Highlights of the 2024 update (2 of 4)

I have twelve more authors for you today, of particular interest from among the 130 new authors I recently added to my main author list (see here and my previous post here). And this is actually my favorite of the four posts I'm putting together about new authors, because these are all authors I'm genuinely interested in reading (or even have already read), and a good many are in the "cheerful romance" category that I tend to gravitate toward.

A fellow novelist
writes of Hannah
Aitken's disappearance

It's particularly fun for me, in researching a new author, to come across a reference to the fact that her mother (or daughter, or aunt, etc.) was also a novelist. That happened when I was already very intrigued by HANNAH AITKEN, the Scottish author of four novels often praised for their quiet plots and vivid characterization. In a Shaft of Sunlight (1947) is set in Edinburgh and deals with “an ordinary family linked from childhood with their unordinary friend, Victoria.” That description was enough for me to get hold of a copy, though I haven't read it yet. Whittans (1951) is a portrait of a Scots border village, while Seven, Napier Place (1952) is described as a family story set in post-war Edinburgh. Music for the Journey (1957), uniquely, is set amongst a group of travellers on holiday in Greece—“the mood of scene and place is delightfully evoked,” and that is also intriguing me (though I'm disciplining myself not to acquire multiple books by one author until I've actually read one). Aitken also edited an anthology, A Forgotten Heritage: Original Folk Tales of Lowland Scotland (1973). Tragically, Aitken disappeared during a forest walk in January 1977, and her body was only discovered six months later. That part is a downer, for sure, but in the process I found that her father was a Church of Scotland minister and her mother…

…published four novels of her own under the pseudonym JEAN OLIVER RIDDELL (real name Annie Clark Aitken, nee McArthur). Riddell's novels also feature primarily Scottish settings. There's Wind on the Heath (1924) is "a pleasing, homely story of life in a Border village,” and it so happens it was available for downloading from Stanford University's website here (haven't read it yet, of course). In Sunlight and Salt (1927), “the sincerity of high purpose is effectively contrasted with the self-deception of the unctuous poseur.” Miss Murchie's Holiday (1930) features the title character, brought up in Glasgow, falling in love with the countryside, and I am quite tempted by it as well, but resisting so far according to my aforesaid rule. And in Pyperhill (1932), “an unlikeable recluse and pseudo-scholar … appears in the district with his two very likeable daughters.” She was a teacher prior to her 1906 marriage.

Then there's MAXINE HEWSON, the description of whose four novels, combined with their irresistible dustjackets (at least the ones I've found), inspired me to get hold of the first, Keeping House for Jan (1947), focused on “London’s leading beauty expert” and the housekeeper he met in Devon. Suzannah Sings (1948) is about a young singer and the influence of a temperamental impresario. There’s No Profit In It (1951) features the triplet daughters of a philosopher, who set out to make their fortune with an array of business ventures. And A Genius at Large (1952) (oh, temptation again!) follows a film unit shooting on location in the Highlands. For an author whose books were widely reviewed, it’s surprising that I’ve not yet been able to find any clues to trace her in public records.

Thank you to Susie Watson who emailed me to suggest LADY MARY CAMERON for the list. This was the pseudonym used by Dorothy Fletcher (later Cochran) for three books. The first was a highly successful memoir, Merrily I Go to Hell (1931), about her upbringing near Oxford, her world travels, and her eventual arrival in the U.S., to which she emigrated. The book was subtitled “Reminiscences of a bishop’s daughter,” at least a slight exaggeration as her father was a vicar of long standing in Kibworth, but never, so far as I can tell, a bishop. But then, she wasn’t a “lady” either. She then published two novels, Mr. Dayton, Darling! (1933) and Duchess by Appointment (1934), which poke fun at American snobbery and notions of British aristocracy. Her use of the "Lady" prefix must have been taking advantage of those same notions… 

