I thought we were allowed to sit. I mean I thought it was the Shop Act or something that we had to have something to sit on.

Jenny laughed.

So they say, but it doesn't work out that way. You won't get sacked for sitting, but if you sit you'll get the sack.

Lovely Beth Carson is just out of school and beginning her first job at Babbacombe's department store. She is pure as the driven snow, and knows her place, but she can hardly be blamed for tripping over a charming young man's dog, can she? And how could she help being trapped in an elevator with the same man a few days later, and giving him a piece of her mind before learning that he just happens to be David Babbacombe, the ne'er-do-well son of the store's wealthy owner? How could she possibly have known that her careless words would inspire him to take a new lease on life? Along with vivid supporting characters, wholly believable family dynamics, and fascinating details about the inner workings of a department store, we get here a delightful frolic packed with humour, unlikely romance, and even a store detective.

Babbacombe's, first published in 1941, is the sixth of twelve charming, page-turning romances published under the pseudonym Susan Scarlett by none other than beloved children's author and novelist Noel Streatfeild. Out of print for decades, they were rediscovered by Greyladies Books in the early 2010s, and Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow are delighted now to make all twelve available to a wider audience.

A writer who shows a rich experience in her writing and a charm Nottingham Journal

It will be interesting to watch you dealing with an impossible situation. Interesting and-I am sure, my dear boy! - instructive.

The year of the trial is 1962. The defendant claims he is Michael Godson, a blameless photographer. The prosecution insists he is really Guy Harland and has charged him with high treason. Two decades ago, it is said, Harland brutally assaulted his scientist superior and stole his top-secret notes on biological weaponry, turning them over the Nazis, who utilized them in committing a ghastly international war crime.

Intrepid Antony Maitland, now a Queen's Counsel, here has taken the reins from his famous Uncle Nick and makes the case for the defense. Antony argues it is all a matter of mistaken identity, but the evidence against his client dizzyingly mounts. Before a decision is reached Antony and his team will have to navigate their way through a deadly maze of dirty secrets, damnable lies and downright murder.

This gripping courtroom drama from 1964 features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

Brilliant showpiece of forensic duelling and a must for the court-hungry. Her best yet. Darlington Northern Echo

...for the first time in her life, she was living as she had always unknowingly wanted to live: in freedom and solitude, with an animal for close companion. Her new life had acted upon her like a strong and delicious drug.

Ivy Gover, a curmudgeonly middle-aged charwoman with some slightly witchy talents, inherits a rural cottage in Buckinghamshire and takes up residence near the tiny village of Little Warby. Having settled in with a rescued dog and a pet pigeon, she manages, despite her anti-social instincts, to have surprising effects on her new neighbours, including Angela Mordaunt, a spinster still mourning her dead beau, Coral and Pearl Cartaret, ditzy sisters who have just opened a tea shop, the local vicar, and wealthy Lord Gowerville, whose devotion she earns by healing his beloved dog. But her biggest challenge will likely be the 12-year-old runaway who shows up at her door...

Blending vivid characters and a deep knowledge of human nature, this is also a funny and poignant tale of the challenges and freedoms of old age and solitude. The Woods in Winter was first published in 1970 and was the last novel Stella Gibbons wrote for publication. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.

'Stella Gibbons sees people as they really are but she observes them so lovingly as well as acutely that one loves them too' Elizabeth Goudge

Caroline opened the door and saw Mr. Shepperton standing on the step. Oh, it's you she exclaimed in surprise.

Did you--were you expecting someone else? he asked.

Only the Queen, replied Caroline, chuckling. Don't mind me, she added. I often go slightly mad.

Caroline Dering, a widow with three grown children, lives a cheerful, quiet life near the idyllic English village of Ashbridge. But things are about to liven up, as daughter Leda announces a problematic engagement to the son of the local squire, son James returns from service and pursues romance with the squire's independent daughter, and sister Harriet, a famous actress who latest play has bombed, retreats to Ashbridge for a break. Then there's Robert Shepperton, a charming widower recovering from the losses of war at the local inn . . .

These problems, as well as smaller challenges with an overbearing village organizer, the blustering Sir Michael, and Caroline's daily help (who rejoices in the name of Comfort Podbury), are resolved with all of D.E. Stevenson's flair for gentle humour, clever plotting, and characters who walk right off the page.

Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press have also reprinted Music in the Hills and Winter and Rough Weather, which continue the stories of some of the characters from Vittoria Cottage. All the novels feature an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith.

A well-balanced novel that moves swiftly enough for any taste. Manchester Evening News

It is a family novel, and few writers can do this sort of thing better than Miss Stevenson. Glasgow Herald

How much did Aunt Addie know?

How much did she feel?

Aunt Addie better known to the world at large as Adelaide Granby, the fabulously successful author of 49 volumes of gushing, melodramatic Victorian romance. Upon her death in 1912, flowers and cards pour in, including one particularly lavish set From Stanislaw, whom her independent-minded, suffragette niece Pamela decides was darling Aunt Addie's Grande Passion. Pamela also inherits a stack of Aunt Addie's secret papers, including youthful diaries and her unintentionally hilarious unpublished first novel, written when she was only 16, entitled The Bastard of Pinsk (a bastard, 16-year-old Adelaide was sure, being A very noble Hero of Royal Blood.)

As Pamela explores these documents and talks with those who knew her aunt when, seeking the real-life source of her romantic sensibility, the reader is drawn irresistibly into the intrigue. In a novel both sentimental and brutally honest, nostalgic for and horrified by the sentiments of the past, hilarious and poignant, all at once, the brilliant Eleanor Farjeon poses surprisingly powerful questions about what makes a love real and how much one really needs to know to experience it...

This new edition features a superb introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.

Naughtiness of a definitely mauve tint. Beatrice Sherman, New York Times

There ought to be a law against any man who doesn't marry Myrna Loy. James Stewart

Myrna Loy is an indelible star of Hollywood's golden era, enjoying an extraordinarily successful film career lasting over fifty years. Her most famous and evergreen role is perhaps as Nora Charles in the long-running Thin Man series of films, gilding her screen persona as 'the perfect wife'.

Myrna Loy's early life was spent in Montana. After relocating to California, her talent for dancing and her personal charm soon brought her to the attention of Hollywood, where she began appearing in movies in 1925. In addition to detailing her hard-working acting career, she talks openly of her close friendships with her leading men, as well as stars such as Joan Crawford (whom she met as a youngster in a chorus line). Along the way we hear personal reminiscences of Myrna from many luminaries, Gary Cooper (a fellow Montanan), William Powell, Loretta Young, Clark Gable, Rosalind Russell and Burt Reynolds among them.

An equally important part of Myrna Loy's life was built around her political passions, supporting the UN and Democratic presidential candidates from Truman onwards.

Myrna Loy is a luminous and inspirational twentieth-century figure, a champion of humanity as well as a great film star. If there is one word that sums her up, it is 'exemplary'. This new edition of her memoir features an introduction by film historian Imogen Sara Smith.

I'm not really worrying, but it's very isolated. Boscath is like an island in some ways.

I see what you mean, nodded Jock.

And Rhoda isn't used to islands.

James Dering and his new wife Rhoda are returning from their honeymoon, and Jock and Mamie Johnstone are delighted to welcome them to their new home on a neighbouring farm. But Mamie's concern proves justified, and Rhoda, a talented painter who has chosen marriage over art, finds rural Scotland lonely after life in London. She soon finds new inspiration in the beauty around her, and in the process gives the bright but difficult young Duggie a new lease on life. But her art will also uncover secrets, and lead to dramatic, far-reaching consequences for those around her.

In this novel, in which characters from Vittoria Cottage and Music in the Hills recur, D.E. Stevenson wonderfully evokes the chill and bluster of winter in the Scottish Borders, contrasted with the warmth and charm of her irresistible characters. This new edition features an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith.

Miss Stevenson has her own individual and charming way of seeing things. Western Mail

Between 1994 and 1996, music writer Paolo Hewitt spent the greater part of his life on the road with Oasis, in the U.K., Europe and America. He came back with tales that would cement the legend of the brawling, effing, hedonistic, charismatic, confessional and extraordinarily talented Gallagher brothers, Noel and Liam, and their group.

Hewitt is a rare and perceptive fly-on-the-wall during the band's hectic rise to the height of their powers, as their first two albums are released to the kind of excitement scarcely seen in British rock music since the sixties.

Hewitt takes the Gallaghers' story right back to their parents' roots in Ireland, and the descriptions of Noel and Liam's childhoods in working-class Manchester reveal the seeds of their determination to make Oasis the force it became.

Getting High is an illuminating, funny, sometimes shocking reminder of how big a band can get, and how quickly the insanity sets in. Oasis have today sold in excess of 70 million records worldwide. Hewitt's intimate account of this explosive and beloved band, in their prime, is a rock classic and a riveting narrative.

'Paolo is the only person to speak about what it was like on the road with us because he's been there. He's been there, he's seen it, he's done it.' Noel Gallagher

'Top read.' Melody Maker

'Unlimited access to all areas of the Oasis bandwagon is the ace up this biography's sleeve.' Q

'10/10 - sometimes you get what you pay for.' Esquire

'By adopting a fly-on-the-wall approach and writing Oasis's story as though it were a novel rather than a straight biography, he succeeds in entertaining, informing and occasionally putting you inside the head of the Gallagher brothers.' Hot Press

'In Getting High we get closer to the real Oasis, not the tabloid fancies, the music press stereotypes of Noel the genius, Liam the wanker and three other blokes who don't count. Hewitt paints an engrossing and uplifting portrait of one of the most important bands of the decade.' The Word and Issue

'Getting High is refreshingly well written' Total Guitar

'Compelling drama' Manchester Evening News

'If you only buy one book about Oasis, then make sure it's this one.' FHM

'This well-researched tome chronicles many a pivotal moment in Oasis's history and is filled with plenty of ribald anecdotes.' NME

'Head and shoulders above every other Oasis book. I hated finishing it so much I read it again.' Irvine Welsh

I like Mureth, declared Lady Shaw. There's something about Mureth.

It does things to people, Mamie agreed.

Lady Shaw considered this. It sounded silly, but was it really silly. People said that Mamie Johnstone was a fool, and it was true that sometimes she said things that sounded foolish ... but the things she did were wise.

Mamie Johnstone, sister of Caroline Dering whom we met in Vittoria Cottage, and her husband Jock are popular figures in the village of Mureth, not far from the town of Drumburly in the Scottish Borders. Jock and Mamie have no children to inherit their farm, so they have adopted Caroline's son James. But James arrives at Mureth a bit shell-shocked from having proposed to Rhoda Ware, a successful London artist he has loved for years, and being refused. James buries himself in farming with Jock, and takes comfort in the company of Holly Douglas, a niece of the local gentry.

Fortunately for all involved, there is Mamie to do wise things and ensure that all is put right in the end This new edition features an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith.

Mistress of the light novel The Times

One day we had been well-off and secure; the old grey London house had been 'home' and we imagined that our lives . . . would continue to run smoothly forever. The next day it was all gone.

For Anna Harcourt and her three daughters-lovely Helen, who always gets what she wants, young Jane, who makes the best of what she has, and Rosalie, the middle daughter who wavers somewhere in between-the world is turned upside down by their father's death and the discovery that they will have to sell their London home. The girls are shocked when Anna buys a cottage in Ryddelton, her home town in Scotland, but they soon settle in to Scottish life, each in her own way. As time passes, the three girls must contend with love and tragedy, hope and despair, laughter and tears, all unfolding with D.E. Stevenson's incomparable storytelling and knowledge of human nature.

First published in 1958, Anna and Her Daughters is a compelling, poignant, and ultimately joyful tale of family, romance, and healing. This new edition includes an autobiographical sketch by the author.

Miss Stevenson has her own individual and charming way of seeing things. Western Mail

I will not take a case involving an insanity plea. As you very well know.

When old Uncle William Cassell returned home to England for the first time in nearly twenty years, he arrived just in time for afternoon tea, followed by his own late evening murder-in his own brother Ambrose's study, no less!

Police arrest William's great-nephew, Paul Herron, who was found outside the study's open French window with a dazed look on his face and a smoking gun in his hands. It is thought Paul mistook the dead man for his tyrannical grandfather Ambrose, whom he had reason to hate. In the face of the determination of most of his own family to have him declared insane and put away in an institution, Paul is defended by Antony Maitland and his celebrated Uncle Nick-though not without grumbling from the latter man about a case which is stuffed like a fatally fruity plum pudding with somnambulism, inherited insanity, two sets of twins and a trio of mysterious deaths in the past. Huffs Sir Nicholas Maitland: In the best storybook tradition, I make no doubt!

This gripping courtroom drama from 1962 features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

Clever plot; excellent study of needlenoses at work. - Nicholas Blake, London Sunday Telegraph

What a sense you have for finding trouble and entering into it.

Veronica Lake remains one of Hollywood's greatest icons, from movies like Sullivan's Travels and The Blue Dahlia. Her trademark 'peek-a-boo' blonde hairstyle, partly hiding one eye, is a legend in its own right, but her blend of beauty, ice cool persona and dry comedic style makes the actress a timelessly magnetic screen personality.

The persona hid a tumultuous personal life, and this memoir holds nothing back. Born Connie Ockleman, the actress owed the soubriquet 'Veronica Lake' to a producer's inspiration. She was a tough Brooklyn kid, with an ambitious stage mother calling the shots in her early life. After early successes in beauty pageants, the diminutive Connie headed to Hollywood, where, despite her headstrong nature, she became Hollywood's biggest 'it' girl of the 1940's.

But after brushes with the casting couch (she didn't succumb), a string of doomed marriages, troubled relationships with her children, and remarkable stardom and fortune, Veronica Lake suffered a rapid fall from grace--ending up bankrupt and alcoholic in New York City. Happily she rediscovered her acting career in live theatre and enjoyed living in Miami for most of her final years, before she died aged only 50 in 1973.

This remarkable memoir (1969), a slalom of highs, lows, comedy and heartbreak, was co-written with Donald Bain. It has been out-of-print, rare and sought-after for many decades. Dean Street Press is proud to reissue it now, with a new introduction by broadcaster and writer Eddie Muller.

There is so much War News in News Bulletins, in Newspapers, and so much talk about the war that I do not intend to write about it in my diary. Indeed my diary is a sort of escape from the war . . . though it is almost impossible to escape from the anxieties which it brings.

Bestselling author D.E. Stevenson's charming fictional alter-ego, Hester Christie--or Mrs. Tim as she is affectionately known to friends of her military husband--was first introduced to readers in Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, published in 1932. In 1941, Stevenson brought Mrs. Tim back in this delightful sequel, to lift spirits and boost morale in the early days of World War II.

With her husband stationed in France, Hester finds plenty to keep her busy on the Home Front. From her first air raid and a harrowing but hilarious false alarm about a German invasion, to volunteering at the regiment's Comforts Depot, guiding the romantic destinies of her pretty houseguest and an injured soldier, and making a flying visit to a blacked-out, slightly bedraggled London with its fighting spirit intact, Mrs. Tim does indeed carry on--in inimitable style.

Mrs. Tim returns in two subsequent novels, Mrs Tim Gets a Job (1947) and Mrs Tim Flies Home (1952), all back in print for the first time in decades from Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press. This new edition features an introduction by Alexander McCall Smith.

She admirably preserves her lightness of touch, with a tinge of melancholy added, which perfectly suits the mood of 1940. Glasgow Herald

This is not merely a war book to which cheerfulness keeps breaking in, it is a book of cheerfulness from which the war cannot be kept out . . . Major Tim's amazing escape from Dunkirk is high drama superbly handled, and her word pictures are both lifelike and lively. Manchester Evening News

What might we dare to expect from an actor's autobiography, even one from a star as personable as George Sanders? In the case of Memoirs of A Professional Cad, we possibly get more than we deserve. George Sanders undoubtedly led a colourful, glamorous and even action-packed life, spanning the peak years of Hollywood's golden age. But the greatest joy of his memoirs is how funny they are, and how penetrating their author's wit. Endlessly quotable, every chapter shows that the sardonic charm and intelligence he lent to the silver screen were not merely implied.

