Ann and her Mother

by O. Douglas

This is the true life story of O. Douglas’ mother, but depicted as a fictional mother reminiscing with her daughter.

The story starts with the mother’s early marriage and family life in Scotland, where she sets about raising six children while supporting her husband, a minister.

This pleasing, nostalgic book is full of domestic joy and love, but tinged with tragedy as the family struggles with illness and the First World War.

Genres: Fiction, Scotland

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Born Anna Masterton Buchan, younger sister to the statesman & prolific novelist John Buchan. She began writing in 1911, and published 12 novels and a personal memoir of her brother before her death. Her novels are humorous domestic fiction, focusing on the lives of families in Scotland. Her autobiography was published posthumously, in 1960.

Reviews

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ann and Her Mother is a charming fireside book about Ann writing her mother's life. There's no plot to speak of, and each chapter is an evening's conversation. It feels like eavesdropping at first, then it feels like catching up with family. It is based on the author's mother: the author's real name was Anna Masterton Buchan, and her mother Helen Masterton, though the characters go by Douglas in this book.

As it is so plotless and odd in its writing (nearly entirely dialogue, some in Scots dialects), I cannot widely recommend it (I enjoyed Eliza for Common much more), but to O. Douglas fans, and anyone who wants a cozy Scottish story with no plot to speak of, I do recommend it. As you might expect in a life, people die, but their memories are so cherished that it is an honor to hear their stories. I also loved the glimpse into a minister's household, and Ann's unvarnished opinions about attending church functions that were "three hours of smiling." Haha! This makes me want to read more of O. Douglas' writing about India, the first book she published.

Ann and Her Mother will always have a special place in my heart, because I found the most charming used copy from the 1930s in a little used bookstore in my new home for the next three years, St Andrews, Scotland. While I will read many donnish and erudite texts in the coming years as I complete my PhD, I will always have my fireside reads (even if the fireplace in our flat is bricked up!) and I hope to find more serendipitous O. Douglas novels while we are here.

[Seawitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wouldn’t recommend this as a first O. Douglas. It’s a bit difficult to read with so much dialect. And, it’s almost like a personal journal of a Minister’s wife in Scotland in the days preceding and after WWI.

This is an account of the life of the author’s mother as recorded by the author and is not fiction. It appears not to have been professionally edited.

ETA: If you have enjoyed O. Douglas’ other books - which I have - you might find this interesting in terms of some biographical background but otherwise I recommend picking up one of the novels instead.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Anna Buchan's Priorsford books, though Priorsford only appears tangentially. Originally published in 1921, I believe. It is a quiet, cozy story of a 30-something woman living in the isolated Scottish countryside with her aging mother, a minister's widow. To pass the lonely evenings, Ann decides to write her mother's 'Life' for the grandchildren.

The book plays out as the mother and Ann, and sometimes their long-serving servant, reminisce about family life in the past. The mother's story starts with a youthful marriage in the Borders, followed by raising six children while being a busy minister's wife first in Fife and then in Glasgow.

The tone is nostalgic, full of domestic goodness and family love. But it's touched by sadness, as you learn early on that three of the six children die of illness or in the First World War.

Not my favorite of O. Douglas' novels, but a quiet joy nonetheless.

[Cera · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favourite of all the Buchan books; it's the story of Buchan's mother's life, framed as a fictional mother reminiscing with her daughter. It's not bad, but the device is clunky; I couldn't sympathise with the mother (because we're always seeing her through the daughter's eyes), and I couldn't sympathise with the daughter (because all she does is tease her mother & encourage her to tell stories). Autobiographical fiction often works well for me, but not this time.

[Hope · Rating 2 out of 5]

I never thought I'd mark one of O. Douglas' books as a DNF, but this was not one of her usual soothing novels. Even though I knew it was biographical, I still expected more of a story. And in my present state of mind - overworked and needing a literary "pick-me-up" - this did not fit the bill.

[Peggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a small old, old book and I love the feel of it in my hands and the smell of it as I read. O. Douglas (Anna Buchan) books are always sweet, feel good reads and I always enjoy them immensely. This one was a little different as it really is Anna Buchan's autobiography thinly veiled as a piece of fiction. In this book she is Ann, the main character, who lives at 'Dreams', her lovely comfy home, with her old mother and two servants. One that has been with the family since she was a child. She spends evenings listening to her Mother's tales of her life and reminiscing about her life growing up and writing it down to make a journal of her mother's life. I loved it!

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scottish women's reading from the 1920's

I loved this, but don't start off with this one if you haven't read O. Douglas yet. But if you have enjoyed some of her other books like Penny Plain, The Day of Small Things, Pink Sugar or The Proper Place, you will like this too. Even though it is autobiographical, it reads in the same tone as her fiction.
She is in a similar vein with L.M. Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott, except Scottish!

[Fenella Watson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps if I'd known that it really was just Ann writing her mother's story of her life I would have thought differently. But I kept waiting for the book to 'start'.
For me also, this book is my least liked of all the O Douglas books. I will soon read the biography of Douglas and may find out that Ann and Her Mother is also autobiographical.

[Martyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is my least favourite of O. Douglas's books so far. I don't know if that was chiefly because there was no real plot to the book, just a series of conversations between a mother and daughter and their domestic help, reminiscing on the mother's life, and those contrived dialogues and monologues often not sounding very natural in manner and style; or whether it was because it was largely a re-hash of all the same kinds of things I have read before – either in the biographical books about O.Douglas, or in her other novels. Little of it felt fresh and new. I didn't realise it was deliberately based on her mother's life at the time of reading it, but I recognised many of the familiar events and scenarios and guessed that 'O.Douglas' was, once again, writing about her own life's experiences. Perhaps if I'd read this book prior to reading many of her others, I might have enjoyed it a lot more – while its contents still felt fresh and new to me. But being read at this late state in the proceedings it had lost much of its novelty value.

[Sini H · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's my favourite of the O. Douglas books I've read so far, and I've read most of them. It rings so true. I could tell that it was actually a biography, though I read it without any background information. I thought it was cleverly put together and not dull at all.

O. Douglas always gives such interesting details of how daily life was really like, sometimes even including smells and sounds. Relationships with servants are always there. This book lacked overly ideal characters, which O. Douglas sometimes has, and didn't obsess quite as much about looks, clothes and furniture, as some of her books do. Still the (apparently) Victorian interest in looks was at times startling. Oh the poor children who were considered plain.

[Rosemary · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this book, we have a young woman, Ann, living alone with her mother and a housekeeper in rural Scotland. Ann decides that her mother's life is so interesting that it should be the subject of a book, and the two of them reminisce... for the whole of the rest of the novel.

This is apparently a fictionalised biography of the writer's own mother. O Douglas was the pen name of Anna Buchan, sister of the Scottish novelist John Buchan. And her mother's life certainly seems to have been full of interesting characters and emotional high and low points. But this novel puts it at two removes - it's not a biography of Helen Buchan, and it's not a novelised version of Helen Buchan's life (which I think would have worked well, told as a straightforward story), it's a mother and daughter sitting around a fire talking with their old servant about former times... and nothing happens in real time. It didn't work for me.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Oh Ann, Ann, why was I not deliriously happy? All of you well, all of you prospering, my man beside me, and life full of sunlight.”
“Ay, Mother, you should have been down on your knees thanking heaven fasting - and if the truth were known I dare say you were. But it’s only afterwards you realise how happy you have been.”

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really sweet ode to her mother's life told in little snippets of conversation and reminiscences. It gave a window into the life of a minister's wife in Scotland at the turn of the century as well as into the Buchan family. There were many nuggets of wisdom.

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

nope. Not worth the effort to find it.