Revived Writers
Fairly often a well-deserving writer is rediscovered by readers, publishers, or reviewers/critics. The neglected books are brought back into print, retrospective appreciations are written (Dawn Powell) or a sudden rush of affection overwhelms the writer late in life (Barbara Pym). Sometimes the writer’s works are whacked with the magic wand of Hollywood, and the writer becomes much more famous and widely read than in his or her mortality (Philip K. Dick).
Recently I was struck by the handsome editions that a British publisher, Hodder Books, brought out for Pamela Hansford Johnson’s novels. Johnson (1912-1981, CBE, FRSL) was a prolific and multi-talented writer who was the guest of many universities in the US and celebrated in her day. Her second husband, C.P. Snow, had an even higher profile as a writer bridging the sciences and the humanities and wrote successfully and abundantly, including an epic 11-volume series, Strangers and Brothers. Johnson is now back in print. Snow is out of print entirely in the US. Publishers — and booksellers — are mysterious in their giving and taking away. It pays to stay alert to what is revived.
On this page, beginning in the pandemic days of Spring 2020, we will hunt around for revived fiction and its writers. We begin with Johnson. I look forward to listing other authors I carry: Nancy Mitford, Georgette Heyer, Eugenia Price, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and others. (Why are all the names I am thinking of women writers? No idea.)
Enjoy! Experiment! And come back to check on new listings.
Mrs. Tim Flies Home
Mrs. Tim Flies Home
Sometimes it is difficult to see clearly in what direction one’s duty lies (and especially difficult for people like myself with a husband in one part of the world and children in another) but Tim and I, talking it over together in cold blood, decided that I ought to go home.
Hester Christie, the delightful heroine last met in Mrs. Tim Gets a Job, has spent a blissful 18 months living in Kenya where husband Tim is posted. But now it’s back to England to be with her two nearly grown children. She rents a house near the village of Old Quinings in England’s North Country, and plans a quiet summer with the children near the inn owned by her beloved former maid Annie and her husband.
But things are never quiet for long with Mrs. Tim, and she must navigate curious neighbours, a dishonest landlady, and a troublesome travel companion who makes an unwelcome appearance in Old Quinings, not to mention a bit of intrigue and—as usual for Hester—a bit of matchmaking for young lovers.
Mrs. Tim Flies Home, first published in 1952, concludes D.E. Stevenson’s much-loved Mrs. Tim series. Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press have also reprinted Mrs. Tim Carries On and Mrs. Tim Gets a Job. This new edition includes an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith.
Praise
“Another charming romance . . . Strongly recommended for pleasurable reading.” Edinburgh Evening News