The hurried pace of school in the month of May invariably finds me looking for a book with a story that will bring me a happy respite from the busy days. This May hasn’t disappointed and as the month grew more frenzied I turned toward two books by D.E. Stevenson, Miss Buncle's Book and Miss Buncle Married.
Stevenson, a Scot, wrote in the the early to mid-20th century and her works were prolific. The Miss Buncle series was published in the 1930s and the books are set in the English countryside of that time. The novels are light and light-hearted without being flighty. Stevenson wrote well and is particularly adept at character development. At the center of both of these books, is Barbara Buncle, herself an author.
Barbara is a keen observer of people and, as such, uses those powers of observation to write her novels. This invariably means that she’s writing about her neighbors. Her honesty occasionally causes tension among the residents of the small English town where Barbara lives. There’s nothing unkind in these stories; they have a Jane Austen-like tone of observation about the human condition that is at once clever and sympathetic.
The books were a quick read and a treat in a month that needed as many quiet moments as I could find. They are a treat to which I will return time and time again, which makes them just my sort of stories.
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