Penny Plain

A most enjoyable book about a girl of 23 who is bringing up 3 brothers in a small town in the Scottish Borders soon after the First World War. A very interesting picture of life at that time in that place, and at that social level (enough money for a live-in servant, but not fashionable living). An engaging heroine, with many and varied friends. Her social conscience, and the tales of the pasts of her friends, broaden the picture we get of life at the time. But it is the story of a girl and her heart, not a history lesson. With a little poking fun at some of the characters one might meet in a small town.

This book has a sequel "Priorsford", and another book set close by, "Pink Sugar", mentions some of the same characters in the time between the other two books and has been sometimes packaged with them as an omnibus.