitchen with a curious message. Inspired, Marilyn abandons her home, her life, her fame, and disappears into the night…

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Fifty-four years later, in a Hull kitchen, Flora Baker finds Mary, bathed in light. She has a similar message for the working class woman who is on the poverty line and dreaming of a better life. Flora begins to make changes that impact not only her life but the lives of those around her…

Do Marilyn and Flora have more in common than just Mary’s visit? Are they somehow linked across time? And is Mary’s message for all the women of the world?

Wonderful is about the way women are portrayed in both history and the world of celebrity, about women not being quiet, and about women united by the shared stories that shape them.

My Review

I’ve never particularly been a Marilyn Monroe fan, but then I’ve never been a fan of the glamorous movie stars of the fifties – the Golden Age of Hollywood. As a child of the sixties, it was all about the pop music scene. My idols were Sandie Shaw, Marianne Faithful and broadcaster Kathy McGowan. Big fringes, long straight hair and pale pink lips. We wanted to look like them – be them. The movie stars like Marilyn, Lana Turner, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly were unattainable.

So why did I choose to read this book, I hear you ask. I guess it was the premise. A movie star, fed up with fame, notoriety and lack of privacy, decides to take her own life. Until she sees the Virgin Mary in her kitchen and is delivered of a strange message and it changes her decision.

But what should she do now? Personally I would have moved somewhere like London or Paris, changed my look, and become incognito. Marilyn hides out in a nunnery until her platinum-dyed hair grows out, so she can escape.

In Hull, fifty-four years later, it’s 2016, and working class Flora Baker is also visited by the Virgin Mary in her kitchen. Another message and Flora has become noticeably ‘different’. She decides to volunteer at a home where vulnerable women can go when they need help, like her younger sister Bella when she was unwell.

But don’t worry that Wonderful will be all religious and preachy, because it isn’t. Even if you are not Catholic, or even Christian, you will still be moved. You may even be an atheist, but just keep an open mind. Wonderful is about women and friendship and being there for one another. And yes, I cried at times because it definitely moved me.

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours

About the Author

Louise Beech is the author of nine novels and a memoir, Eighteen Seconds (2023). Her debut, How to be Brave, was a Guardian Readers’ Pick; The Lion Tamer Who Lost shortlisted for the Romantic Novel Awards 2019 and longlisted for the Polari Prize that same year; Call Me Star Girl was Best magazine’s Book of the Year; This Is How We Are Human was a Clare Mackintosh Book Club pick; and audiobook Daffodils shortlisted for the Audies23.

Wonderful, which imagines if Marilyn Monroe had lived, is released on Marilyn’s 100th birthday, 1st June 2026. Louise’s dystopian thrillers, End of Story and Lights Out, are written as Louise Swanson.

You can find Louise here:
Instagram: @louise_beech_swanson
Twitter/X: @LouiseWriter
Website: https://louisebeech.co.uk/