Karen and Simon’s 1920 club starts today and so I find myself reviewing my recent reads out of order. Penny Plain was the first of two quite different books I chose to read for 1920 club. Something of a comfort read, it is a kind of Scottish Cinderella story set mainly in the fictional town of Priorsford, with a large cast of well-drawn characters.
O Douglas was the pen name of Anna Masterson Buchan, a prolific writer of novels mainly set in the Scottish borders of her birth, she was the younger sister of author John Buchan. I would suggest that readers of D E Stevenson would enjoy O Douglas too.
“Most of the smaller houses in Priorsford were very much of one pattern and all fairly recently built, but there was one old house, an odd little rough stone cottage, standing at the end of a row of villas, its eyes back turned to its parvenu neighbours, its eyes lifted to the hills.”
Jean Jardine is the heroine of the piece, a young woman who is as good as gold, always thinking of others, she valiantly runs the household at The Rigs, and despite being only twenty-three has been bringing up her two younger brothers, and small adopted brother for a few years. David is about to leave for Oxford, and while Jean is delighted for him and proud of him, she fears his want of money will spoil his time at Oxford among those of better means. Jock is fourteen and still at school locally and their adopted brother Gervaise Taunton known to all as the Mhor is seven. The Rigs, the adored home of the Jardines is owned by a wealthy man in London, Jean’s one fear that one day the house should be sold from under them. The household is completed by Mrs McCosh their only servant, and Peter a mischievous fox terrier, the Mhor’s constant companion.
Two strangers come to Priorsford, and separately bring great change into the lives of the little family at The Rigs. The first is the Honourable Pamela Reston, beautiful, sophisticated and weary of London society. Having heard of the little town of Priorsford she has decided to take up residence in the house of Bella Bathgate who lives next door to the Rigs. At forty, Pamela remains unmarried having recently decided against a sensible marriage to a sixty year old politician. Travelling with Pamela is her maid Mawson; it would be fair to say that Bella Bathgate has never encountered the likes of Miss Reston or her maid before in all her life, and they have never encountered the likes of Miss Bathgate before. However, soon Bella and Mawson are getting on famously, for despite her dour exterior Bella has a good heart.
The second visitor is Peter Reid, the wealthy owner of the Rigs, though he doesn’t reveal who he is to Jean when they meet. A lonely man recently diagnosed with heart problems he is impressed and humbled in the face of her simple goodness.
The Jardines become fast friends with Pamela Reston, who is utterly charmed by Jean and her boisterous brothers, loves nothing more than to settle herself in their comfortable sitting room. Completely smitten by Priorsford and its surrounding countryside, Pamela writes regularly of all she sees and everyone she meets to her younger brother Biddy (lord Bidborough) in India, who she is hoping she can persuade to visit Priorsford when he arrives home. Meanwhile, Jean writes to her brother David, describing their new friend with great affection.
“She says she is forty. I always thought forty was quite old, but now it seems to me the very prettiest age. Age doesn’t seem to matter at all to people who have got faces and figures and manners like Pamela Reston. They will always make whatever age they are seem the perfect age.
I do wonder what brings her to Priorsford! I rather think that having been all her life so very ‘twopence coloured’ she wants the ‘penny plain’ for a change. Perhaps that is why she likes The Rigs and us. There is no mistake about our ‘penny-plainness’ it jumps to the eye!”
O Douglas is particularly good at portraying a society of different characters, and in time Pamela will meet them all. There is the snobby Mrs Duff-Whalley and her affected daughter Muriel, the kindly Mr and Mrs Jowett, old Mrs Hope who knows everyone and their antecedents and remembers all the old stories and the Miss Watsons for who an invitation to tea from Miss Reston is a great event. Also living near by is Lewis Elliot – a distant relation of Jean Jardine’s who knew Pamela twenty years earlier – their fragile romance had come to nothing. Now, Lewis’s fortunes have improved, and they are destined to meet again. To Pamela’s delight, Biddy arrives in Priorsford and is soon similarly enchanted with all he finds at the Rigs.
Naturally, O Douglas has the scene set for happy endings and good things to happen to good people. All of which is perfectly charming, comfort reading in these difficult times. Incidentally, the cover art on my little 1950s hardback edition, meant I was constantly having to redress the characters in non-1950s clothing. There’s nothing in the story to really date the novel to 1920 – just a few vague references to war. All in all Penny Plain was a delightful read.
Sounds like a wonderfully comforting read from 1920 – sometimes all you need is a happy ending! 😀
It was a lovely comfort read, just when I needed it.
I’ve read a few O Douglas books, mainly because of her connection to John Buchan. Interesting that although they shared the same childhood experiences they took a quite different tone in their writing. By the way, I love that cover even though it is anachronistic. I have a 1962 Pan edition of The Thirty-Nine Steps with a cover showing Richard Hannay in what looks like a lounge suit although the book was first published in 1915 and that would seem like quite unsuitable apparel for the Scottish Moors.
