It may not have escaped your notice that I have read quite a lot of the books re-published by Dean Street Press. They publish many of the kinds of books I love, they have become a reliable source of mid twentieth century women’s writing.
Often, when I have written about DSP books in the past I have had comments from people saying how they would love to try some DSP or already love DSP themselves – so I hope some of you will find a book among this little lot that you like the sound of enough to try.
So, in a kind of reverse order – I found it almost impossible to rank these – my top ten of DSP middlebrow novels is:
10. Company in the Evening by Ursula Orange (1944)
With it’s unapologetic happy ending – Company in the Evening was written at a time when that’s what people needed. Narrated by Vicky in a first person confessional style – it is immediately very readable. The story takes place in the middle of World War two, people have begun to tire of wartime strictures, losses have been suffered in some families. It has quite a modern feel to some aspects, with Vicky working three days in the office and two at home, while juggling being a single mother – she does have help though in the shape of an old family retainer. Vicky offers her brother’s widow a home in her house, she has no real wish to share her home, and the two are very different women. Some interesting 1940s social snobbery, though we can see how that is changing.
9.A House in the Country by Ruth Adam (1957)
I chose to read this because I had so loved Ruth Adam’s novel I’m Not Complaining. This novel (which could almost be a memoir) was written about a time when Ruth Adam and her husband and children shared a large country house with several friends. It charts their ups and downs of the whole process from acquiring the house and divvying up rooms to tackling a difficult boiler, and living with the privations of wartime. Straightaway, we sense that perhaps this story of a love affair with a house won’t be an entirely happy one. There is still a lot of joy in this book, and it was a pleasure to spend time with.
8 Not at Home by Doris Langley Moore (1948)
Elinor MacFarren is a middle aged single woman, and in the summer of 1945, finds herself obliged to enter into a house share with another woman. She is living in what has been the family home, where she lived once with her brothers, and where she helped to raise her nephew. Now she is alone, and money is tight. Miss MacFarren has spent her adult life writing about botany, publishing several books, and has something of a reputation in the field. She also has a wonderful collection of old botanical prints and some beautiful, antique pieces of furniture in the house of which she is very proud. Antonia Bankes arrives and proves to be an utter nightmare – it’s brilliantly written and really made me shudder, oh just the thought of living with someone like that.
7 Mrs Martell by Elizabeth Eliot (1953)
Mrs Martell is a character none of us are supposed to like, in her Elizabeth Eliot has created a marvellous character, selfish, self-serving, and always set on getting just what she wants.
As the novel opens, Mrs Martell, Cathie is a divorcee in her late thirties, who is satisfied that she can often pass for just thirty. Exploring her character fully, with both honesty and wit, Eliot charts the life of this woman from her teenage years through to a time not long after her second marriage. Elizabeth Eliot is such a good observer of people, and Mrs Martell is a wonderfully monstrous character.
6 Table Two by Marjorie Wilenski (1942)
I loved this novel because it features women in the workplace, during the war. In the office of the Ministry for Foreign Intelligence is an office of women translators – there are two tables of nine translators, and the never the twain (for what reason nobody knows) shall meet. The women of table two, bicker and fuss, trying constantly to out manoeuvre one another, while completely ignoring their colleagues on the other side of the room, who might as well not exist. Wilenski’s two main characters are sharply contrasted. Elsie Pearne is clever and efficient she has worked hard her whole life in various offices of business at home and abroad. She is though horribly embittered and considers herself far too good to be among these women, most of whom she considers idiots. Anne Shepley-Rice is a cheerful, pretty young woman. Anne arrives in the middle of an air raid to take up her position in the translators’ office at table two – sitting right next to Elsie – who decides to make a friend of Anne. Elsie is particularly a brilliant character study – and the relationships between the office women is really well done.
5 A Game of Snakes and Ladders by Doris Langley Moore (1955)
After the end of World War One two young women, Lucy a vicar’s daughter sensible and unflappable, and Daisy, pretty, ambitious, and highly self-interested are performing with a theatre company in Egypt. Lucy is about twenty seven, Daisy a couple of years younger, and the two had been thrown together by their touring company while in Australia, a fairly superficial friendship had developed. In 1919 Lucy is still nursing a heartbreak from during the war. When the show in Cairo comes to an end Daisy decides to stay in Egypt, Lucy meanwhile is keen to return to England. Of course, things don’t quite work out for Lucy in the way she expects – and the novel follows her over the course of almost twenty years through a variety of trials and tribulations.
