"Funny and poignant. . . . This book is written with verve and exuberance."--"The Sunday Telegraph"

Monica Dickens, the great granddaughter of Charles Dickens, published "Mariana" in 1940 when she was only twenty-four years old. A bestseller in its time, "Mariana" is the often-comical story of a typical English girl growing up in the 1930s.

A lively young woman who has no idea what to do with her life, Mary is often at loose but happy ends: going to school and vacationing in Kensington; a hilarious failed attempt at drama school; a year in Paris learning dressmaking and getting engaged to the wrong man; and finally her romance with the right man.

"They nearly all had short hair. She wondered whether they had gone through these pangs before they bobbed it, or whether their husbands had laughingly clapped a basin over their heads one fine Putney day and run a pair of scissors round as casually as they would trim a garden hedge."

Monica Dickens was born in London in 1915. Her father was Henry Charles Dickens, the eighth son of Charles Dickens. She was an active humanitarian and is the author of numerous novels and children's books. Despite her privileged upbringing, Dickens volunteered in the service and worked in an aircraft factory repairing Spitfire fighters. This, and her work as a cook and servant, informed much of her writing.

'Life was a wordless battle of wits between us, with her keeping a sharp look-out for signs of neglect, and me trying to disguise my slovenliness by subterfuge. I became an adept at sweeping dust under the bed, and always used the same few pieces of silver' Unimpressed by the world of debutante balls, Monica Dickens shocked her family by getting a job. With no experience whatsoever, she gained employment as a cook-general. Monica's cooking and cleaning skills left much to be desired, and her first few positions were short lived, but soon she started to hold her own. Monica discovered the pleasure of daily banter with the milkman and grocer's boy and the joy of doing an honest day's work, all the while keeping a wry eye on the childish pique of her employers. One Pair of Hands is a fascinating and thoroughly entertaining memoir of life upstairs and downstairs in the early 1930s.

INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS 'I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She's beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny' NINA STIBBE 'Wherever her eye falls, it finds the exact, significant detail, and her ear for dialogue is unerring' OBSERVER 'Monica's naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with' LISSA EVANS Poppy, newly recruited cub reporter at the Downingham Post, is determined to prove to the editor that he's wrong in his belief that 'Women are a nuisance in the office'. He certainly doesn't think she's a nuisance when it's time for the tea round - a job which never fails to fall to the only female reporter. What Poppy lacks in experience, she makes up for in spirit and ambition. She'll make the Downingham Post the best regional newspaper there is - even if she occasionally gets the names wrong in court hearings. Life for a single professional woman in the post-war years certainly has its challenges - from finding a room, when the tyrannical landlady doesn't consider Poppy to be quite respectable to changing her editor's deeply entrenched ways. This semi-autobiographical novel, recounted with Monica Dickens's wit, warmth and wry observation will charm all who read it. If you enjoyed My Turn to Make the Tea, you will love One Pair of Feet, Dickens's novel of being a wartime trainee nurse, also published in Virago Modern Classics.

INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS 'I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She's beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny' Nina Stibbe 'One Pair of Feet is not just a spirited and entertaining account of the training of a hospital nurse in wartime but a fascinating glimpse into a time and a culture so recent and yet so utterly changed' Marina Lewycka As the effects of the war raging in Europe begins to be felt at home in London, Monica Dickens decides to do her bit and to pursue a new career, and so enrols as a student nurse at a hospital in rural Hertfordshire. By nature clever and spirited, she struggles to submit to the iron rule of the Matron and Sisters, and is alternately infuriated and charmed by her patients. That's not to mention the mountains of menial work that are a trainee's lot. But there are friends among the staff and patients, night-time escapades to dances with dashing army men, and her secret writing project to keep her going. 'Monica's naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with, and as a narrator she always tells us what we're longing to know - it's like listening to a friend's anecdote, and egging them on' LISSA EVANS If you enjoyed One Pair of Feet, you will love the novel that followed it. My Turn to Make the Tea, Monica Dickens's lively and entertaining novel about life as a cub reporter on a regional newspaper, is also published as a Virago Modern Classic.

Monica Dickens's first book, published in 1940, could easily have been called Mariana - an Englishwoman. For that is what it is: the story of a young English girl's growth towards maturity in the 1930s.We see Mary at school in Kensington and on holiday in Somerset; her attempt at drama school; her year in Paris learning dressmaking and getting engaged to the wrong man; her time as a secretary and companion; and her romance with Sam. We chose this book because we wanted to publish a novel like Dusty Answer, I Capture the Castle or The Pursuit of Love, about a girl encountering life and love, which is also funny, readable and perceptive; it is a 'hot-water bottle' novel, one to curl up with on the sofa on a wet Sunday afternoon. But it is more than this. As Harriet Lane remarks in her Preface: 'It is Mariana's artlessness, its enthusiasm, its attention to tiny, telling domestic detail that makes it so appealing to modern readers.' And John Sandoe Books in Sloane Square (an early champion of Persephone Books) commented: 'The contemporary detail is superb - Monica Dickens's descriptions of food and clothes are particularly good - and the characters are observed with vitality and humour. Mariana is written with such verve and exuberance that we would defy any but academics and professional cynics not to enjoy it.'