Ha ha, yes I can’t see Richard Hannay scrambling about the moors in a lounge suit. I do love these old vintage covers though.
What a sweet, comforting book to start the 1920 club with! It’s been ages since I read anything by O. Douglas but I remember this surprisingly well (despite it not ranking among my favourites of her works). I’m slowing making my way through Ursula Buchan’s biography of John Buchan and am enjoying hearing more about Anna and the rest of the family, who were such an inspiration for her books.
It was a lovely start to the 1920 club, the biography sounds excellent, I imagine the Buchans would have been a lovely family.
As soon as you mentioned the “boisterous brothers”, I felt like I was envisioning a series of boisterous boys from various early/mid-20thC books, everything from Louisa May Alcott (19thC) and Susan Coolidge’s Katy stories, to Angela Thirkell and Margery Sharp’s The Rescuers (in which the boys are not human, but mice). It also amuses me that you had to keep re-dressing the characters in 1920s fashions to counter the dust jacket. (But having said so, that dust jacket would have immediately grabbed my attention in any little shop!)
Yes I do rather love the cover even though the costumes are wrong for the period.
One of my all time favorite books! I have most of hers.
That’s good to know, this is only the fourth of hers that I have read.
Lovely review as ever, Ali. This does sound delightful, very much in the style of that vintage cover on your beautiful edition despite the mismatch in clothing. For some reason, I always get this author mixed up with E. M. Delafield, although I’m not quite sure why. Probably just my own confusion over their names!
Thank you. It’s funny how we mix up different writers, there are a few people I always confuse too.
A charming comfort read sounds perfect right now! This does sound lovely. I like your edition too, even though it meant you had to keep redressing the characters.
It was definitely the kind of book I needed last week, glad I had an excuse to read it.
I picked up two O. Douglas books when I was in Cardiff but have not read them yet. This is not one of them, unfortunately, but sounds great. I do have a question, however. Is Penny Plain a common phrase? I remember a book I read many years ago in which the heroine overhears someone referring to a Penny Plain and she thinks it is her. Naturally, this causes hurt feelings and unnecessary misunderstandings. He was actually describing an old boat. I never really understood why she jumped to the conclusion so quickly (of course, am irritated by books that rely on such silly misunderstandings as plot devices).
It’s certainly not a phrase that I had ever heard of before. Though perhaps one that was better known in Scotland during this period?
Oops, I might have bought an ebook of this just having seen your post on Facebook. So I’ll save this to read in case I manage to read it this week!
Ooh lovely, well it’s a charming read, so I hope you enjoy it.
This does sound lovely and the cover is gorgeous, a new author for me so I must look out for her – thank you!
Glad to hear you like the sound of it.
[…] HeavenAli […]
This sounds lovely! I have to be in the right mood for an O Douglas, because they can be a little too sweet for me sometimes, but when I’m after something like that then there’s nobody better.
I now what you mean about the sweetness. I definitely couldn’t read more than one at a time.
[…] 1920 club week! I was alerted to this book by my dear friend Heaven-Ali (miss you! Waves!) who reviewed it earlier last week – I found a Kindle collection for less than a pound and it’s […]
I’ve read and reviewed this now and loved it, making the D.E. Stevenson comparison, too. I felt like WW1 was all woven through it, interestingly, with the powerful scene where Mrs Hope talks of her lost sons and how that happening allowed her to bring comfort to those who lost sons in the war, and also Lewis having gone to fight aged 40 reminded me of the chap in Love’s Shadow having done the same. Anyway, a lovely read and I’m glad you read it so I saw about it! The cover you have IS weird though isn’t it because her clothes are described a lot!
My cover is so weird, but sweet. So glad you found a copy of this to read I knew you would enjoy it.
I am the reading gril from Finland. I found your blog by blogloving and this blog seems to be interesting. I like to follow if I found new interesting books and this book sounds very interesting, I don’t know if it will be found in here Finland but I hope – who knows where you can find something good. Have a lovely and healthy time.
Thank you, I hope you can find the book.
Sounds good in these troubled times.
Comfort read is what I need too.
Thanks for this one, I’d never heard of O Douglas.
She was quite prolific I think and I think some of her books are available for ereaders.
Less than 1 USD on the kindle. I’ve checked. I enjoy books in English on e-reader, there’s the instant dictionary which is useful to me.
I’m now sold on wanting to read O. Douglas. Adding Penny Plain on my to-read list. Thanks for sharing such an awesome review!
I’m happy to have introduced you to O Douglas. I hope you enjoy reading her.
[…] never heard of O. Douglas before reading Ali’s post about Penny Plain for the 1920 Club. I decided it was a good book to have on hand for lockdown times or for days with […]