A Trio by Susan Scarlett

Today's it's three by Susan Scarlett! I discovered this author fairly recently, thanks to the Dean Street Press reprint series. It's the pseudonym used by Noel Streatfeild when writing light romance in the war years, and some of the 12 books by Scarlett are pretty light indeed. 

I read and enjoyed Clothes-Pegs first, and it's still my favourite of the bunch. But I've finished three more in the set -- they are relaxing choices for evening reading, for sure! I'll share a brief review of each here. 

Starting with Peter & Paul (1940). This is a story of 17 yr old twins - not identical - no indeed. Petronella is ravishingly beautiful but also vain and self-absorbed, with dreams of being an actress. Pauline is plain but hard-working and good. Peter and Paul, as they're known, are the daughters of a vague country vicar, but now that they are 17, their mother wants them to have the chance to meet young men. So she finds them a job in London, at a dress shop run by a country neighbour's nephew. Just like in every good fairy tale, the sweet, hardworking girl triumphs while the beautiful lazy one doesn't. In this case, they are sisters and Peter's not all bad so she gets her own triumph in the end. Best parts of this one are the descriptions of working in the shop and all the many clothes they carry and model and wear. 

Next up, Summer Pudding (1943). This one was interesting for the plotline; secretary Janet Brain is bombed out so goes to live with her ill mother and selfish younger sister in the country where they've evacuated to. Janet ends up getting a job as a governess while her lazy sister does nothing but scheme with the housekeeper at Janet's place of employment. Nasty girl - she says straight out she doesn't care about Janet and has no sisterly feelings. The romance in this one is perfunctory and the 'hero' was unpleasant to my tastes, so I wasn't a huge fan of this one. The war elements were the most interesting part of it. 

Sally Ann (1939) was the lightest and most enjoyable of the three. Ann is an assistant cosmetician at Maison Pertinax; her boss gets flu on the day of a society wedding, so Ann is sent to make up the bride, a girl her age. One of the bridesmaids doesn't appear, so Ann is pressed into service as "Sally", she impresses the best man and annoys the woman intending to snag him, and everything unspools from there. The class lines of society are really clear in this one, in many ways. Ann's job at Maison Pertinax is beautifully drawn, both the actual work and the characters of her coworkers and the requisite catty manageress.

I really do love reading about actual workplaces in fiction, and these books by Susan Scarlett usually have a working girl as the lead, which is so fascinating. While I like the light fluffiness of them, they are also of great interest when you look at them as documents of social norms of the 30s and 40s. The class divide is so strong in them, it's a plot point in most of the stories so far. The descriptions of beauty culture, fashion, family life, and so on are really interesting to compare between books and between their era and our own. I'll keep reading this series until I have gotten through all 12, even though I find some better than others. All interesting enough!