This book relates the founding in America, and evaluates the effectiveness of, a branch of the worldwide organization of volunteers known as the Samaritans, committed to the prevention of suicide through the simple means of "listening therapy." Great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens, Monica Dickens was best known in England as a novelist; in America, as the founder of the U.S. Samaritans. Today Samaritans are in every large city of the country. Volunteers work twenty-four hours a day, answering telephones or meeting troubled people, to try to give them, in nonjudgmental ways, the help they need to get their lives back in order.

The world is changing, and this will not, unfortunately, pass Leonard Motley by. At 72 Chepstow Villas lives the Motley family: Leonard, the Assistant Manager of Whiteley's, his gentle wife Gwen, 'new woman' daughter Madge and son Dicky. After receiving a disturbing note regarding his employer, Leonard must make the choice between offending Mr Whiteley, or carrying the burden himself. This sinister mystery is unlike anything the family has faced before. Into their comfortable Edwardian world comes a threat of murder and a charismatic stranger who will change their lives for ever. First published in 1993, One of the Family was Monica Dickens' last novel to be completed before she died.

Ever since they built the road through her family's farm, separating the big yellow house from the pastures of Sybil's youth, nothing has been the same. At least the house remains, full of her memories, which wander through the rooms like ghosts. When Jess moves to America to marry Laurie in a whirlwind romance, she soon learns that his Grandmother and her creaky old house come with him. Stubborn, ailing and no longer able to look after herself, Sybil must rely on this British girl who has come to steal her beloved grandson from her. The echoing spectres of dead loved ones follow Sybil as she travels farther along the road to senility, but will those same echoes drive Jess towards madness? In Sybil, Monica Dickens has produced a character rich in determination, dark humour, and resilience. First published in 1966, The Room Upstairs is a portrait of a woman's fight with time, who refuses to be forgotten, and who refuses to forget.

Women from all walks of life have been thrown together by the War. Together they must toil for long hours in the aircraft factory whilst striving to navigate their disrupted lives. Overseeing their work is the kindly Edward Ledward, whose beloved rabbits provide an escape from his loveless marriage. Given a promotion, and somewhat scared of 'his girls', Edward quickly finds himself out of his depth. But will these terrifying women be his ruin or his salvation? Set during World War II and covering themes of love, family, and independence, The Fancy is above all a human story, a study of everyday life and its extraordinary characters. It was first published in 1945.

When Lily and Ida meet on a flight to America, they embark on a relationship that is to see them through two very different marriages. Lily wants passionately to help people, and to experience romance and adventure at the same time. Falling in love with a married man was not part of the plan. In order to escape her abusive father, Ida flees to America to marry Buddy, looking forward to a clean slate with her new husband. But is having a house and being Mrs. Someone enough for her? Married life will bring them comfort, distress, joy and tragedy in equal measure as the years unfold. Only their friendship can carry them through. First published in 1988, Dear Doctor Lily follows two women as they navigate the complexities of love, family, and friendship.

What drives you to be a Samaritan? Is it the need to help others, or are you responding to a damaged part of yourself? The Listeners follows the stories of those in need, and those that answer their calls. Billie, drinking away her loneliness, dials the Samaritan number expecting little from a bunch of 'do-gooders'. Tim, lost and desperate, calls in a frantic plea for help. Jackie, a young-man with learning difficulties, phones just to hear a friendly voice. For all of the callers, the most vital thing is to hear that they are cared for, and that they are not alone. The importance of this resonates with each of them in different ways. But can you really save someone from themselves? This is something that Victoria, Paul, and Sarah - all Samaritans with very different reasons for wanting to help - will have to find out the hard way. In The Listeners, first published in 1970, Monica Dickens draws from her own experience as a Samaritan, creating a heart-warming look at the realities of hardship, and salvation.

It isn't easy being born during The Great War. A young mother, desperate and alone, leaves her newborn on a church doorstep, whilst another dies in childbirth surrounded by wealth and family. Both baby girls are brought to the children's home, one to be adopted, and one to be looked after until her rich grandparents are in a position to look after her. After a tragic mix-up at the home, all is cast into darkness and uncertainty. Years later Jo - a young woman seeking answers - attempts to discover which identity is rightfully hers. Did a poor young girl abandon her in a churchyard, or is she in fact a long-lost member of the aristocracy? Is she Joy, or is she Josephine? Originally published in 1948, witty, engaging, and heartfelt, Joy and Josephine is Monica Dickens at her best.

Being brought up by an overbearing, competitive mother has left Virginia with an altered view of men and relationships. She rushed in to marriage to escape her mother, but her new husband, Joe, is difficult and unpredictable, but Virginia is determined to make their relationship work. When Joe reveals a darker side that twists married life into something damaging, drawing her into one humiliating situation after another, Virginia is forced to admit that her romantic dream has turned into a nightmare. First published in 1956, The Angel in the Corner is a book about suffering, endurance, and ultimately, strength.

