Frank Doel

Who was Frank Doel?

Frank Percy Doel was an antiquarian bookseller for Marks & Co in London, England, who achieved posthumous fame as the recipient of a series of humorous letters from the American author Helene Hanff; to which he scrupulously, and at first very formally, replied. The shop where he worked was at 84 Charing Cross Road, the title of a bestselling novel written by Hanff, which became a cult classic, a stage play, and a film, in which Doel was played by Anthony Hopkins and Hanff by Anne Bancroft.