Five Windows

“Life is like looking out of a lot of different windows.”

So says Malcolm, shepherd and boyhood friend of David Kirk, and the words linger in David’s mind as he reflects on his life so far. He recalls the window of his parents’ home in rural Scotland, where he acquires the moral code which will guide him and begins to realise his flair for writing. There’s the window of his uncle’s house in Edinburgh, where he attends school, and the rather dingy window of a boarding-house in London where he learns the darker side of life while beginning his work life. A much brighter fourth window, over a London bookshop, dramatically shifts David’s direction, and a fifth window . . . well, you’ll need to read the book to find out about that one!

In Five Windows, first published in 1953, we have one of D.E. Stevenson’s warmest and wisest tales, infused with her acute knowledge of human nature, her flair for characters both likable and not, and an irresistible blend of nostalgia, wit, occasional melancholy, romance, and ultimate happiness. It also features a cameo from two characters we’ll meet again in The Tall Stranger. This new edition includes an autobiographical sketch by the author.

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

Born in Edinburgh in 1892, Dorothy Emily Stevenson came from a distinguished Scottish family, her father being David Alan Stevenson, the lighthouse engineer, first cousin to Robert Louis Stevenson.In 1916 she married Major James Reid Peploe (nephew to the artist Samuel Peploe). After the First World War they lived near Glasgow and brought up two sons and a daughter. Dorothy wrote her first novel in the 1920's, and by the 1930's was a prolific bestseller, ultimately selling more than seven million books in her career. Among her many bestselling novels was the series featuring the popular "Mrs. Tim", the wife of a British Army officer. The author often returned to Scotland and Scottish themes in her romantic, witty and well-observed novels.During the Second World War Dorothy Stevenson moved with her husband to Moffat in Scotland. It was here that most of her subsequent works were written. D.E. Stevenson died in Moffat in 1973.