Description:
"I'll set my face against all female society, if that will reassure you. But," he added firmly, "Miss Fairlie is different. She'll give us no trouble; you can depend on that, Mrs. McCaig.'
Mrs. McCaig looked at him with withering scorn. "I'm no' so sure. Have a care, Glenlochart."
When Alison Fairlie, on holiday from her decorating job in London, lands at Glenlochart House, the family home of Neil McPherson, now being run as a quiet hotel primarily for gentlemen fishermen, he assures his surly housekeeper she'll be no bother. Little does he know...
Alison soon falls in love with the house and the Scottish countryside (and perhaps a little bit with Neil himself?), but matters are complicated by the arrival of other guests. Though Mrs. McCaig refers to 34-year-old Allison as "yon spinster body", her advanced age (!) doesn't discourage young Roddy Tosh, the appropriately-surnamed, spoiled son of a wealthy businessman, whom Allison finds ludicrous but entertaining ("as if she were throwing small fish to a seal"). Roddy's attentions lead to misunderstandings, but they're nothing compared to the chaos which ensues with the arrival of Alison's freeloading mother, a distressed gentlewoman forever on the make, and her sister, an irresponsible flirt. In this delicious romantic comedy first published in 1936, things will work themselves out, but it's how they do that is such surprising and cheerful fun.
Originally published in 1936, this new edition features a new introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.
"Rich in humorous complications" Aberdeen Press
Brief description: Dorothy Lambert was born Alicia Dorothea Irwin on 17 February 1884 in County Cork, Ireland. Until her marriage she lived with her family in 'Roskeen', a Georgian country house near Mallow.In 1906 she married Eric Lambert, a solicitor. Soon after their marriage the couple sailed to Bombay, where their daughter, Eileen (known by her middle name 'Audrey') was born in 1908. Dorothy returned to Cork for the birth in July 1913 of their son, Thomas, who only lived for a few months. The Lamberts were both back in India at the outbreak of the First World War, during which Eric served in the army, but after the war they returned to England, where Eric became a partner in a firm of Dover solicitors, and was later Dover's coroner. The Lamberts lived in Shepherdswell, a few miles outside Dover, where Dorothy and her family immersed themselves in the social and cultural life of the village. This included numerous theatrical entertainments, some of the plays written by Dorothy herself.Her novel-writing career began at the age of 43, and ultimately included twenty-seven novels, the last published in 1953. Dorothy Lambert died in a nursing home near Dover in 1967, having outlived Eric by nine years.