Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson ©1934
(Recently, I ordered several books from my favorite British bookseller and publisher, Persephone Books, founded in 1999 to reprint neglected, mainly mid-twentieth century, women writers. Check out their online shop or visit their shop in Bath when you are in England.)
Miss Buncle is a familiar character in British literature; the plain, unfashionable, single lady who, unbeknownst to all but the most discerning of her neighbors, has hidden depths!
Miss Buncle is a lifelong resident of the small village of Silverstream. Her modest lifestyle is supported by her “dividends,” which sadly (it is the 1930s) are getting smaller and smaller. What is she to do? There is no question of the genteel lady taking a job or firing her jack of all trades domestic, Dorcas, who is practically family. Instead Miss Buncle writes a novel (under a pseudonym) on the subject she knows best—her village and her neighbors.
Pandemonium ensues as the villagers take umbrage at the author’s insightful often unflattering portraits. Although they suspect that the author is one of them, no one considers the retiring Miss Buncle.
How will Miss Buncle and her very understanding (and single) publisher, Mr. Abbott, get out of this pickle?
I loved this book, intelligent and restful!
WHO WROTE IT
Dorothy Emily (D.E.) Stevenson (1892-1973) was born in Edinburgh and lived all her life in Scotland. Married with three children, she published her first novel in 1923, her second in 1932. Thereafter she published a book a year, eventually selling four million books in Britian and three million in the USA. See also Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson and The Priory and Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple.