Bøker av D. E. Stevenson

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.With husband Tim stationed in Egypt and her children at boarding-school, Hester Christie-affectionately known as "Mrs. Tim" and based loosely on D.E. Stevenson herself-finds herself at loose ends, until her friend Grace takes her at her word and finds her a job with the formidable Erica Clutterbuck, who has opened a new hotel in the Scottish Borders.Once there, Hester's initial ambivalence disappears in a swirl of problems and situations with hotel guests and old friends alike, including serving as fortune teller at the local fête and aiding and abetting romantic schemes, not to mention the reappearance of the debonair Tony Morley.This volume, first published in 1947, is a sequel to Mrs. Tim Carries On and brings Hester into the immediate post-war years. Her exploits continue in Mrs. Tim Flies Home. All three titles are back in print for the first time in decades from Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press. This edition includes a new introduction by Alexander McCall Smith."D.E. Stevenson brings back Mrs. Tim after some years' silence, and here she is the same charming, witty woman, a little older, a little wiser but just as busy as ever." Edinburgh Evening News"It is a delightful book, and long may Mrs Tim flourish!" Sunday Times

There is so much War News in News Bulletins, in Newspapers, and so much talk about the war that I do not intend to write about it in my diary. Indeed my diary is a sort of escape from the war . . . though it is almost impossible to escape from the anxieties which it brings.Bestselling author D.E. Stevenson's charming fictional alter-ego, Hester Christie-or "Mrs. Tim" as she is affectionately known to friends of her military husband-was first introduced to readers in Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, published in 1932. In 1941, Stevenson brought Mrs. Tim back in this delightful sequel, to lift spirits and boost morale in the early days of World War II.With her husband stationed in France, Hester finds plenty to keep her busy on the Home Front. From her first air raid and a harrowing but hilarious false alarm about a German invasion, to volunteering at the regiment's "Comforts Depot," guiding the romantic destinies of her pretty houseguest and an injured soldier, and making a flying visit to a blacked-out, slightly bedraggled London with its fighting spirit intact, Mrs. Tim does indeed carry on-in inimitable style.Mrs. Tim returns in two subsequent novels, Mrs Tim Gets a Job (1947) and Mrs Tim Flies Home (1952), all back in print for the first time in decades from Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press. This new edition features an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith."She admirably preserves her lightness of touch, with a tinge of melancholy added, which perfectly suits the mood of 1940." Glasgow Herald"This is not merely a war book to which cheerfulness keeps breaking in, it is a book of cheerfulness from which the war cannot be kept out . . . Major Tim's amazing escape from Dunkirk is high drama superbly handled, and her word pictures are both lifelike and lively." Manchester Evening News

Frances was free. She had enough money for her holiday, and when it was over she would find useful work. Her plans were vague, but she would have plenty of time to think things out when she got to Cairn. One thing only was certain-she was never going back to prison again.Young Frances Field arrives in a scenic coastal village in Scotland, having escaped her dreary life as an orphan treated as little more than a servant by an uncle and aunt. Once there, she encounters an array of eccentric locals, the occasional roar of enemy planes overhead, and three army wives-Elise, Tommy, and Tillie-who become fast friends. Elise warns Frances of the discomforts of military life, but she's inclined to disregard the advice when she meets the dashing and charming Captain Guy Tarlatan.The ensuing tale, one of D.E. Stevenson's most cheerful and satisfying, is complicated by a local laird with a shady reputation, a Colonel's daughter who's a bit too cosy with Guy, a spring reputed to guarantee marriage within a year to those who drink from it, and a series of misunderstandings only finally resolved in the novel's harrowing climax.Spring Magic, first published in 1942, is here reprinted for the first time in more than three decades. Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press are also reprinting four more of Stevenson's best works-Smouldering Fire, Mrs. Tim Carries On, Mrs. Tim Gets a Job, and Mrs. Tim Flies Home. This new edition includes an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith."The author tells of what befell a young woman who, while on a seaside holiday in Scotland, enters the social life surrounding a battalion of troops and of how she found personal happiness. Lively and charming." Sunday Mercury"The cheeriest company . . . charmingly told" Sunday Times

Iain stood for a few minutes on the little bridge that crossed the burn and looked at the house-he felt that he had betrayed it. No people save his own had ever lived in the house, and now he had sold it into slavery. For three months it would shelter strangers beneath its roof, for three months it would not belong to him.Despite his passionate love for Ardfalloch, Iain has been driven to let his home and estate to Mr Hetherington Smith, a wealthy London businessman, and his kindly wife (who was, truth be told, happier when they were poor).MacAslan stays on in a cottage by the loch, aided by his devoted keeper Donald and Donald's wife Morag. But he finds himself irresistibly drawn to Linda Medworth and her young son, invited to Ardfalloch by Mrs Hetherington Smith. Lush Highland scenery and a ruined castle set the stage for a mystery, and tension builds to a shocking conclusion.Smouldering Fire was first published in the U.K. in 1935 and in the U.S. in 1938. Later reprints were all heavily abridged. For our reprint, Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press have followed the text of the first U.K. edition, and are proud to be producing the first complete, unabridged edition of the novel in eighty years."A charming love story set in the romantic Scottish highlands, with plenty of local colour, a handsome hero, a lonely, lovely heroine and a curious mystery into the bargain." Sunday Mercury"A tale in which those who love the Highlands will delight, for the minor characters are gloriously alive and the atmosphere is profoundly right." Punch

Sometimes it is difficult to see clearly in what direction one's duty lies (and especially difficult for people like myself with a husband in one part of the world and children in another) but Tim and I, talking it over together in cold blood, decided that I ought to go home.Hester Christie, the delightful heroine last met in Mrs. Tim Gets a Job, has spent a blissful 18 months living in Kenya where husband Tim is posted. But now it's back to England to be with her two nearly grown children. She rents a house near the village of Old Quinings in England's North Country, and plans a quiet summer with the children near the inn owned by her beloved former maid Annie and her husband.But things are never quiet for long with Mrs. Tim, and she must navigate curious neighbours, a dishonest landlady, and a troublesome travel companion who makes an unwelcome appearance in Old Quinings, not to mention a bit of intrigue and-as usual for Hester-a bit of matchmaking for young lovers.Mrs. Tim Flies Home, first published in 1952, concludes D.E. Stevenson's much-loved Mrs. Tim series. Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press have also reprinted Mrs. Tim Carries On and Mrs. Tim Gets a Job. This new edition includes an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith."Another charming romance . . . Strongly recommended for pleasurable reading." Edinburgh Evening News

Ever observant, always witty and more than a little mischievous, the Mrs Tim diaries reveal a timeless tale of a young woman often out of her depth, but, always with an eye for the amusing side of life