Böcker av Carola Oman

';I have told Rose that there will be a chauffeur for dinner,' she ended, frowning slightly at the cannibalistic sound of her sentence.Unmarried and nicknamed ';Button' by her friends, Mary Morrison is a (very mildly) distressed gentlewoman. She no longer lives in her family home, but remains at the very centre of village life, surrounded by friends including carefree, irresponsible Catha, Lady Rollo, just back from India and setting up lavish housekeeping nearby with her husband and childrensocialist Tony, perfect Crispin, and Elizabeth who's preparing to be presented at Court. Then there's Marcelle, Mary's widowed sister-in-law, and her challenging daughter Rosemary, who may soon be planting themselves with her to escape London bombs, Miss Rosanna Masquerier, a historical novelist who might just be a wry self-portrait of the author, and an array of other Sirs and Ladies who rely on Mary's sympathy and practicality. And perhaps there's just a hint of romance as well . . .Known for her bestselling historical fiction, in Nothing to Report Carola Oman delightfully evokes E.M. Delafield's Provincial Lady in her portrayal of an English village cheerfully, hilariously, and sometimes bumpily progressing from obliviousness to the war's approach to pulling together for king and country. Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow have also reprinted Oman's Somewhere in England, a sequel to Nothing to Report.

';At any rate,' ended Philippa-Dawn, staring up at the garland of silver monsters gently swaying above them in the evening sky, ';at any rate, it'll be a change of Balloons.'Carola Oman's irresistible sequel to Nothing to Report begins with young, perky Philippa-Dawn Johnson, preparing to launch her nursing career at Woodside, the country home now overseen as a hospital by none other than the redoubtable Mary Morrison. Pippa soon encounters other faces familiar to readers of the earlier novel, including Mrs. Bates, whose debilitating rheumatism has been suddenly cured by Hitler, the Dowager Lady Merle, who is ';the living image of Elizabeth Tudor in later life', and the redoubtable historical novelist (and alter-ego of Oman herself?) Rosanna Masquerier, doing war work and encountering bombs with her usual flair.Set in the thick of World War II, Somewhere in England traces Oman's charming and eccentric village characters through unforgettable new muddles, romances, and hilarities on the Home Front. Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow have also reprinted Nothing to Report.';Delicious fun for the wise and gentle everywhere.' Observer