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The Rutherfurd Novels #1
The Proper Place
The Proper Place is delightful reading and is Miss O. Douglas at her best. The story deals with the Rutherfurd family, who have to leave their beautiful country house and all their friends on Tweedside and settle in the littler Fife sea town of Kirkmeikle. Here, Lady Jane and the attractive, friendly Nicole rapidly make a niche for themselves until we feel it is indeed Kirkmeikle that is their "proper place." It is a joy to read of their endless ability to give happiness to all with whom they come in contact - inculding their readers. This book is as fresh and invigorating as the sea breezes of Fife.
537 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1926
115 people are currently reading
394 people want to read
About the author
O. Douglas
46 books68 followersBorn 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
October 31, 2024
Lately I've been in the mood for "literary comfort food". I suspect it's a combination of my age and the upcoming election in the US. I need to read about good, kind people living decent lives, and that usually means turning to older books.
This one was a perfect example of that. Douglas is a Scottish author that I was unfamiliar with, and as I had downloaded this some time ago, I gave it a chance. I knew within the first 10 minutes that it was what I was looking for. The Rutherfurds are forced to sell their large estate in the country (20 bedrooms!) because of the loss of the father and reduced circumstances after WWI, and the buyers are new money from Glascow who don't really fit in. We get to follow both families in their new lives and see what a difference an attitude can make to happiness. Not all is sweetness and light, however, there are difficulties on both sides, but it's still a delightful book. I enjoyed every word and have already downloaded the sequel.
Of course, being an English novel, there is tea aplenty, and roaring fires, and my continued amazement that people who have lost most of their money can still afford 3 servants. I think I was born in the wrong country and the wrong century. This is not a Persephone book, but it could have been, so that was another plus.
This one was a perfect example of that. Douglas is a Scottish author that I was unfamiliar with, and as I had downloaded this some time ago, I gave it a chance. I knew within the first 10 minutes that it was what I was looking for. The Rutherfurds are forced to sell their large estate in the country (20 bedrooms!) because of the loss of the father and reduced circumstances after WWI, and the buyers are new money from Glascow who don't really fit in. We get to follow both families in their new lives and see what a difference an attitude can make to happiness. Not all is sweetness and light, however, there are difficulties on both sides, but it's still a delightful book. I enjoyed every word and have already downloaded the sequel.
Of course, being an English novel, there is tea aplenty, and roaring fires, and my continued amazement that people who have lost most of their money can still afford 3 servants. I think I was born in the wrong country and the wrong century. This is not a Persephone book, but it could have been, so that was another plus.
January 28, 2023
I loved this! It's the kind of book I would hug enthusiastically if it weren't an interlibrary loan and marked 'Fragile' in red letters on the cover. The Proper Place starts as so many other British novels start. A Scottish aristocratic family, the Rutherfurds, have experienced many losses in the Great War and the only option for the remaining family members is to sell the ancestral home. A "new money" family from Glasgow, the Jacksons, buys Rutherfurd House and the remaining Rutherfurds find Harbour House in Kirkmeikle, Fife, which fronts the sea. The remaining Rutherfurds are Lady Jane and her daughter Nicole and Lady Jane's niece Barbara Burt. The twist is that Mrs. Jackson and her adult son Andy are sympathetic and endearing characters (not enemies or lesser-thans) and keep up a relationship with Lady Jane, Nicole, and Barbara over the two years of the story. We get some of Mrs. Jackson's perspective in the story and she is delightful.
The background of the story is the grief and dislocation after the Great War. Lady Jane's two sons were both killed in the war and her husband also died soon after from grief and overwork. Lady Jane herself is but a shadow and Nicole and Barbara work hard to find a place on their income that can help them all recover. It's a tough search, but Kirkmeikle and Harbour House fall into their laps and is a haven for Nicole and Lady Jane.
