The Four Graces

If you liked the Barbara Buncle books you will definitely find this book tantalizing. The vicar, Mr. Grace and his unmarried daughters are the subjects of a D.E. Stevenson book that is interesting of itself. However, the events in this book take place later in the same year as The Two Mrs. Abbotts. Barbara and her immediate family are seen only from a distance while attending the wedding of a young woman, Jane, who was the secret author in the previous book. However, Jane interacts with the vicar's daughters as do at least two other minor characters from the Barbara Buncle books. When the vicar's daughter, Tilly, visits with Miss Marks instead of going to the wedding reception, I wanted to shriek, "But I wanted to know what happened at the reception!" So near and yet so far. Seriously, this book is quite up to D.E. Stevenson standards, but the Barbara Buncle books and the Mrs. Tim books will always be my favorites.

OK--first of all you have to understand that I love this woman's writing and get very upset whenever I think that all of her stuff is now out of print and selling for outrageous prices from "used" bookstores. But--there are still Public Libraries and it is from there that I found this gem. If you love "Midford" then you will probably like these books also. They are based on the same principle--small time life of people that all of us recognize as our neighbors living their ordinary lives and having sometimes brilliant conversations along the way (check out the parson's response to someone who hopes he is "open-minded" for some great comebacks to those type people). It is set in WWII England so there may be some people who don't understand the concept of "rationing sugar" or sending young men off to the wars, but you can get around that quite easily. While this books does not quite come up to the quality of "Miss Buncle" and "Miss Buncle Married" it is still a great piece of fiction that you don't have to "think" through.