Harriet Lane

Monica Dickens

The story of a young Englishwoman's growth towards maturity in the 1930's, a funny, readable, and perceptive account of life and love.

Mariana

What does a young, well-off English woman do with herself when she's thrown out of acting school and is tired of being a debutante? Well, if you're Monica Dickens, you become a cook. She makes the plunge to a life "below the stairs," confident in her abilities to be a cook because she once took a course in French cuisine. She quickly learns the difference between school learning and real life. Scalded milk, dropped roasts, and fallen souffles plague her in her domestic career, but she perseveres. What makes this book so delightful is the sense of humor and drama Monica Dickens brings to her work. From dressing up for job interviews in a "supporting-a-widowed-mum look" to eavesdropping on dinner guests, she tackles her work with an enthusiasm for discovery. To her descriptions of battles with crazy scullery maids, abusive employers, and unwieldy custards, she brings a humorous and pointed commentary about the delicate and ongoing war between the wealthy and their servants. Written in 1939, this true-life experience reveals a writer who wasted no opportunity to explore daily lives and dramas. Her keen eye for detail, youthful resilience, and sense of the absurd make One Pair of Hands a deliciously inside look at the households of the British upper-class.

One Pair of Hands

A. S. Byatt

A novel about a 60-year-old widow who is shunted from one to the other of her more or less unwilling daughters on perpetual uneasy visits, 'The Winds of Heaven' addresses the more awkward aspects of family relationships.

The Winds of Heaven

A linguistics professor bets a friend that he can turn a Cockney flower girl into a lady.

My Fair Lady

One Pair of Feet

One of the Family

My Turn to Make the Tea

As the effects of the war raging in Europe begin to be felt at home in London, Monica Dickens decides to do her bit and to pursue a new career, and so enrols as a student nurse at a hospital in rural Hertfordshire. By nature clever and spirited, she struggles to submit to the iron rule of the Matron and Sisters, and is alternately infuriated and charmed by her patients. That's not to mention the mountains of menial work that are a trainee's lot. But there are friends among the staff and patients, night-time escapades to dances with dashing army men, and her secret writing project to keep her going.

The Entertaining Memoirs of a Young Nurse During World War II

Kate and Emma

Spring Comes to World's End

Monica Dickens's novel, first published in 1965, opens in a Juvenile court in London. One of the young offenders is a sixteen-year-old girl, Kate, who is described as being in need of care and protection. In the court is a girl only slightly older, Emma, daughter of the magistrate. From her experience of going around with a social worker on his calls she knows that adolescents and, more importantly, small children are daily subjected to neglect and brutality and that "care and protection" cannot be prescribed like aspirin. She meets Kate again, by chance,and the girls strike up a friendship. Each girl has her way to make in life, each has her love, hate, despair and hope, each the complications of parental control sapped by the inner knowledge of marriages that no longer work.

Joy and Josephine

More adventures of the Fielding children - Tom, Carrie, Em and Michael - who live in the derelict house at World's End with their family of animals. Their first winter at World's End is packed with incident and excitement that involves children and animals alike ...

World's End in Winter

The House at World's End

Tom, Carrie, Em and Michael are still living on their own at World's End and, in between wondering where the next meal will be coming from, and trying to avoid interfering grown-ups, they are never short of fun and excitement. But then Carrie plunges into another dangerous rescue operation and Charlie the dog saves her life only by putting his own at risk. Desperately the children struggle to save Charlie from a terrible fate; but it is a race against time... This is the second book about the extraordinary family who live at World's End.

Summer at World's End

The world is changing, and this will not, unfortunately, pass Leonard Motley by. At 72 Chepstow Villas lives the Motley family: Leonard, the Assistant Manager of Whiteley's, his gentle wife Gwen, 'new woman' daughter Madge and son Dicky. After receiving a disturbing note regarding his employer, Leonard must make the choice between offending Mr Whiteley, or carrying the burden himself. This sinister mystery is unlike anything the family has faced before. Into their comfortable Edwardian world comes a threat of murder and a charismatic stranger who will change their lives for ever. First published in 1993, One of the Family was Monica Dickens' last novel to be completed before she died.

The Room Upstairs

It is the end of WW II and the household of Mrs. North, a well-to-do widow with a country cottage, is very busy. War circumstances brought both of her daughters home: loud but good-hearted tomboy, Violet, and highly-strung and over sensitive Heather with her two small children. Mrs. North is also taking care of her young niece, Evelyn, a lively child who loves to play on the local farm and has a great passion for animals. But at the center of all this is Oliver, Mrs. North's only son who lost his leg during the war service abroad. Recovering from his injuries, bed-ridden Oliver has nothing better to do but observe the busy lives of the people around him. Treated as a hero and a confidant by all the women in his family, Oliver begins to enjoy his new role as a self-proclaimed counselor. Due to his advice, Violet, an independent spinster, unexpectedly accepts the marriage proposal from a local farmer. Her wedding is a success and Violet finds a new happiness in her marriage, but soon Oliver's meddling in his family affairs goes too far. Will his risky instructions save or ruin Heather's marriage, which is at the brink of crisis, when her husband comes back from Australia after a few years of separation? Will Oliver learn to accept his new circumstances? Will he finally face to the reality and start to rebuild his own life? In this compendium plot, Monica Dickens, with her typical attention to detail, humor and talent for creating vivid characters, explores complicated life stories of the close-knit family and their friends at the end of the war. The Happy Prisoner was first published in 1946.

Monica Dickens

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