Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann was first published in 1927 but has been reprinted fairly recently I think, I had never heard of it before I saw a 1946 copy of it in an Edinburgh secondhand bookshop. I’ve enjoyed a few of her books previously so it came home with me. It was the first book that Lehman had published.

This is a coming of age tale, at the beginning of the book Judith is 18 years old and has just noticed that the house next door is being spruced up, it looks like it’s going to be put on the market soon. The house has been empty for years, but Judith had been very much enamoured with the slightly older children, a family of five cousins who used to live there and had befriended Judith years before. As Judith was an only lonely child she had been thrilled to be in the company of the cousins.

We’re told early on that the eldest cousin Charlie has been killed in World War 1, he had been everyone’s favourite, especially with their grandmother and she had shut up the house and moved away. Just as Judith was getting ready to go up to Cambridge the cousins unexpectedly appear at the house again, but she’s able to meet up with some of them while she’s at Cambridge.

The book was seen as being quite shocking in its day, with Judith having an affair with another female student. I imagine that that did quite a lot for the sales back in 1927, but it’s Lehmann’s later books which I’ve been more familiar with. This was an enjoyable read, I really like her writing style but I’m quite surprised that Dusty Answer isn’t as well known as her later books.