Adventures in reading, running and working from home

My fifth and sixth books for our lovely Dean Street December, the month dedicated to reading books published by Dean Street Press, the indie publisher which finds and republishes good fiction and non-fiction are both a little unusual. Please see this post for all the details, and this post for the list of reviews. Both of these Furrowed Middlebrow imprint books were Christmas presents last year from Ali (Heaven-Ali), and I’ve now read and reviewed seven out of my twelve print books acquired in December 2024!

Susan Scarlett – “Love in a Mist”

(25 December 2024, from Ali)

Sometimes, as she tidied her hygienic house, washed and dressed her hygienic baby, and talked to her brilliant, hygienic Jimmie, a stab of doubt would run through Doris. For all her brains, modern outlook and intelligent thinking, was she as successful a wife and mother as her retrogressive, almost uneducated, mother-in-law? (p. 172)

We know by now that Susan Scarlett was the pen-name under which the beloved Noel Streatfeild published, well, romance books, but this is hardly that, hence me classing it as unusual. We meet three sisters-in-law and their mother-in-law, and, yes, their husbands and children, but it’s the women who take centre stage. Ruth is American and pushing against the stolid Trings – she sees all sorts of psychological difficulties in her small son, Paul, who is dramatic, prone to hysterical fits and definitely spoiled. Her sisters in law, the socialist, right-on Doris, keen on fresh air and exercise, and Anna, very posh with a BBC accent that gets her mocked and pretensions for her very girly daughter, are wary of her, and each other. Emma, their mother in law, tries to keep things kind and calm and shares how to manage your husband, working for the best of everyone as much as she can, even though she’s seen as a bit shallow and obvious by them all.

Scarlett is always good at families and relationships and she does a superb job here as you wonder how Emma will tie all the ends together and make it all come out right in the end. Elizabeth Crawford in her introduction makes a good point about this 1951 novel looking at a return to housewife life after having working heroines in her wartime novels. Not a Bookish Beck Serendipity Moment as such, but Ruth and Peter’s house being called “Clovelly” made me determine to order the house name sticker for our front door’s fanlight, as our house was called that, too, but the painted pane had to go when we replaced the door!

D. E. Stevenson – “Green Money”

(25 December 2024, from Ali)

Mr Millar had been very decent, really, but somehow or other George did not quite trust him. George knew nothing about businessmen – they were outside his experience – but he knew a good deal about horses, and he could always tell when a horse was untrustworthy, no matter how beautifully it behaved; there was a look in its eyes, there was a sort of feel about it, and you just knew, but some sixth sense, that you had better be careful. George had this feeling about Mr Millar. (p. 92)

This one is unusual because the main character is a young man, kind and sweet, and he follows an almost thrillerish path as he battles to save his (hitherto unknown, very recent) ward from herself and fortune-hunters. We meet George Ferrier on Bond Street, having a holiday in London and enjoying his last day. He encounters a Mr Green who claims to know his father, and finds himself signing up to become a trustee for Mr Green’s daughter Elma, who lives quietly with a governess close to George’s family home.

Elma is a funny girl, brought up too quietly, who once she gets a taste of modern life is a liability; George is helped by his beloved mother, Paddy, a lively Irish horsewoman who never gives him a dull moment, and his quiet, bookish father, and the Seeley family down the road, Peter being his best friend and Cathy providing quiet understanding but also standing up for him within her somewhat chaotic family. When George’s duties suddenly become pressing, he needs all the help he can get, as he’s a man of action rather than thought and intellect; although when we meet him he seems a bit of a dilletante, he knows his horses and human nature very well and is actually utterly charming. We do feel for lovely Cathy, running the house and somewhat put upon by her family, and hope for a good outcome for her, too. And we end up on Bond Street again at the end of the book in a very satisfactory manner!

You can buy these two books in all the usual places (see this post for details) and read more about them on the publisher’s website here and here.

These were my Books 5 and 6 for Dean Street December.

Here we go with my first book by Dorothy Lambert and my fourth book for Dean Street December, which is a month dedicated to reading books published by Dean Street Press, the indie publisher devoted to finding and republishing good fiction and non-fiction. With this post, we’re up to 27 reviews submitted for the month so far, which is wonderful! Please see this post for all the details, and this post for the list of reviews. “Much Dithering”, from the super Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, was a Christmas present last year from Ali (Heaven-Ali), and I’ve now read and reviewed five out of my twelve print books acquired in December 2024!

Dorothy Lambert – “Much Dithering”

(25 December 2024, from Ali)

He followed Jocelyn across the hall and into the drawing-room, feeling that he really had met the one woman in the world for him. A meeting outside the church on Christmas morning, love at first sight – had anything ever been so romantic? It was like a fairy tale. A fairy tale? Yes, and all the best traditions were being observed, for there, actually in the chimney-corner, sat the Wicked Fairy, without whom no fairy tale could ever be complete – Ermyntrude! Of all people in the world, why would it be Ermyntrude? (p. 43)

We open what turns out to be a light and entertaining novel with plenty of action with the dreadful Ermyntrude bemoaning the fact that her daughter Jocelyn is dull, her house doesn’t have enough hot water, but she needs to go and stay with her to save money. All the women appear to be widowed; Ermyntrude is having an affair with a young man who turns out to be staying with his family in the neighbourhood and said young man naturally falls directly in love with Jocelyn when he sees her (she has a dull life, but is very pretty). But she’s encountered yet another young man who’s much more interesting, and she certainly doesn’t want to be re-married off to a 60-year-old colonel when she’s only 25 herself.

Add in village colour, the essential sweet and vague but really steely vicar’s wife and a battle between the old feudal system and new-money incomers (she has one of the newcomers be quite acerbic on this at one point) and you’ve got a classic novel of village life – in fact a classic Dorothy Lambert. Will Jocelyn ever break out of her dull life, and will her aunt and mother-in-law let her? And who stole the jewels?? Note: there is much use of an outdated and offensive term for Spanish/Italian people, who are seen as magnificent but shifty so stereotyped as well. But no more than you’d find in anything else of the time and certainly not as uncomfortable as Angela Thirkell’s Eastern Europeans.

You can buy “Much Dithering” in all the usual places (see this post for details) and read more about it on the publisher’s website here.

This was my Book 4 for Dean Street December.

Sorry this is a bit late, I’ve been caught up with festivities and volunteering. Here’s my second book by Doris Langley Moore and third book for Dean Street December, the month dedicated to reading books published by Dean Street Press, the indie publisher devoted to finding and republishing good fiction and non-fiction. Please see this post for all the details, and this post for the list of reviews. “A Game of Snakes and Ladders”, another excellent Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, was another of my Christmas presents from 2024, courtesy of Emma, and I’ve now read and reviewed four out of my twelve print books acquired in December 2024!

Doris Langley Moore – “A Game of Snakes and Ladders”

(25 December 2024, from Emma)

For Daisy, valiantly as ever, still pursued the fashionable world, which still beckoned her on and fled from her. Perhaps if she had been completely excluded, perhaps if she had never been allowed to taste a victory, she might have recognized the emptiness of her quest and turned her great resources and her eager energy upon some effort to lead a useful life, but it had been her misfortune always to get within her grasp just enough to make her impatient for more; and then always to find more denied to her. (p. 290)

This was a very different book from “All Done By Kindness“, maybe because, in contrast to that book’s 1951 date, this was written originally in 1938 then reissued in an updated version (which this edition follows) in 1955. The author states that she was attempting to write a novel in the 19th century vein of Fanny Burney, etc., and there’s certainly something of the classic about this novel of the reversal of fortunes and social climbing. We meet Lucy, who is strong, attractive and resilient, and Daisy, charming but barely hanging on, and definitely drawn out of difficulty by Lucy, as they move to Egypt in a just-post-WWI touring theatre company, Daisy having replaced someone in the chorus when she and Lucy were reunited in Australia. Then crisis strikes, Lucy falls seriously ill and Daisy, along with her rich boyfriend, rescues her and pays for her treatment, leaving her stranded in Egypt and in debt. Then we watch as Lucy’s kindness is abused and her strength sapped as she falls slowly down the social ladder, while Daisy pushes and climbs but remains inauthentic and so at risk of being found out.

Daisy’s lover, Siegfried Mosenthal, is a Jewish South African who famously came to Egypt with £2 in his pocket and has made himself a fortune owning theatres and being a financier. Very interestingly, although he’s a difficult and not hugely positive character in himself, his Jewishness is seen as a positive foundation to his life, making him charitable and philanthropic, shrewd but not grasping, family orientated and moral.

As we progress through the book, the author tends towards breaking down the fourth wall, commenting several times along the lines of “There was nothing in the reception of this answer to indicate that it was to have lifelong consequences for her” (p. 143). This makes for a nice confiding feel with the reader in it with the author, and she also undermines herself a couple of times. We long for both Daisy and Lucy to go through the reversal of fortune they both deserve, with Daisy becoming steadily less authentic and more social climber-y and Lucy making some true friends to whom she behaves authentically even when it’s to her own detriment. When Lucy achieves one of her modest aims, she still works hard and learns rather than leaning on her returning charms.

A charming and fun novel that I will definitely re-read.

You can buy “A Game of Snakes and Ladders” in all the usual places (see this post for details) and read more about it on the publisher’s website here.

This was my Book 3 for Dean Street December.

All this month, I and a few others are doing Dean Street December, reading books published by Dean Street Press, the indie publisher devoted to finding and republishing good fiction and non-fiction. Please see this post for all the details, and this post for the list of reviews. “Beneath the Visiting Moon”, one of the excellent Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, was another of my Christmas presents from 2024, courtesy of Emma, and I’ve now read and reviewed three out of my twelve print books acquired in December 2024 (with a fair few more to come this month, I hope!).

Romilly Cavan – “Beneath the Visiting Moon”

(25 December 2024, from Emma)

‘That’s an attractive number,’ Bronwen said, humming lightly. ‘You don’t like this music?’ Philly asked, amazed. ‘The band is rather bouncing and crude, but I simply adore Cole Porter.’ You never knew where you were with them … they didn’t like cinema organs, but approved this which was no less nice and understandable … (p. 112)

The blurb on the back compares this accurately to Diana Tutton’s “Guard Your Daughters” and Dodie Smith’s “I Capture the Castle” and I’d add “The Waters Under the Earth” for the contrast between big house and village life. It was published in 1940 and the Second World War looms large, all anyone can find in the papers and the topic of discussion a lot of the time.

