O, the Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith

They listened, they expressed concern, but they didn’t quite understand the problem.

And there was Hubert, the local vicar, whose life was not nearly so well ordered, and who struggled with his relationship with his teenage son. There was Stanley, who was a single man with a lovely home, where he had things exactly as he liked and was ministered to a marvellous housekeeper who understood him perfectly. Ada was cynical from the start, and as days passed by Alison began to think that she might be right.Īlison turned to her two dearest friends for advice. However, once she was installed in the bed in the spare room she showed no sign of reviving, shrinking back under the covers at the slightest hint that she might be able to make progress. I said you were either an angel or just plain crazy. The unfortunately named Miss Victoria Plum was wonderfully grateful. She decided that the local YWCA would be sure to care for her and get her back on her feet, but she found that they had no room and so she decided that all she could do was take her home and do that job herself. She saw a young woman who was clearly very upset, she turned away to allow her privacy and spare her embarrassment but when she glanced back she saw that the young woman seemed intent on throwing herself into the duck pond and she knew she had to act. Ada was indignant but Alison decided that she should be philosophical: she would go out, to have lunch and to see a film.Īlison’s plan’s came to nothing, because she took a walk in the park. There was no letter from George on Alison’s fortieth birthday. He sent Alison a letter every year, timed to reach her on her birthday, and over the years they came from far and wide as George travelled far and wide and rarely stayed still. She could have married, but her protective parents disapproved of George, and she accepted that they were right to stand in his way. It is a state of affairs that the two women are very happy with.Īlison has never married and is quite happy with the way her life has turned out. Ada loves Alison dearly, she is very protective of her, and treats her as a beloved daughter, without ever forgetting that Alison is her employer. She lives with Ada, an old family retainer who has become her housekeeper, friend and companion. She is unmarried and quite happy with her situation. The story begins as Alison Penny wakes on her fortieth birthday in the family home that she inherited. This is the book that makes me say that, and it has been sent back into the world by the lovely Furrowed Middlebrow imprint of the Dean Street Press. It is lovely when you see than a book that you have seen praised, that you are sure that you will love, but that is impossible to find is being sent back into the world and it is even lovelier when that book more than lives up to very high expectations.

O, the Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith