Roses Round the Door

'Roses Round the Door' is the story of Doreen Tovey's life as a child and young woman in Somerset, England and her wartime marriage. Better known for her hilarious books on life with Siamese cats and a donkey, this book is a departure from her usual style, but no less enjoyable. In it she portrays a way of life long since vanished from her childhood in the 1920s when she lived with her grandmother, uncle and Aunt Louise to life with her husband Charles during the war. This book is written with humour and observation and culminates in the acquisition of the cottage that features so predominantly in all her other books and in which she still lives. Stories of how the young Doreen became locked into an outside privy during a country wedding, going on a bicycle tour with her accident prone aunt, her wartime marriage in the heavily bombed city of Bristol, the idiosyncrasies of the landlord and what happened when she tried making sweets during the dark days of rationing are ! just some of the many humourous events that make up this entertaining work.