Miss Buncle's Adventures

 

Miss Buncle's Book / D.E. Stevenson
Naperville, Ill. : Sourcebooks Landmark, 2012, c1934.
299 p.

Miss Buncle Married / D.E. Stevenson
Naperville, Ill. : Sourcebooks Landmark, 2012, c1936.
347 p.

These are two charming reprints from Sourcebooks; I always enjoy D.E. Stevenson, so when my library got these (plus the third title in this series, The Two Mrs. Abbotts) I devoured them all in a row. 

Miss Barbara Buncle is a spinster who is running out of cash. She decides that to make a little to live on, she'll write a novel. But her imagination isn't the most imaginative, and she draws freely from the lives of her neighbours to do so. To her delight, the book is published (under the pseudonym John Smith) and becomes a hit. But her neighbours recognize themselves in it, and begin to try to figure out who wrote this book. Fortunately for Miss Buncle, her publisher sends down one of their employees, the staid Mr. Abbott, to take care of her book deal, and he is able to neatly solve her problems by (spoiler alert, although the second  book gives it away) convincing her to marry him and move to a new town with new neighbours. It's full of light humour, silliness and delight, and if you are looking for a frothy, gentle read this is definitely it.

The second book picks up where the first left off, with the new Mrs. Abbott settling into her new surroundings, and meeting her husband's relations (oh, look, there are young unmarried people in the mix). She is trying to write a second book while at the same time trying not to repeat the neighbourly uproar that comes from her style of copying real life into her fiction. Mr. Abbott is there to guide her this time, and she's also a bit preoccupied with all the matchmaking and real life excitement around her. I enjoyed this one as well, and found the plot and the new characters engaging, even if this volume didn't quite reach the heights of the first book. D.E. Stevenson is usually a fun read, and this series was a strong addition to her oeuvre. If you haven't read her before this set would be a good place to begin!