Here's the contrast between Nicole and Barbara: Kirkmeikle is a haven for Nicole and a cage for Barbara. Barbara was raised at Rutherfurd House, but she holds onto it tightly. Nicole, the daughter of the house, though grieved to lose it, can hold it with an open hand and let it go. It sums up a lot about their characters. Nicole is a bright sunbeam of a soul. She is so very like Anne Shirley. I love Nicole! She has been raised in privilege, so she has confidence and poise, but she is also, by nature, intensely interested in life. She is as happy to talk with the fishmonger as she is with the local gentry. (In fact perhaps happier!)
The long middle section of this book is profoundly satisfying to read. Nicole meets all the neighbors and Kirkmeikle becomes her town. The neighbors are quite different from her upper class circle at Rutherfurd. In Kirkmeikle, she befriends a spinster who is (unwillingly) raising a small nephew, a young man who is trying to write a memoir about his attempted Everest climb, a Miss Bates-type character with a cynical young adult daughter, a boisterous fishing family with many children, the poor and good-hearted pastor Mr. Lambert and his wife, and more. Like Anne Shirley, Nicole's vivacity brings life to the community and Lady Jane also begins to emerge from the intensity of her grief and regain interest in the world around her.
I love the descriptions of Harbour House and the big windows in the Rutherfurds' sitting room that face the sea. I love that Nicole wants to have the curtains open to the drama of the sea. She says: "Ah, but you should see it in winter...Then you would say it was jolly, when the waves come rolling in, and the spray dashes against the windows, and the wind howls round the steep roof and whistles down the chimneys, and the logs burn blue, and we are all so close together..." (314). This is Nicole in a nutshell. Even in the storms of life—and she has further storms to endure in the story—she can take the wild waves and howling winds of life and call them jolly. Her 'jolly' isn't empty optimism. She is deeply rooted in life, both the rough and the smooth. Her 'rough' is as deeply felt as her 'smooth' and so she is vibrantly alive to both the small and the big dramas of life.
Oh, that O. Douglas's novels would be reprinted again! I cast my longing out into the publishing world and wait with Nicole-like hope.
The background of the story is the grief and dislocation after the Great War. Lady Jane's two sons were both killed in the war and her husband also died soon after from grief and overwork. Lady Jane herself is but a shadow and Nicole and Barbara work hard to find a place on their income that can help them all recover. It's a tough search, but Kirkmeikle and Harbour House fall into their laps and is a haven for Nicole and Lady Jane.
Here's the contrast between Nicole and Barbara: Kirkmeikle is a haven for Nicole and a cage for Barbara. Barbara was raised at Rutherfurd House, but she holds onto it tightly. Nicole, the daughter of the house, though grieved to lose it, can hold it with an open hand and let it go. It sums up a lot about their characters. Nicole is a bright sunbeam of a soul. She is so very like Anne Shirley. I love Nicole! She has been raised in privilege, so she has confidence and poise, but she is also, by nature, intensely interested in life. She is as happy to talk with the fishmonger as she is with the local gentry. (In fact perhaps happier!)
The long middle section of this book is profoundly satisfying to read. Nicole meets all the neighbors and Kirkmeikle becomes her town. The neighbors are quite different from her upper class circle at Rutherfurd. In Kirkmeikle, she befriends a spinster who is (unwillingly) raising a small nephew, a young man who is trying to write a memoir about his attempted Everest climb, a Miss Bates-type character with a cynical young adult daughter, a boisterous fishing family with many children, the poor and good-hearted pastor Mr. Lambert and his wife, and more. Like Anne Shirley, Nicole's vivacity brings life to the community and Lady Jane also begins to emerge from the intensity of her grief and regain interest in the world around her.
