(1973); Apple of My Eye (1977 and updated in 1988), an idiosyncratic guide to New York City; Letter from New York (1992), which reprinted the five-minute talks that she gave each month on the BBC's Woman's Hour radio broadcasts between 1978 and 1984; and Underfoot in Show Business (1961, reissued 1989). Underfoot in Show Business was adapted as a stage play by Charles Leipart and premiered in 2008 at the Devonshire Theatre in Eastbourne, UK, directed by David Giles. Personal life Hanff never married. In the 1987 84 Charing Cross Road movie, a photo of a US serviceman is shown in her apartment during the period of World War II, a portrait at which she smiles fondly, suggesting to the viewer that Hanff remained unmarried owing to this naval officer's death. No such person is mentioned in her autobiographical Underfoot, and none of her writings suggests that she ever had any lasting or even short-term romantic relationship with any person. However, writer Al Senter claimed that she mentioned a long affair with an unnamed 'prominent American' during a conversation with one of the co-founders of Marks and Co, and one obituary of her asserted that 'there were romances'. Death and legacy Hanff died from diabetes six days before her 81st birthday in 1997 in New York City. The apartment building where she lived at 305 E. 72nd Street has been named "Charing Cross House" in her honor. A bronze plaque next to the front door commemorates her residence and authorship of the book. In London, a bronze plaque on the site of the original building commemorates the bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road. Stephen R. Pastore published a poorly-received biography, Helene Hanff: A Life, in 2011 based on interviews that he had conducted with her. References External links Obituary in The Independent Helene Hanff biography by James Roose-Evans Finding aid to Helene Hanff papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library. 1916 births 1997 deaths 20th-century American novelists Screenwriters from Pennsylvania American women novelists Writers from Philadelphia Jewish American dramatists and playwrights Deaths from diabetes American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Novelists from Pennsylvania Philadelphia High School for Girls alumni American women non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American Jews