Mrs. Tim Carries on

No cover — D. E. Stevenson: Mrs. Tim Carries on (Hardcover, 1941, Farrar Straus & Giroux)

Hardcover

Published June 9, 1941 by Farrar Straus & Giroux.

ISBN:: 978-99975-318-9-6

(1 review)

Hester Christie, wife of Major Tim Christie, continues her diary with entries chronicling life in a military depot during the first year of WWII. From the bumptiousness of pre-Dunkirk popular British opinion, through the dark days of the Battle of Britain, Mrs. Tim carries on, although her husband's deployment with his battalion to France ends with him being MIA. How he makes his way back home, how they cope with the stress of daily existence in an embattled country, how they find reason for hope for the future, all told with a demure (but still telling) wit and humor.

5 editions

Marya reviewed Mrs. Tim carries on by D. E. Stevenson

Review of 'Mrs. Tim carries on' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

You will like this, if this is the kind of thing you like.

I recently discovered D.E. Stevenson while laid up with a busted knee, and if what you need is gentle but not too idiotic or romance-y tales of mid-century village life in England Scotland, this is the sweet spot. They are quirky, with odd and annoying characters that often perplex the main characters, but not obsessively focused on these conflicts; they are full of the details of managing meals for a family or unexpected guests (in this case in wartime); they often have funny and perceptive asides; there is usually at least one romance plot that nevertheless doesn't take over the book. The main subjects are human relationships and householding.

This is a long-delayed sequel to a military wife story I haven't read, with the formula (competence porn and happy marriage) adjusted for wartime. There are some thrills …

You will like this, if this is the kind of thing you like.

I recently discovered D.E. Stevenson while laid up with a busted knee, and if what you need is gentle but not too idiotic or romance-y tales of mid-century village life in England Scotland, this is the sweet spot. They are quirky, with odd and annoying characters that often perplex the main characters, but not obsessively focused on these conflicts; they are full of the details of managing meals for a family or unexpected guests (in this case in wartime); they often have funny and perceptive asides; there is usually at least one romance plot that nevertheless doesn't take over the book. The main subjects are human relationships and householding.

This is a long-delayed sequel to a military wife story I haven't read, with the formula (competence porn and happy marriage) adjusted for wartime. There are some thrills and chills and air raids, and worries about husbands off in France, but no one dies. That's a spoiler but only kind of, because the whole point is that this is the kind of book where no one dies.

Subjects

Fiction