We have four Fontayne children mixed in with two Joneses when their parents decide to marry, but this won’t save Fontayne as Julian Jones is on a rest cure from his work as a conductor. His artistic children are arrogant and patronising, although Cavan does an excellent job of switching viewpoints and seeing even their worries and vulnerabilities – however, Bronwen, who has published a book aged 13, is a monster still. We stay with the oldest sister, Sarah, and Philly, next oldest, most, with Philly’s twin Christopher away at school and the youngest, Tom, decidedly and charmingly odd.

Sarah falls for a gentleman who is a diplomat and something to do with the Government; he treats her kindly and like a grown-up just when she’s trying to be one (she even manages to install herself in a sordid job and flat for a while) and she falls directly for it, and we hold our breath for her as surely it can’t be. Meanwhile, she tests her charms on Sir Giles’ cousin, the more suitable Ben. The children are friends with the elderly Mrs Oxford and her sad granddaughter, and more life is brought to the village by Mrs Oxford’s contemporary and her ex-debutante daughter, and exciting things like trips to the seaside are arranged. And we also have the strange character of Bracken, an American explorer who’s a friend of the family and someone to be relied upon in all sorts of situations – he never resolves into anything but simply exists.

This all sounds very light and amusing; depth is provided by the looming war and also the children’s respective snobberies and horrors of various things, which pull in classism and snobbery about education – see the above quotation, but then Philly looks down on the rather lovely Bob, in trade, when he uses the words ‘kiddies’ and ‘bubbly’. Genteel poverty is always a subject I like reading about and its subtleties are drawn very well here.

Related to the looming war, remember when you read something like “Dear Mrs Bird” and saw mention of the Café de Paris in London in wartime and thought, “Oh, no, here we go, the bomb’s going to impinge on the plot”? Well, in this book, somehow heartbreakingly, two characters go to the Café de Paris and the book was published a year before the bomb, and that did for me a bit (I always find books published mid-war very affecting).

There are three super cats in the book, one pretty well constantly attached to Philly, and they all do fine, for those who need to know these things.

You can buy “Beneath the Visiting Moon” in all the usual places (see this post for details) and read more about it on the publisher’s website here.

This was my Book 2 for Dean Street December. I’m currently reading Doris Langley Moore’s “Snakes and Ladders”, which is another excellent one!

This month, I’m reading books published by Dean Street Press, the indie publisher devoted to finding and republishing good fiction and non-fiction, for Dean Street December. See this post for all the detail, and this post for the list of reviews. “All Done by Kindness”, one of the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, was one of my Christmas presents from 2024, courtesy of Emma, and I’ve now read two out of my twelve print books acquired in December 2025 (with a fair few more to come this month, I hope!).

Doris Langley Moore – “All Done By Kindness”

(25 December 2024, from Emma)

Sir Harry always detested the moment when he was obliged to lay bare the private beauties of his plans, beauties so liable to be gloated over in an unseemly spirit by profane eyes. Yet for Quiller the truth must undoubtedly be unveiled since without it he might make some blunder; and fortunately he had an impassive, in some ways almost indifferent, attitude that made it less objectionable to confide in him than in a more demonstrative man. (p. 54)

A super read and pretty much a thriller! Kind doctor Sandilands (elderly at 56!) visits an elderly patient more than he should to make sure she’s OK, and when he bails her out financially, she insists on exchanging his £50 for some trunks from her attic. Family friend Stephanie du Plessis has a look at the dark, obscure old pictures and identifies them as Old Masters; daughter Beatrix is not convinced and wants them out of the house while her sister Linda, who works with Stephanie at the library really wants them to be real, too.

In steps an art expert, Sir Harry Maximer, who has a look at them and pronounces them rubbishy copies … and then dispatches a contact up to look at them and bid low … but ARE they real Old Masters or are they not? Stephanie teams up with the young director of the local art gallery, Linda with her photographer boyfriend, and it’s a race against time trying to stop the kind doctor taking £100 for the possibly priceless items. Rich and detailed (with only one slightly lagging scene set at an amusing meeting of anti-Leonardo-ites which was presumably put in for biting satire as the author was an art expert herself), the motives are all clear and the personalities nicely done, the plot worked out in a wonderful fashion with unexpected characters leading to others’ downfalls and I really did have to sit and race through it to the conclusion!

There’s a nice note by Stephanie, recently returned from the then-Rhodesia, where she points out that “native things” do count: “They count, but they’re not the same. To most Europeans they’re so remote that they’re somehow rather unreal” which was quite perceptive for a novel published in 1951

An interesting introduction by Sir Roy Strong explores the personality of Moore and lays out her expertise in Lord Byron and fashion and dress. You can buy “All Done by Kindness” in all the usual places (see this post for details) and read more about it on the publisher’s website here.

This was my Book 1 for Dean Street December.