I love the descriptions of Harbour House and the big windows in the Rutherfurds' sitting room that face the sea. I love that Nicole wants to have the curtains open to the drama of the sea. She says: "Ah, but you should see it in winter...Then you would say it was jolly, when the waves come rolling in, and the spray dashes against the windows, and the wind howls round the steep roof and whistles down the chimneys, and the logs burn blue, and we are all so close together..." (314). This is Nicole in a nutshell. Even in the storms of life—and she has further storms to endure in the story—she can take the wild waves and howling winds of life and call them jolly. Her 'jolly' isn't empty optimism. She is deeply rooted in life, both the rough and the smooth. Her 'rough' is as deeply felt as her 'smooth' and so she is vibrantly alive to both the small and the big dramas of life.
Oh, that O. Douglas's novels would be reprinted again! I cast my longing out into the publishing world and wait with Nicole-like hope.
August 28, 2020
O. Douglas (Anna Buchan) is my favorite literary comfort food. Her works are my first choice when I need a soothing book. When I am weary and soul-parched, I read the nourishing novels of O. Douglas. She's one of the reasons I love Scotland so much.
Let's back up and discuss the DREADFUL cover. It is an abomination. A withering sin. It makes me throw up in my mouth. Good. Grief. Lady Jane, the oldest of the major characters, is (wait for it) fifty-five. I am outraged. Other than the tea and scones, there is nothing, not one thing, in this picture that resembles the story. Lady Jane is pleasantly attractive, winsome, vibrant, and she does not have a bulbous nose. Rant concluded.
This is an atmospheric story. A house on the fringe of the ocean, full of good books, hot tea, and a contented family in straightened circumstances. It riffs off a familiar Jane Austen theme —mother and daughters need to vacate the big house and move to an affordable place— and escapes being too saccharine by including some truly irritating people. I assert that if you like Austen you will like Douglas.
Nicole Rutherfurd is a delightful protagonist. She understands the foibles of her friends, is amused by them, but accepts them with a kind heart. She adores solitude, but gladly engages with folks when they visit. She has a curious, interested, attentive mind.
There was something about Nicole that made people offer her their confidence. Perhaps they saw sympathy and understanding in her eyes, perhaps they recognised in her what Mr. Chesterton calls "that thirst for things as humble, as human, as laughable, as that daily bread for which we cry to God."
Even minor characters have great descriptions: She is one of the people who help make the world go round. She lifts, and doesn't merely lean.
This is not a book with a happy ending, but it ends, magnificently, with humble gratitude.
Let's back up and discuss the DREADFUL cover. It is an abomination. A withering sin. It makes me throw up in my mouth. Good. Grief. Lady Jane, the oldest of the major characters, is (wait for it) fifty-five. I am outraged. Other than the tea and scones, there is nothing, not one thing, in this picture that resembles the story. Lady Jane is pleasantly attractive, winsome, vibrant, and she does not have a bulbous nose. Rant concluded.
This is an atmospheric story. A house on the fringe of the ocean, full of good books, hot tea, and a contented family in straightened circumstances. It riffs off a familiar Jane Austen theme —mother and daughters need to vacate the big house and move to an affordable place— and escapes being too saccharine by including some truly irritating people. I assert that if you like Austen you will like Douglas.
Nicole Rutherfurd is a delightful protagonist. She understands the foibles of her friends, is amused by them, but accepts them with a kind heart. She adores solitude, but gladly engages with folks when they visit. She has a curious, interested, attentive mind.
There was something about Nicole that made people offer her their confidence. Perhaps they saw sympathy and understanding in her eyes, perhaps they recognised in her what Mr. Chesterton calls "that thirst for things as humble, as human, as laughable, as that daily bread for which we cry to God."
Even minor characters have great descriptions: She is one of the people who help make the world go round. She lifts, and doesn't merely lean.
This is not a book with a happy ending, but it ends, magnificently, with humble gratitude.
March 29, 2022
One of my favorite themes is here: women move to a house in the country. In this case it’s three women, forced to leave their stately home in Scotland, who find a perfectly charming house next to the sea in Fife. The author is brilliant when she describes the characters in their new village. The writing is beautiful, filled with literary references which I had to look up. And finally, it’s an ode to optimism as the main characters experience some unbearable losses yet find reasons to go on.