George's early childhood was spent in Tsarist Russia, before he was obliged to flee with his family to England on the eve of the Russian Revolution. He survived two English boarding schools before seeking adventure in Chile and Argentina where he sold cigarettes and kept a pet ostrich in his apartment. We can only be grateful that George was eventually asked to leave South America following a duel of honour (very nearly to the death), and was forced to take up acting for a living instead.

Memoirs of A Professional Cad has much to say about Hollywood and the stars George Sanders worked with and befriended, not to mention the irrepressible Tsa Tsa Gabor who became his wife. But at heart it is less a conventional autobiography, and more a Machiavellian guide to life, and the art of living, from a man who knew a thing or two on the subject. So we are invited to share George's thought-provoking views on women, friendship, the pros and cons of therapy, ageing, possessions, and the necessity of contrasts (Sanders' maxim: 'the more extreme the contrast, the fuller the life').

Previously out of print for many decades, Memoirs of A Professional Cad stands today as one of the classic Hollywood memoirs, from one of its most original, enduring and inimitable stars.

I'm afraid you may have to resign yourself to the fact that your husband is getting mixed up with that gang of thugs in Whitehall again,

The phone call was interrupted! Who could have wanted viciously to strangle kindly Dr. Martin to death while he was on the line with his old friend Antony Maitland?

According to the police, guilt lies with Dr. Martin's impecunious scapegrace cousin Gerry, who was the good doctor's heir. Anthony Maitland and his Uncle Nick are tasked with providing hapless Gerry with some sort of credible defense. Along the way Antony to his horror begins to suspect that an implacable old enemy from his wartime past has his malign hand in the whole affair. It seems that more is involved with Dr. Martin's death than first meets the eye! Antony finds himself pressed into working surreptitiously with the U.K.'s Secret Intelligence Service, which puts him not only in into conflict with Scotland Yard but in peril of his life.

This gripping courtroom drama from 1963 features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.

Subtle and suspenseful with deft characterizations, this is superior fare, written with thought and elegance, Newsday

'I'd like to be an actor, ' I said.

'Be an actor?' my father said. 'Good God, you can't even speak.'

Step into the extraordinary life of David Tomlinson, the beloved British actor best known as Mr. Banks in Disney's timeless classic Mary Poppins. Tomlinson takes you on a captivating journey from his early days as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II, where he survived a crash and served as a flying instructor, to a film career spanning over 50 iconic movies, including The Love Bug and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Beyond the screen, discover his adventures on stage in hit plays like The Little Hut and his enduring marriage with Audrey Freeman, loving family life and four sons. This autobiography brimming with humour, wit, and personal reflections, features a heartfelt family tribute by his son James and conversational afterword by acclaimed actor Miles Jupp and Bafta winning writer James Kettle, who brought David's life to the stage in the production of 'The Life I Lead'. A charming and candid tale of stardom, family, and adventure, Luckier than Most is the story of a man whose warmth and talent continue to enchant generations.

This new edition includes an introduction by British author, journalist, and satirist, Craig Brown.

richly comic and deeply moving, The Express

a charmingly told story The Stage

richly comic and deeply moving, The Express

a charmingly told story The Stage

We must be very nice to him, said Mrs. Braithwaite, looking up at her daughter with large blue eyes.

Nice to him! echoed Miss Braithwaite in some surprise. Well, of course we'll be nice to him. I mean, why shouldn't we?

It's the spring of 1938, the threat of war looms across England, and widowed, slightly dizzy Sophie Braithwaite and her daughter Wynne await the arrival of a distant cousin, Franz von Heiden-from Nazi Germany no less. Franz turns out to be a stiff, formal young man whose father (unbeknownst to the Braithwaites) is a personal advisor to Hitler and has sent Franz to observe English attitudes, but they do indeed welcome him nicely. Soon nicknamed Frank, his defenses are broken down by the kindness, informality, and humour of his cousins-particularly the charming Wynne. But when the dreaded war breaks out and Franz returns to Germany, Wynne must wait in suspense to learn his fate.

