#BookReview Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlet
Read as ebook using a mix of Braille & TTS
Dean Street Press
Pub. 1941
I was looking for a gentle read for the Xmas period and had recently heard about this charming book. Written by Noel Streatfeild (famous for Ballet Shoes) under a pseudonym,we follow an ordinary family struggling to get by. Beth is the oldest of 5 kids and is disappointed not to be able to go on to secretarial college after school as her parents can’t afford it. Her father has always wanted her to join him at Babbacombe’s, a department store, where he’s worked for 30 years and she duly obliges.
Throwing a spanner in the works is Dulcie, a cousin who’s sent to live with them and also starts at the store. She’s been educated at boarding school, arriving with a showy attitude that contrasts with the simple life of the Carsons.
Beth’s story starts with her bumping into a young man, David, and his dog at Paddington station, meeting him again at Babbacombe’s, where they get stuck in a lift. From there the romance slowly builds, though Beth is resistant as she knows her father is against girls dating outside their class.
All kinds of obstacles are put in their way, many of which show the workings of the store. The scene where Beth’s duped by a shoplifter was really nicely told in particular.
i often find myself on edge when there’s a storyline about blindness in classic novels but this was generally good with regards to how the experience of glaucoma was described, given the time it was written, e.g. when he goes to see his sister who makes a fool of herself at a school performance:
“Edward missed the excitement: his vision did not carry as far as the stage. But already his ears were training themselves to help out his eyes, and he caught a faint whisper from the row behind. ‘What a little figure of fun!’” That was relatable.
And it made me smile to find the novel ending on Christmas Day, very festive! #bookstodon#DeanStreetDecember@bookstodon
Inspired by
having the Niven biography "The Other Side of the Moon' for #DeanStreetDecember 2024, I've decided to honour my Dad by adding to my 2024 TBR bios of 3 comics he introduced me to when I was FAR too young to really get them. Recs please for the best bios of
Sellers
Secombe
Milligan #AmReading#ReadersOfMastodon#ebooks@bookstodon#bookstodon
#BookReview The Dower House Mystery by Patricia Wentworth
Read as e-book using a mix of Braille and TTS
Dean Street Press
Pub. 1925
I’ve been meaning to read Dean Street Press for ages as their books sound so enjoyable, so #DeanStreetDecember was the nudge I needed.
I loved the setup of this one; Amabel Grey takes a peculiar job to earn enough money to send her daughter on a chance of a lifetime trip abroad (to snag a rich husband!), thinking she’s a capable woman who doesn’t believe in ghosts and all will be fine. How hard could it be to be paid by the owner of a house to live there for 6 months to quash the local rumours that it’s haunted, which have made it impossible to rent out?
But of course as soon as she arrives strange and unsettling things start to happen, all of which sound ridiculous when explained out loud; someone laughing, a cat mewing, doors that were bolted at night being wide open in the morning, the feeling that someone is following you up the stairs. And all manner of other creepy little details to add to the tension:
“The house was very still, but twice the stillness was broken by that sound of light footsteps, jenny of course, moving about downstairs. She turned a page and forced her mind to follow the words. They remained words to her, separate words, no connecting thought to string them together. On other nights there had been a hundred sounds; the wind in the chimneys, the pattering of the rain, the unkempt ivy buffeting the windowpane, the faint scuttering of mice. Tonight there were none of these sounds, the house was very still. It was like the hush before a storm.”
The solution was a little absurd and I saw it coming but I didn’t mind as I was enjoying the main characters and the eerie atmosphere of the house so much, I just went with it!
A fortune teller, a past love, a mysterious missing girl and two dogs that run away in terror all make for a thoroughly entertaining read. #Bookstodon#DeanStreetDecember23@bookstodon
Starting Bush's "The Case of the Missing Men", book 11/15 for my #DeanStreetDecember & laughing at myself: I DID "leap to an unwarranted conclusion based on these initials" not the ACTUAL, REAL writer normal readers would think of - I thought of Albert Campion🤦♂️😆🤦♂️ #AmReading#ebooks#Kobo#GoldenAgeMysteries@bookstodon
Well THAAAANK YOU #GNUTerryPratchett for 'ruining' a whole page of this book A lengthy passage about a Scottish Highland character's interactions with "the Little People" ends with this question and OF COURSE I read the whole thing mentally substituting "Wee Free" for "Little" - Every.Single.Time 🤣 #AmReading#ebooks#DeanStreetDecember#Discworld@bookstodon