I came across ELIZABETH ORD WATT a while ago, and thought she'd published only two novels, but it turns out there were six in all, but the first four were simply credited to Elizabeth Watt. It also turns out that they are primarily—wait for it—cheerful romances. Blue Salon (1931), which I'm absolutely yearning for, is the tale of a young woman from a Scottish manse who heads to London to sell dogs in the titular shop. In the unfortunately-title Beyond Idolatry (1931), two bright young things set out for the glamourous Italian Riviera to be artists, falling in love, facing tragedy, and sometimes shocking the locals. Pyjamas for Drusilla (1932) features a young woman raised by aunts in Somerset, who starts a shop in Mayfair, enjoys the London nightlife too much, neglects her business, and then must outwit a crooked investor with designs on her honor. (I'm kind of salivating for that one too, I confess.) Doubting Moon (1933) is narrated by a mother who has done her best to prevent her son's happy marriage, and telling how and why she was such a "damned fool." Watt’s final two works appeared as by Elizabeth Ord Watt, though it’s unclear where the Ord actually comes from. This Is the Way We Go to School (1935), which I have on my TBR shelves, is about a woman who raises a Canadian niece—"how the upbringing of the disturbing, if charming, Marily is achieved by her aunt, and how these two react upon families of neighbouring children and grown-ups, provides refreshment not easily forgotten." And in Leave Us the Years (1939), a newspaper advice columnist, who has long advised her readers against going on cruises, tries one herself, with perhaps predictable results. One wonders if it might have been based on reality, since a review of it mentions that she “has recently left England to marry a naval chaplain stationed in Hong Kong.” Alas, I can’t locate any records for an Ord Watt at the time and there are far too many Elizabeth Watts to narrow down.

I mentioned Stanford's collection of British novels for online access above, and I also found one of BEATRICE KELSTON's novels there. She was an actress, playwright, and author of six novels—most but not all of them humorous romances. A Three-Cornered Duel (1912) is about the complications of a young man in love, by turn, with each of two twins. Seekers Every One (1913) is a “charming romance” of a girl’s search for happiness “in love, on the stage, and in various spheres of life.” In All the Joneses (1917), "Old Jones—a queer, selfish millionaire—leaves a vast fortune, and the problem to whom it falls, and the quest for the same, provides the 'motif' of a racy and thoroughly entertaining story." Bertha in the Background (1920), according to a contemporary reviewer, "shows what a first-rate inventor of farcical comedy she is,” and features a stodgy old bestselling novelist and his attempts to get his “madcap” daughter under control. (That's the one I found on the Stanford site.) Two of her works seem more serious in tone—The Blows of Circumstance (1915) is an ultimately tragic tale of a young woman determined to make her way in the theatre, and The Edge of Today (1918) is about an unhappily married woman who wants to belong to today instead of yesterday. Kelston also wrote a number of plays and several radio plays for the BBC Children’s Hour. Her plays include Indian Summer (1933), an adaptation of Vita Sackville-West’s novel All Passion Spent.

Will all the books I haven't managed to read yet, at least I have already read (and reviewed!) one of the two novels published by JANE BIRD. I enjoyed By Accident (1935), which deals with a “family of busybodies” who determine to learn the secrets of two new arrivals in their village. Her follow-up, Both Hands (1936) tells of the effects of the reappearance in a family of a long-estranged aunt, including “rich comedy and subtle sadness.” It's on my list of possibilities for our next trip to the British Library. She seems to have also edited the earlier anthology, Elizabethan Lyrics (1921).

JOLLIFFE METCALFE also published two novels. Her big success (which we photographed last year at the BL, but which of course I haven't yet read) was Finished Abroad (1930), set in a Swiss finishing school for well-to-do girls. She adapted it into a play, which seems to have had a fair amount of success as well. Her second novel, Substitute (1932) is written in the form of a young man’s defense against a charge of philandering with three different women. That and another play, They Do These Things in France, seem to have been less acclaimed than her debut. She also translated a play by Jean Giono in 1935. “Jolliffe” seems to have been a traditional middle name on her father’s side. Tragically, her premature death at age 35 seems to have been by suicide.

The work of some authors seems to evolve in striking ways as they progress. EVELYN HERBERT was a Welsh journalist and author of five (I think) novels. In the 1930s, she published two rather serious novels set among Breconshire’s mining community. Anna Priestly (1932) deals with an unwed mother—"As may be expected, the woman pays, but she pays with a proud scorn and a grim reticence. … Miss Herbert has created an unforgettable character.” The White Peony (1935) examines a community of miners around Sugar Loaf in Wales, both before and after the mines were closed. World War II then intervened, but in the 1950s, she returned to fiction in a very different tone (I thought perhaps they were two different authors sharing a name, but a review made clear the author was the same). Venus Unmasked (1952), apparently published only in the U.S., focuses on three young sisters making their way in a peaceful English village. Paris Is for Lovers (1953), published first in the U.S. and then in England in 1956, is a romantic comedy “by a writer of wit, wisdom and tender witchery." And Kiss the World Goodbye (1958), published only in the U.K., is “escapism in the best and fullest sense,” the tale of an unhappy woman teacher who inherits money and heads straight for Italy. I thought it was possible that Venus might simply be the US edition of one of the others, but the plot points mentioned in reviews don’t seem to line up, so I'm saying they're five novels until corrected. Researching her is quite the challenge because of her more famous namesake, the daughter of the Earl of Carnarvon, whom (I now know) was the first modern person to enter King Tut’s tomb.