First published in 1940, in the early days of World War II, The English Air is one of D.E. Stevenson's best works-by turns atmospheric and entertaining, poignant and funny, tense and romantic. This new edition includes letters-never previously published-between D.E. Stevenson and her publishers, which provide a striking glimpse of the historic moment at which the novel was first written and published. Also included here is an autobiographical sketch by the author.

Miss Stevenson has her own individual and charming way of seeing things. Western Mail

Everything that's happening to us--yes, everything--is to be regarded as a lark. See? This is my last word. This. Is. Going. To. Be. A. Lark.

It's 1919, and Jane Quested and her cousin Lucilla are pulled suddenly from school by their guardian, who sets them up in a cottage on the fringes of London and informs them (by letter, since he's already fled) that he's gambled away their inheritance but is leaving them the house and 500 to carry on with. Lucilla is disheartened, but Jane is certain it will be a lark.

With the help of a handsome man, a classic example of a capable woman, and a war veteran with a green thumb, the two unflappable young women set up a market garden, which develops into a guest house, which develops into--well, you'll have to read and see. It's true they have some difficulties as businesswomen, not to mention with housekeeping, but this is ultimately a tale fully living up to its title.

Forgotten for decades, despite Nesbit's fame as a children's author, her final novel for adults, first published in 1922, is a delight that's ripe for rediscovery. This new edition includes an introduction by Charlotte Moore.

An economy of phrase, and an unparalleled talent for evoking hot summer days in the English countryside.--Noel Coward

Do you know anything about her, Richard?

Nothing except that she lives in London, is obviously well off and very impulsive. . . . She bought the house as if it were-a bun. She bought it straight off without seeing it.

She must be mad!

The arrival of novelist Kate Hardy at the lovely Dower House in Old Quinings, with her staunch ally and housekeeper Martha, has the whole village talking. But Kate is not in fact mad, merely in need of escape from her selfish sister Milly and spoiled niece Minty. Though welcomed warmly by Richard Morven at the Manor House and the charming, widowed Mrs. Stark, Kate likewise finds herself taken for a witch and is then one of the targets of a poison pen campaign-not to mention the rumours that her new home is haunted by its past inhabitant. With the arrival of Mrs. Stark's son Walter, back from his wartime triumphs and finding readjustment to village life difficult, Kate may find that the country allows her as little time for writing as London!

First published in 1947 and providing a fascinating glimpse of English life in the immediate postwar years, Kate Hardy is an irresistible tale of village life, challenging family relations, romance, and D.E. Stevenson's incomparable storytelling. Also included in this edition is an autobiographical sketch by the author.

Miss Stevenson has her own individual and charming way of seeing things. Western Mail

There's something . . . I mean we simply must see Miss Fortune now. She isn't in bed, is she?

No, she ain't, said Nannie grimly. She ought to be, but she ain't, an' you shall see 'er. Ho, yes you shall! Both of you shall see 'er before you're any older.

The village of Dingleford is all aquiver with the arrival of lovely young Miss Fortune with plans to open a tea house. Captain Charles Weatherby, just back from India, has no use for bright little creatures no matter how long their eyelashes might be, but his perspective shifts when they actually meet (much to his mother's secret delight). The interest of Harold Prestcott, perpetual doormat to a smothering mother, is also piqued, much to her bitter chagrin. And when Miss Fortune's sister arrives in the village, soon pursued by an irate Frenchman, confusions bloom, passions flare, and hilarity reigns, all in classic D.E. Stevenson style.

The Fair Miss Fortune, written in 1938, was originally (rather bafflingly) rejected by D.E. Stevenson's publisher. It only finally appeared in print in a limited edition from Greyladies in 2011, and Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press are delighted to make it more widely available with this new edition. It also includes archival letters between the author and her agent, and an autobiographical sketch by D.E. Stevenson.

Miss Stevenson has her own individual and charming way of seeing things. Western Mail