Her long-time friend and editor, Brendan King prepared the text for publication from her working manuscript, taking into account suggestions Beryl made at the end of her life.

Rose, a dental receptionist, is the owner of the dress, and has travelled from Kentish Town (London) to the United States to find the enigmatic Dr. Wheeler, who rescued her from a terrible childhood.

Alex Clark, writing in The Guardian, concludes that "It's no accident that when Rose and Harold reach Los Angeles they intersect with an episode from American history not only so painfully fateful but also so bewildering.

"[1] Paul Bailey from The Independent also praises the novel "It is a pleasure to record that The Girl in the Polka-dot Dress ranks among the finest of Bainbridge's fine works of fiction.

It is carefully constructed, as always, but there is a sense in which the author is returning to her roots, using the rich material of her early life in wartime Liverpool to devastating effect, and that Rose is the last repository for those feelings that first inspired her to abandon acting and become a novelist.