September 30, 2021
Anna Buchan's light fiction is a godsend to tea-drinking, book-loving anglophiles. She seamlessly weaves biblical and literary references into her stories, causing me unending delight. The descriptions of firelit rooms, comfy chairs (near book shelves, of course) and overflowing tea tables make me want to run into the kitchen and make gingerbread and scones.
Her heroines are generally down on their luck, but making the best of it. In addition, Buchan peoples her books with many additional interesting characters (from bitter spinsters to six year old orphans to nouveau riche wives trying to fit into their new environments.)
I docked one star for a turn of events that my heart is still grieving over. I grew to love the folks in this simple little novel and am glad that there appear to be two sequels.
Her heroines are generally down on their luck, but making the best of it. In addition, Buchan peoples her books with many additional interesting characters (from bitter spinsters to six year old orphans to nouveau riche wives trying to fit into their new environments.)
I docked one star for a turn of events that my heart is still grieving over. I grew to love the folks in this simple little novel and am glad that there appear to be two sequels.
April 17, 2022
A heroine who finds the quiet joy in simple things and perseveres in achieving equanimity despite a good share of sorrow. Oh, I wish I were more like Nikky.
April 20, 2017
This book was rather marvelous in the middle but a bit too wistful and sad-like by the end. Not a riding-off-into-the-sunset kind of happy ending. More like a quiet and bittersweet contentment. Which is realistic. But I had hopes of brighter things for it.
A mother, daughter, and niece are forced to sell their beautiful estate and buy a little house up on the coast in Scotland. Nicole, the daughter, tends to always see the sunny side of life and enjoys making friends of all sorts of people.
She even manages to tactfully improve some of her neighbors... one middle-aged, austere spinster is in desperate need of a little "prettying up" for both her house and her clothes. I like a lot of Nicole's philosophy about this kind of thing; she says, "You simply don't know how much harm is done by good women not knowing how to dress. I remember as a child, when I helped my mother to entertain Mothers' Unions and Girls' Friendlies and things like that, wondering why the best people--meaning the most serious, good people--nearly always had badly hung skirts! And to-day, when clothes are so easy and so suitable and so varied, it's conservatism run mad not to wear what other people are wearing."
And in the end, she does, of course, get the stiff Miss Symington to pay moderate attention to looking nice, and to let a little beauty into her home.
But this is just one example of Nicole's sphere of influence. She makes friends with an orphan boy, a reclusive mountaineer, and the hassled young families of the town. Her cousin Barbara is more exclusive in her friends and inclined to yearn for past glories. But not in an irritating way... more in the way that makes you feel a bit sorry for her and still basically respect her.
The two girls get very different resolutions to their stories, and neither one is strictly blissful... indeed, this book had lots of varying shades of happy and sad. I felt it was a little unfair of the author to set up such a sweet, happy tale and not let it stay happy. But, c'est la vie.
A mother, daughter, and niece are forced to sell their beautiful estate and buy a little house up on the coast in Scotland. Nicole, the daughter, tends to always see the sunny side of life and enjoys making friends of all sorts of people.
She even manages to tactfully improve some of her neighbors... one middle-aged, austere spinster is in desperate need of a little "prettying up" for both her house and her clothes. I like a lot of Nicole's philosophy about this kind of thing; she says, "You simply don't know how much harm is done by good women not knowing how to dress. I remember as a child, when I helped my mother to entertain Mothers' Unions and Girls' Friendlies and things like that, wondering why the best people--meaning the most serious, good people--nearly always had badly hung skirts! And to-day, when clothes are so easy and so suitable and so varied, it's conservatism run mad not to wear what other people are wearing."
And in the end, she does, of course, get the stiff Miss Symington to pay moderate attention to looking nice, and to let a little beauty into her home.
But this is just one example of Nicole's sphere of influence. She makes friends with an orphan boy, a reclusive mountaineer, and the hassled young families of the town. Her cousin Barbara is more exclusive in her friends and inclined to yearn for past glories. But not in an irritating way... more in the way that makes you feel a bit sorry for her and still basically respect her.