Claudia Parsons in later years

CLAUDIA PARSONS spanned 60 years with her three published works. First came Brighter Bondage (1935), which was reviewed by the Illustrated London News alongside Nancy Mitford’s Wigs on the Green (and is advertised on the back cover of Ann Stafford and Jane Oliver’s Cuckoo in June). It "follows the fortunes of a plucky young widow who kept her spirits up and her head above water after her husband's death and the loss of their comfortable income.” A few years later, Vagabondage (1941) told of her extraordinary trip by car from New York to British Columbia, and thence through Asia and the Middle East and across North Africa, on a shoestring budget and over the course of sixteen months (!!). Her 1995 memoir, Century Story, tells of the extraordinary backstory for both books, as well as the rest of her eventful life. I came across her from the Cuckoo in June advertisement, but when I went to research her, I found that Sarah Lonsdale had already devoted a chapter to her in Rebel Women Between the Wars (2020), which is now also on my TBR.

Next comes ADELAIDE HERIOT—playwright, novelist, and author of books on entertaining. Her four novels are upbeat romances—Secretary to Sir Mark (1937), about a young woman whose life changes when she becomes secretary to the owner of a luxury hotel line; That Sweet Passion (1937), about four young people—a typist, a journalist, and two advertising copywriters—and the complications they get into; Virginia Goes Home (1937), about a young English girl adapting to life in Scotland; and Beauty for Sale (1940), about a young beauty specialist whose attempts to shield a society girl from her jealous husband cause problems with her own beau. Naturally, none of them are readily available outside of national libraries. Heriot had begun her career with two guides to entertaining, Enjoyable Parties (1936) and Gay Interiors (1936), and she later published a one-act play, Who Steals My Purse, in 1951.

And last but not least for this post is ANNE PIPER, the author of nine novels which she herself described as light comedy. Early to Bed (1951) features the memorable opening line "I married most of them in the end," while Cuckoo (1952) features a heroine “whose artless gaiety wreaks havoc in men's hearts and homes." The “plump but attractive” heroine of Love on the Make (1953) goes through a string of jobs trying to make her way, including working for a Ruritanian princess in the Balkans. Green for Love (1954) is about the wife of successful barrister, who hatches a plot to maintain his affections. The Hot Year (1955) has a retrospective World War II setting, with "a wistfully romantic St. John's Wood puritan” ending up in wartime Delhi and Rangoon after her marriage. In Spinsters Under the Skin (1957), the wedding of a dean’s daughter is disrupted by the arrival of her more attractive and assertive sister. Sweet and Plenty (1959, published in the US as Marry at Leisure) is a comedy about a young woman and her brood of illegitimate children—it was made into a film, A Nice Girl Like Me, in 1969. Yes, Giorgio (1961), about a Welsh heroine "on a wild American spree with an Italian professor,” was also filmed in 1982 with Luciano Pavarotti; a 2013 large print edition was drably retitled Welsh Rose and Her Latin Lover. Finally, The Post Graduate (1979) was Piper’s response to The Graduate; one review was titled "Mrs Robinson Comes Out Fighting." Piper was reportedly "struck by how unfair the young man [the author of the novel version] was on middle-aged women," so told a tale of "a housewife who finds new confidence through a liaison with a young French student." A 1970 article notes that she was married to David Piper, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, and that she started writing because she was working as a hospital librarian and couldn’t meet her patients’ demands for light comedy. I haven't sampled her work yet, but I have a couple on my library request list—several seem to be possible (if not easy) to find.

And that's quite enough to be getting on with for now. In my next post, I have 13 more authors who are intriguing in one way or another, and in the fourth of these update posts, I'll share 14 authors from the last update who will also be added to my Mystery List when I finally get round to revising it—some very interesting finds there too, if I do say so myself!