D. E. Stevenson

Struggling to make ends meet, Barbara Buncle writes a novel inspired by the residents of her village, and not only does it leave the town in an uproar, but the events that happen in the book begin to happen to their real-life counterparts.

Miss Buncle's Book

The five young Ayrtons all grew up at Amberwell, preparing themselves to venture out into the world. Amberwell meant something different to each of them, but they all shared the idea that Amberwell was more than where they lived - it was part of them.

Amberwell

Dorothy Emily Stevenson

Music in the Hills

The Baker's Daughter

Miss Buncle Married

The Two Mrs. Abbotts

«Se hablaba con más libertad sabiendo que, a esas horas, había que estar en la cama y durmiendo.» D. E. Stevenson Cerca de Wandlebury, el pueblo en torno al cual gira la saga de la señorita Buncle y Las cuatro Gracias, hay otro pueblecito, Ashbridge, donde la gente «tiene algo isabelino» y es «sencilla y valiente». En las afueras se alza Villa Vitoria, que un capitán mandó construir «después de luchar en la batalla de Vitoria y contribuir a la expulsión de José Bonaparte de España». Ahora esta romántica casa de campo es famosa por su jardín florido y por la hospitalidad y buen humor de su residente, Caroline Dering, viuda de un hombre a quien solo se recuerda por su antipatía y fatalismo, y madre de tres hijos. Corren los tiempos de la inmediata posguerra: las heridas de la Segunda Guerra Mundial aún no han cicatrizado, el racionamiento limita la vida e impone el ingenio o la resignación, y el pueblo sirve de refugio a seres atormentados por la reciente experiencia, como el señor Shepperton, que se instala en la posada del pueblo con un trágico y misterioso pasado a cuestas. El señor Shepperton hace buenas migas enseguida con la señora Dering ... pero ésta no cuenta con que la llegada de su hermana Harriet, célebre actriz de los escenarios londinenses, pueda complicar las cosas. En Villa Vitoria (1949) volvemos a encontrar el gusto de D. E. Stevenson por la comedia campestre y por las «dificultades» de pequeños personajes que «se parecían mucho a las del ancho mundo, pero vistas desde el otro lado del telescopio».

Villa Vitoria

Fiona Bevan

Growing up in Scotland, Tonia moves to London just as World War II begins, but a tragedy brings her back to Scotland where she falls in love with a pilot and fears she may suffer another loss when he is assigned to fly dangerous missions in the war effort.

Listening Valley

`Summerhills' continues the story of the lives and loves of the Ayrton family, in particular that of Major Roger Ayrton M.C., his brother and three young half-sisters. Roger has made the Army his career. Anne has settled down as housekeeper to old Mr Orme, the rector. Nell looks after the old house, and it is upon her that the comfort and well-being of the family depend. A new generation is growing up. The story begins as Roger flies home to Amberwell on leave, full of plans for his family and home.

Summerhills

Gerald Brown is a handsome and brilliant young engineer - wrongfully accused of stealing diamonds from his South African firm. Why has he been framed? Elizabeth Burleigh is a beautiful and talented West End actress - compelled to deny what marriage could bring her. What is the secret that impairs her love? Gerald and Elizabeth are half-brother and sister. They are reunited in London and together they face the mysteries that have made them both so unhappy.

Gerald and Elizabeth

A Novel

Mrs. Tim of the Regiment

Tenth May, 1934. At this moment I look up and see the Man Who Lives Next Door standing on his doorstep watching my antics, and disapproving (I feel sure) of my flowered silk dressing gown. Probably his own wife wears one of red flannel, and most certainly has never been seen leaning out of the window in it - The Awful Carrying On of Those Army People - he is thinking. Vivacious, young Hester Christie tries to run her home like clockwork, as would befit the wife of British Army officer, Tim Christie. However hard Mrs Tim strives for seamless living amidst the other army wives, she is always moving flat-out to remember groceries, rule lively children, side-step village gossip and placate her husband with bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade. Left alone for months at a time whilst her husband is with his regiment, Mrs Tim resolves to keep a diary of events large and small in her family life. Once pen is set to paper no affairs of the head or heart are overlooked. When a move to a new regiment in Scotland uproots the Christie family, Mrs Tim is hurled into a whole new drama of dilemmas; from settling in with a new set whilst her husband is away, to disentangling a dear friend from an unsuitable match. Against the wild landscape of surging rivers, sheer rocks and rolling mists, who should stride into Mrs Tim's life one day but the dashing Major Morley, hellbent on pursuit of our charming heroine. And Hester will soon find that life holds unexpected crossroads ... Mrs Tim of the Regiment is part of The Bloomsbury Group, a new library of books from the early twentieth-century chosen by readers for readers.

