Mrs Tim Gets a Job – D E Stevenson (1947)

Mrs Tim Gets a Job; is the third book in the delightfully, gentle and undemanding Mrs Tim series from D E Stevenson. Brought back to us by Dean Street Press, this novel begins a few years after book two ended. We find Hester Christie (to give the poor woman her own name) a little jaded from what she calls six years of total war.

The war is over, but the difficulties are not, and as Hester takes up her diary again at the written suggestion of her husband Tim, she must face up to the fact that it could be another year or two before Tim is able to get home from Egypt for good. Hester’s voice is as engaging as ever, though there is a slight weariness of tone, and we know the years have rather taken their toll. Meanwhile, the time has come for her daughter Betty to go off to boarding school, her eldest child Bryan has already been away at school for some years. Her friend Grace; has decided that Hester needs some occupation and has already suggested Hester to Miss Clutterbuck; a friend in Scotland looking for help in her hotel. Initially, Hester is appalled at the idea, not really sure she does want a job after all. However, just then Hester receives a letter from their landlord giving Hester just a few weeks’ notice to vacate the house. She also receives a letter from Miss Clutterbuck, her handwriting is appalling and difficult to read, but it is clear that she thinks Hester will suit her perfectly.

“Miss Clutterbuck would like me to run the bar–no, it can’t be that–run the car, which has seen its best days but is still useful for shopping. Grace has told her I am patient and tactful, so (as she herself is neither the one nor the other) she thinks I am the right person to look after the social side.”

Hester makes a decision, she could go and live with Tim’s aunt in the house he inherited in the last book and is sat waiting for Tim to be freed from the army, but she decides instead, to go to Ryddelton in the Scottish Borders and work in Miss Clutterbuck’s hotel. Arrangements are made, the house packed up, the faithful Annie goes away on a brief holiday, she will be joining Hester at the hotel as a maid. Betty starts at her new school and all Hester has to do then is make her way North and write and tell Tim what she has done.

Upon arrival, Hester finds Miss Clutterbuck to be every bit as alarming as her letter suggested.

“Miss Clutterbuck meets me at Ryddelton Station. It is quite a small station and there are not more than a dozen people on the platform, most of them railway officials, so there is no doubt at all as to the identity of my employer. She stands near the booking stall, a solid figure in a Lovat tweed coat, which is somewhat shabby but well cut. She stands with her feet well apart and her hands in her coat pockets, a cigarette in a cherry-wood cigarette holder is stuck in the corner of her mouth. She is short necked; she is hatless, her grey wavy hair is slightly tousled with the evening breeze. For some strange reason Miss Clutterbuck remind me of Mr Churchill, Mr Churchill in one  of his belligerent moods.”

Hester’s convinced that Miss Clutterbuck took one look at her as she got off the train and found her wanting. The hotel is in Erica Clutterbuck’s family home, and it is pretty much full, as it always seems to be. Tocher House is popular, much to Miss Clutterbuck’s irritation, she is embarrassed by the business side of things, especially the feeding of people who pay her – and she generally struggles with dealing with people. She needs Hester to organise her, deal with the guests, the bookings and written requests for rooms. Erica soon sees she sorely misjudged Hester, that despite being initially overwhelmed at what she has taken on, she is quickly into her stride and managing wonderfully. Hester finds that she is rather enjoying herself – setting herself to sorting out the linen closet in the middle of the night when the hotel is quiet – a surprised Erica finds her thus employed and lends a hand – helping the two women to bond further.

Still missing Tim and the children terribly, Hester is soon far too busy to spend much time fretting. She can’t help but involve herself in the lives of the hotel residents. There’s the deep trauma of a young man returned from war, the romantic fortunes of a couple who seem to have got themselves in a tangle of misunderstanding and two American women who seem to want to know just what makes British women tick. Hester is further persuaded to play the part of a fortune teller in the local fete. She looks forward to when Betty and Bryan will visit for the holidays, though nervous of the effect they might have on Erica, but she is utterly delighted when her and Tim’s old friend Tony Morley turns up, as charming and mischievous as ever, he soon has the whole hotel eating out of the palm of his hand.

Honestly Mrs Tim books should be widely prescribed for anyone feeling unwell or a bit fed up and in need of gentle escape, they fit the bill perfectly. I find D E Stevenson less snobbish than the likes of Angela Thirkell (it is clearly of its time, but less obviously so) it was a real pleasure to spend time with these characters. I am glad I have the last Mrs Tim book; Mrs Tim Flies Home waiting in the wings.