With their parents working on a boat in the Mediterranean, Tom, Carrie, Em and Michael have learnt to look after themselves - and their menagerie of animals in their tumble-down house at World's End. As their Uncle Rudolph threatens to sell their beloved home, the children are determined to earn the money to buy it themselves. But money disappears as fast as it comes in, especially when there are thirty-nine mouths to feed, and time is running out. Spring Comes to World's End is the last animal-packed instalment in The World's End Series.

Lieutenant-Commander, the hero of this novel, is axed from the Navy at the age of thirty-six, one of many thousands obliged to re-plan their lives as the result of cuts in the armed services. A widower with a small daughter, he has no experience or knowledge outside submarines and the Royal Navy. His whole life had been that of a sailor since he joined up direct from school at the beginning of the war. This is not only the story of his struggles and adventures when he tries to find some way of earning his living; it is the story of his difficulty in adjusting himself to an unfamiliar civilian world. Monica Dickens's novel is the story of all such men in any of the services who find themselves so rudely thrust into the ordinary life of their country which, though they have served unselfishly, they find they are ill-equipped to live in. Written with the lighter humorous touch of some of her earlier books, it is a sympathetic presentation of the human side of one of those mass adjustments forced on society by the changing nature of the world and its affairs. Man Overboard was first published in 1958.

Monica Dickens's novel, first published 1965, opens in a Juvenile court in London. One of the young offenders is a sixteen-year-old girl, Kate, who is described as being in need of care and protection. In the court is a girl only slightly older, Emma, daughter of the magistrate. From her experience of going around with a social worker on his calls she knows that adolescents and, more important, small children are daily subjected to neglect and brutality and that "care and protection" cannot be prescribed like National Health aspirin. She meets Kate again, by chance, in her Uncle's supermarket where she is learning the business from the bottom up. And between these two girls, from different backgrounds, with very different parents who have different personal problems, there springs up a friendship which is deep and, for a while at any rate, beyond misunderstanding. Each girl has her way to make in life, each has her love, hate, despair and hope, each the complications of parental control sapped by the inner knowledge of marriages that no longer work.

After the sudden death of his wife, Daniel abandons home and security, setting off to find the freedom he knew as a boy. This novel follows his wanderings from a seaside boarding house to a hospital bed, introducing the strange characters he meets and recording his even stranger adventures.

Carrie, Tom, Em and Michael Fielding are at the mercy of their rotten Uncle Rudolph after a fire leaves them homeless, with their mother in hospital and their father abroad at sea. Uncle Rudolph and his vain wife Val reluctantly take the children in, but soon let them live alone at World's End, their ramshackle house in the countryside, rather than look after them. So begins a life with no grown-ups where the Fielding children can adopt as many dogs, cats, monkeys and horses as they like. Free at last from interference from their relatives, they begin to fend for themselves, adding to their already sizeable collection of animals - rescuing them from the thoughtless cruelty of adults. The House at World's End is the first adventure in The World's End series.

Tom, Carrie, Em and Michael are still living on their own at World's End. In between wondering where the next meal will come from, and trying to avoid interfering grown-ups, they are never short of fun and excitement. Carrie cannot stand to see an animal suffer, and when she plunges into another rescue operation, more perilous than any she has attempted before - putting her, and faithful dog Charlie, into terrible danger - things quickly spiral out of control. Desperately the children struggle to save Charlie from a dreadful fate; but it is a race against time. Summer at World's End is the second adventure in The World's End Series.

'Times are changed with him who marries; there are no more bypath meadows where you may innocently linger, but the road lies long and straight and dusty to the grave.' So wrote Robert Louis Stevenson. Christine feels bound to agree. 'My wife can do anything,' Vinson says. Struggling to comply with this statement, Christine has to adjust to life in America, whilst catering to Vinson's idea of a good spouse. She must force a sycophantic smile for the wife of Admiral Hamer (who wears patent-leather shoes like bananas) in an effort to ease his promotion. There must be a cold Turkey and a cold ham at every party and she must suffer her ridiculous mother-in-law. Bitter arguments are relieved by bleak silences. As the realities of married life wash away her rosy dream of it, Christine begins to wonder if Vinson is really what she wants. First published in 1953, No More Meadows unravels the threads of a very real marriage. Full of her inimitable warmth and sense of idiosyncratic character, Monica Dickens explores Christine's heart-warming - and at times heart-breaking - search for happiness.

There is a place at World's End for any furry or feathered friend in need. The Fielding children live in a rambling old house, packed full of animals. Best of all - there are no grown-ups! Mum and dad are off on adventures of their own, which means the children have to take care of themselves. Carrie and Michael befriend Priscilla who has been left wheelchair-bound by a riding accident. Letting Priscilla ride Oliver is making her happy once again, but when the old barn collapses, there is nowhere for them to practise. Together Tom, Carrie, Em and Michael must come up with a scheme to raise the money to fix the roof and save Priscilla from her smothering mother. But where in the world will they find that sort of money? World's End in Winter is the third adventure in The World's End Series.