Mrs Tim of the Regiment

At short notice Gerald Burleigh Brown is asked to take a deer-stalking holiday in Scotland in place of his brother-in-law. The old hunting lodge where Gerald stays is miles from the nearest illage and surrounded by the forest with its high rocky hills, sparkling silver burns and grassy valleys where the red deer feed - an enchanting background to an unusual and exciting chain of events. In trying to protect the girl he has grown to love Gerald runs into considerable personal danger ...

The House of the Deer

Charlotte Fairlie is a successful, elegant career woman. Still in her 20s, she has landed a job as headmistress of her old school. She is admired and liked by both staff and pupils - but she begins to feel there is something missing in her well-organised life.Then one summer she goes to stay with a young pupil on the remote Scottish Isle of Targ. In the romantic atmosphere of the Highlands, anything can happen - and even the cool, efficient Charlotte surprises herself...

Charlotte Fairlie

Dinah's husband is killed in a flying accident, leaving her with four children to bring up. After his death, life is hard, fighting back loneliness and eking out a meager pension. So when her brother Dan, newly demobbed from the Navy, arrives to whisk them away to the seaside, Dinah can at last find peace - and, when she least expects it, love.

Young Mrs Savage

«Barbara Buncle y sus vecinos derrochan encanto, y son los compañeros ideales incluso para el más lluvioso fin de semana.» The Scotsman «Una espléndida narración y una inteligente comedia de costumbres» José María Guelbenzu, Babelia, El País «Un amenísimo pretexto para la discusión sobre los poderes de la literatura y la capacidad de intervenir en la realidad que comporta todo intento de representarla» Ignacio Echevarría, El Cultural, El Mundo «Una sutil bomba de relojería, fabricada con humor, con disimulada -pero indisimulable- mala idea y con una prodigiosa cantidad de perspicaces y afiladas observaciones sobre el amor, la pareja, la familia, las relaciones personales y la vida en una pequeña comunidad presuntamente idílica» Manuel Hidalgo, blog «Tengo una cita» de El Cultural. El libro de la señorita Buncle es como un Cranford de los años treinta: uno novela deliciosa, ligera, cómica y un poco malvada, un libro dentro de un libro, de la mano de una autora totalmente inédita en España. Y un argumento sencillo pero de enredos: Barbara Buncle, una joven soltera que vive en un pequeño pueblo inglés, decide escribir una novela para aumentar sus ingresos. Como se considera una persona sin imaginación se dedica a contar la vida de sus vecinos bajo un nombre falso. El libro se publica y cuando comienza a circular por el pueblo los vecinos se ven reflejados y traman una venganza sobre quien ellos creen autor de la novela.

El libro de la señorita Buncle

Gerald Brown is a handsome and brilliant young engineer - wrongfully accused of stealing diamonds from his South African firm. Why has he been framed? Elizabeth Burleigh is a beautiful and talented West End actress - compelled to deny herself what marriage could bring her. What is the secret that impairs her love? Gerald and Elizabeth are half-brother and sister. They are reunited in London and together they face the mysteries that have made them both so unhappy. In discovering the truth about their pasts, each finds the happiness for which neither had dared to hope.

There is so much War News in News Bulletins, in Newspapers, and so much talk about the war that I do not intend to write about it in my diary. Indeed my diary is a sort of escape from the war . . . though it is almost impossible to escape from the anxieties which it brings. Bestselling author D.E. Stevenson's charming fictional alter-ego, Hester Christie--or "Mrs. Tim" as she is affectionately known to friends of her military husband--was first introduced to readers in Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, published in 1932. In 1941, Stevenson brought Mrs. Tim back in this delightful sequel, to lift spirits and boost morale in the early days of World War II. With her husband stationed in France, Hester finds plenty to keep her busy on the Home Front. From her first air raid and a harrowing but hilarious false alarm about a German invasion, to volunteering at the regiment's "Comforts Depot," guiding the romantic destinies of her pretty houseguest and an injured soldier, and making a flying visit to a blacked-out, slightly bedraggled London with its fighting spirit intact, Mrs. Tim does indeed carry on--in inimitable style. Mrs. Tim returns in two subsequent novels, Mrs Tim Gets a Job (1947) and Mrs Tim Flies Home (1952), all back in print for the first time in decades from Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press. This new edition features an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith. "She admirably preserves her lightness of touch, with a tinge of melancholy added, which perfectly suits the mood of 1940." Glasgow Herald "This is not merely a war book to which cheerfulness keeps breaking in, it is a book of cheerfulness from which the war cannot be kept out . . . Major Tim's amazing escape from Dunkirk is high drama superbly handled, and her word pictures are both lifelike and lively." Manchester Evening News

D. E. Stevenson

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