I’m on a bit of an O. Douglas binge at the moment. The title The Proper Place is a reference to a Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale in which a whistle is blown and everyone is magically whisked to their proper place in society, I must admit I don’t know that one at all.
Anyway, when I read the blurb on the dust cover fly-leaf of this old book I just had to read it because it’s about a family of women who have to move from their beloved home in the Scottish borders as they can’t afford to live in their large house now that all the men in the family are dead. Their friends want them to take a smaller house in the same neighbourhood but they think that a clean break would be best and decide to look for a house in an entirely different part of Scotland.
Mrs Rutherford, her daughter Nicole and niece Barbara end up living in an old stone harbour house with crowsfeet gables in Fife of all places, which is on the east coast of course and where I happen to live. The localities were all familiar to me although most of the place names had been changed they were still recognisable, so I spent my time saying to myself the red rocks must be the ones at Wemyss – and such like.
Nicole, the daughter is the type of person who speaks to everyone and makes friends wherever she goes (Evee!). Her cousin Barbara is more stand-offish and a bit snobbish, but Nicole is determined to settle into village life and sets about visiting the locals who are an odd set of people, including a retired couple who had lived most of their lives in India.
Towards the end the action does move back to the Peebles area, so beloved by all the Buchan/Douglas family. There’s romance of course, eventually and as O. Douglas herself said, her books are as sweet as home-made toffee, but they’re always mixed with sadness somehow, which makes these comfort books of hers more true to life really, especially when you remember that they would have been read by women who had lost sons and husbands in wars and children to what are now trivial childhood illnesses. The book was first published in 1926.
I’ve read quite a few of her books now and I’m sure that there is a wee bit of repetition now and again in them, it’s something which J.M. Barrie did too in his books, were they being thrifty Scots?!
If you know Fife at all, and the borders for that matter then it does add more to the experience I think, it is nice to recognise places and even buildings mentioned in books. I was trying to think which harbour house she had used as the house in the book and I had decided that only Dysart fitted the description, sure enough she does mention in her book Unforgettable,Unforgotten (I’ll write about that in the near future) that she used the Dysart Harbour Master’s house for the setting. The photo below is one which I took of the harbour with the back of the house in the background, it is now a musueum and bistro.
Katrina, A Day of Small Things is this story too! Maybe it had a different title in the US? I love the description of the house. It’s so neat too see it!!!
I just saw on another review that small things is the sequel to this one! Aha!
Peggy Ann,
I haven’t read that one yet. Hope to get to it soon.
Peggy Ann,
It’s only a couple of miles away. Next time I go I’ll take a photo of the house.
Just re-read your description of the The Proper Place. Isn’t Evee from Peebles? You both post great pictures on your trips and we’re happy you’re sharing!
I hope Evee reads this, because I’m currently unable to leave comments on her blog, and like yours, it’s one of the best.
Thanks Lorraine! Sorry you can’t post comments on my blog. I had to do something to stop getting loads of spam messages, but I didn’t realise it would prevent bonafide commenters too! If you want to email me, I’ll put your comment on the blog!!!
Thanks Katrina too! I do seem to make friends wherever I go!
I must try and get hold of these O. Douglas books! Love your photo of Dysart.
Evee,
You certainly have a rare talent for making friends, you have them everywhere! The Peebles library will surely have all of her books.
I wouldn’t bet on our library having too many of O.Douglas’s books!! It’s not very big, and no room for old books!
Evee,
I’ve had a look at the borders catalogue and they seem to have a lot of her books at the local history centre, wherever that might be! I think most libraries have a lot more books available at a reserve stock location which isn’t open to the public, you just have to request them, but it’s a free service as long as they are within your own county. Have a look at the link below and put O. Douglas into the search box.
http://librarysearch.scotborders.gov.uk/ab/default.ashx
Lorraine,
Yes, Evee is lucky enough to live in Peebles. We have met up in Edinburgh and intend to get together again, here, there,or wherever – when we can get around to it, weather and sick friends permitting. We’ll meet up with you next year or whenever you get to Scotland! Thanks for the compliments.
I found “The Proper Place” disappointing. According to the Times obituary, “Pink Sugar” and “The Proper Place” were Buchan’s two most successful novels. Perhaps the success of the former boosted sales of the latter.
https://india.vardill.org/douglas#obit
Once Lady Jane, her daughter Nicole, and her niece Barbara have moved out of their family home and settled down in a small town on the Fife coast, most of the action consists of people wandering in and out of one another’s houses and gossiping endlessly. The ‘lovable’ boys do all kinds of unlovable things, and when not visiting and gossiping, the ladies of the house spend their time in ‘work’ — embroidery and stitching.
Buchan’s books were considered ‘pleasant’ but this one unravels at the end. Barbara, the unpleasant niece, marries into a fortune and becomes the mistress of the Rutherfurd house. Miss Symington, the dour spinster who declines to use any of her considerable wealth on either her home or herself, marries an unctuous widower, moves to Edinburgh, and treats her former friends with condescension. Nicole, the improbably ‘nice’ girl, experiences tragedy and is condemned to spinsterhood and the care of her mother in the Harbour House by the sea. I wonder what Buchan was thinking when she wrote this story.
Also, I found the technical quality of the book to be low. Buchan slipped into the annoying habit of sprinkling the narrative with exclamation marks, long dashes, and ellipses. I’m surprised that her editors didn’t help her improve and polish the text. Perhaps her brother being the co-owner of the publishing house might have had something to do with it.
Janusz,
This one was set very close to where the Buchans grew up in Kirkcaldy, although both the manse and the church have now been demolished. It’s over ten years since I read the book, but I suspect that she might have been using some of the locals as characters in the book, the not so nice ones. Possibly she was feeling a bit down as of course she never married and spent her life looking after her mother and probably other members of the family too. She obviously longed to have children of her own and must have felt it when other maybe not so nice women did that. Also her brother John had criticised her for writing ‘pink sugar’ books so perhaps this was her answer to that, she did say at one point that she wanted to write ‘pink sugar’ books, that was her thing. I could do without the religious bits, but they are very much of their time, and are good from a social history point of view. I didn’t realise, or had forgotten that John Buchan co-owned the publishing house – handy.