4 The Woods in Winter by Stella Gibbons (1970)
Which I only read very recently, I loved it from the first sentence. Our heroine is Ivy Gover – a middle-aged, curmudgeonly char woman. When we first meet Ivy, she is living in one room in London. She inherits a small cottage in the countryside, something she has always wanted and takes possession as soon as she can, where she sets up home with a rescued dog and a pet pigeon. She has slight witchery skills, and is at one with the natural world around her.
3 The House Opposite by Barbara Noble (1943)
I do love a book written during WW2. The House Opposite provides an extraordinarily vivid picture of what it was really like to live in London during the Blitz. Normal life goes on just the same in a sense, yet the nightly bombardment is never far away whether in people’s minds or in the everyday conversations with neighbours and work colleagues. Work must still be attended – if the buses are running – food acquired and cooked, the minutiae of everyday life attended to, just as if bombs aren’t falling from the sky almost every night. Elizabeth is a young woman living at home with her parents, working in London and keeping her affair with her boss a deep secret.
Across the road in the house opposite Owen Cathcart is just eighteen years old, having finished with school he awaits his call up, hoping to go into the RAF. An overheard and rather unfortunate remark from Elizabeth in the past has rather coloured his view of both Elizabeth and himself – and it is with some resentment that Owen takes up his fire watching duties alongside her. For years Owen has hero worshipped Derek his slightly older cousin – he starts to fear what his feelings might mean – and is confused and angry a lot of the time.
2 Miss Carter and the Ifrit by Susan Alice Kerby (1945)
A delightful bit of whimsy. Miss Georgina Carter is a woman in her late forties – she lives alone in a small London flat and works in the censorship office. When Georgina buys some blocks of wood for her fire that have come from a blitzed roadway, she can have no idea what adventures will result. With a new biography of Lady Hester Stanhope to read, she is looking forward to a cosy evening by a good fire. Throwing one of the blocks onto the fire later she is more than a little surprised to find that the act of burning releases a very long-imprisoned Ifrit (similar it seems to a genie). His name is Abu Shiháb, and he declares himself to be Miss Carter’s slave – a word Georgina passionately objects to. She decides to call him Joe – and the relationship that develops between them is just delightful, she teaches Joe and he helps her in a little romance.
1 Beneath the Visiting Moon by Romilly Cavan (1940)
Beneath the Visiting Moon is a little longer than some of the other Dean Street Press titles I have read – a fully satisfying novel that combines family life, romance and the trials of growing up. Scott recommended it particularly for fans of Guard your Daughters, and I can see why, although this novel isn’t as dark as Tutton’s brilliant novel, there are shadows, glimpsed fleetingly at a distance.
There is a large supporting cast of eccentric characters, in whom we can see some slightly darker elements hidden beneath the surface. When Elisabeth Fontayne remarries – two families are blended and have to start living together. A coming of age type novel set in 1939 – a time where threat hung in the air.
Well that’s them – sorry, bit of a longer post today.
Thank you so much for this gathering of your reviews of 10 DSP books. I’m read some DSP & found my own choices a mixed bag; now I can see several from your list that I should enjoy.
Glad you have found some more to try.
I have loved reading some of these books by Dean Street. I am so glad they brought these authors back into circulation and I have since found a treasure trove of some amazing fulfiling reads. Thanks to your blogs and recommendation A House in the Country and Not at Home were two of my best books of last year!
Oh so glad you loved those two so much. Dean Street have published some excellent books I think.
Like you, I love reading (and collecting) Dean Street Press novels (as well as the British Library’s Women Writers Series). I particularly liked Barbara Noble’s “The House Opposite” and Marjorie Wilenski’s “Table Two” for the reasons you give. The “Raising the Middlebrow Book Club (1910-60)” on Goodreads has selected Stella Gibbons’ “The Woods in Winter “ for this month and your review has encouraged me to buy it.
Yes, The House Opposite and Table Two had that WW2 setting I like, but it was their portrayal of ordinary life I really enjoyed.
Thanks so much for this, Ali. A very handy guide as to which Furrowed Middlebrow to buy next after throughly enjoying Table Two.
Really glad you enjoyed Table Two, hope you try some more DSP soon.
