One of the Family - Softcover

Dickens, Monica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140166351 ISBN 13: 9780140166354

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1994

Synopsis

Edwardian London is the colourful backdrop to this portrait of a large, middle-class family and the stranger who charms them all, but who is to darken their lives with tragedy. At the centre of the family is Leonard Morley, proud of his house in Chepstow Villas and of his job at Whiteley's.

About this title

About the Author:

Great grand daughter to Charles Dickens, Monica (1915-1992) was born into an upper middle class family. Disillusioned with the world she was brought up in - she was expelled from St Paul's Girls' School in London for throwing her school uniform over Hammersmith Bridge - Dickens then decided to go into service, despite coming from the privileged class; her experiences as a cook and general servant would form the nucleus of her first book, One Pair Of Hands in 1939.

Dickens married an American Navy officer, Roy O. Stratton, and spent much of her adult life in Massachusetts and Washington D.C., but the majority of writing continued to be set in Britain. Her book of 1953, No More Meadows, reflected her work with the NSPCC and she later helped to found the American Samaritans in Massachusetts. Between 1970 and 1971 she wrote a series of children's books known as The Worlds End Series which dealt with rescuing animals, and to some extent children. After the death of her husband in 1985, Dickens returned to England where she continued to write until her death aged 77.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0140166351
• ISBN 13: 9780140166354
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352