Such a nice roundup of books from a publisher that I’ve been happy to discover. I share your high opinion of Table Two, which I thought gave an incredibly vivid (and rare) picture of women in the workplace during the late 30s/early 40s. Moore’s Snakes and Ladders & Not at Home were already on my TBR list (probably from your previous reviews); I’ve now added The House Opposite. Thanks!
I really hope you enjoy The House Opposite, it offers such a great portrait of everyday life in a suburban street during WW2.
A lovely list to have on hand when deciding which to pick next. On top of my list of to reads, based on your review, is The Woods in Winter.
The Woods in Winter was such a delight, I loved The character of Ivy and her new life rooted in the natural world.
I’ll try and get my hands on it soon. It sounds just my kind
Excellent, hope you enjoy it.
What a lovely post, Ali – I have several (well, probably actually quite a lot) digital FM editions and I shall defintely come back and check your suggestions when choosing which to read!
Thank you, hope there is something here you might want to read one day.
I’ve read all these apart from Mrs Martell and The Woods in Winter (and they’re on my TBR pile). I’d put them in a slightly different order: Top of my list would be The House Opposite (which I didn’t expect to like so much), then Miss Carter and the Ifrit (for its unexpected moral dilemmas) and Not at Home (it’s enjoyable to have a character to dislike!).
To be honest it was very hard to put them in order. I hadn’t expected to like Miss Carter and the Ifrit quite so much. And, I very much enjoyed hating Antonia in Not At Home.
Love the idea for this post, and love that it includes lots of books I have on my shelves unread, as well as some I already love!
I think there are several here Simon that you would enjoy. I would be interested to know your top 10. 😉
Thanks so much for this Ali. What a lovely list and how particularly satisfying to see the underrated Romilly Cavan at number one!
Thank you Scott. I am hoping there are more Romilly Cavan out there, that was such a good novel.
A lovely idea for a post and why have I not read that Romilly Cavan???
I don’t know, 😁 you really should, I think you would like it.
I’ve been buying these since they first appeared and it’s getting to be an expensive hobby. I buy the paperbacks because I love the covers. My favorite would be The House Opposite but I’m also enjoying the Molly Claverings alot.
I have a mix of paperbacks and ebooks. I do agree about the covers. I still have to try Molly Clavering.
So enjoyed perusing this list, I do have Dean Street books on the TBR, but others keep cutting in line. Meanwhile I vicariously enjoy them through your posts.
Glad you like hearing about these books, definitely recommend reading some. 😁
Great post, I enjoyed going through your list.
I’m curious about the one with women at the workplace during WWII.
Oh yes, Table Two is excellent. Great character study, and an excellent portrayal of wartime office life.
Great post Ali! Sadly I’ve not read any of these but DSP are very much on my radar, although I’m trying to cut down on book buying to focus on the TBR (ha ha)
I do understand about the book buying! 😁 But keep these in mind for the future.
Love this! Thanks for writing. Two of these are on my TBR already but I’ll have to check out the others.
Glad to hear you’re already a DSP convert.
Love, love, love this post! Thank you so much for this list, Ali. I’ve bookmarked it for future reference (and purchases!), hopefully later this year. The Woods in Winter sounds especially delightful with its portrayal of the natural world. And I’m also drawn to several of the novels from the ’40s, especially those set in wartime. Table Two sounds a little reminiscent of Inez Holden’s books. Would that be a fair comparison, do you think?
I think you would be similarly interested in Table Two, it is probably less literary than Inez Holden, but certainly not rubbish. Lovely character portraits. The Woods in Winter was a small joy for me in December.
I haven’t started on this series yet, so this is very useful – thank you!
My pleasure, I hope you find a book from DSP you want to read.
Wonderful post! I’ve read a few titles from DSP but only The House Opposite from your list. I’ll be looking for the Gibbons and the WWII novels to read in the future.
Thank you. I always seem to enjoy the WWII novels, such an endlessly fascinating period to me.
And there it is: YAY!
You found it.
I also love Furrowed Middlebrow and have read four of those and loved all of them. I think my favorite from your list was The Woods in Winter which I just read after Christmas, so it was very timely. All but one on your list are on my TBR list and the only one missing was your #1 pick! Definitely adding that to the TBR pile also.
So glad you’ve enjoyed some of these too. I really hope you get hold of Beneath the Visiting Moon too, I think it’s excellent.