The two girls get very different resolutions to their stories, and neither one is strictly blissful... indeed, this book had lots of varying shades of happy and sad. I felt it was a little unfair of the author to set up such a sweet, happy tale and not let it stay happy. But, c'est la vie.
January 22, 2023
In some ways this book feels like a book where nothing happens, despite the fact that lots of things happen--deaths, marriages, moves--and all the grief and loss that comes with those things. But it's the everyday things of life--meals, friends, tea, and walks--that take center stage. It's a pleasant book and a heartening book. It's completely of its time, and I love it for that. I really enjoy books written by women in the interwar period.
September 6, 2025
The picture shown here has nothing to do with the story. It is a good book. I love all the quotes sprinkled throughout. I would love to hear an audio version, to hear all the Scottish accents.
December 24, 2022
Written in 1926, this is a sweet fictional account of post-WWI life in Scotland, divided between a country estate and a wonderfully atmospheric seaside fishing village. Seasons and celebrations are lovingly depicted, as are the characters and houses they live in, as well as the genteel manners of the day. This one gave me all the feels, and I was thrilled to learn there's a sequel!
December 7, 2023
Nothing much happens, and yet one is given a deep look into life in Scotland after WWI. This is about people. People of title and means. Middle-class people. Small-town people. It connects us to vocabulary and language that has, perhaps, been lost. It reminds us of the "proper" way to act...of how to be respectable. And, yet, it is without rigidity. There is hope, heartbreak, and a tad bit of romance. It is a delightful book!
August 20, 2020
1st book in the Rutherfurd trilogy.
Wonderful writing, vivid characters. The story is a fine balance of homeyness and comfort against some difficult circumstances and sadness. I admired the resilience and optimism of the main character, as well as her kindness and love of others. Thoroughly enjoyable reading despite wishing the author had opted for a more generous, kindly ending. Because of that ending, which is perhaps fitting but less than satisfying, the book just barely misses being what I would consider amazing.
4.5 stars
Wonderful writing, vivid characters. The story is a fine balance of homeyness and comfort against some difficult circumstances and sadness. I admired the resilience and optimism of the main character, as well as her kindness and love of others. Thoroughly enjoyable reading despite wishing the author had opted for a more generous, kindly ending. Because of that ending, which is perhaps fitting but less than satisfying, the book just barely misses being what I would consider amazing.
4.5 stars
February 2, 2021
A delightful story - looking forward to the sequel:
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http://perfectretort.blogspot.com/202...
November 13, 2024
Published in 1926, The Proper Place, set in Scotland, reads like a breath of fresh air.
The early 1920s is not an easy time. The aristocratic Rutherfurd family has fallen on hard times after its patriarch died from grief over the loss of his two sons to the Great War. Lady Jane Rutherfurd, her daughter (Nicole) and her niece (Barbara) are forced by circumstances to give up their grand country house to the newly rich Jackson family from Glasgow.
The charm of this novel rests on the strength of its key character, Nicole Rutherfurd. It was heartwarming to observe her friendship with Mrs Jackson who is talkative and outspoken, ‘half-proud, half-deprecating.’ Nicole does not show a shred of envy or resentment as strangers install themselves in the house that has for centuries belonged to her family.
Here is a description of Nicole’s feelings towards the Jackson family that is taking over their house and furniture. “In a way the Jackson’s are benefactors. They have saved those things for Rutherfurd when they might have had to be scattered aboard…. Everything in its proper place…”
It was also delightful to follow the Rutherfurds’ quest for a new home. In a humbler whitewashed house in Kirkmeikle, Fife, Nicole and her mother forge new friendship ties with the folks in this seaside community.
Nicole has ‘that touch that makes the whole world kin.’ In contrast, her cousin, Barbara, is arrogant and thinks she is too good for the inhabitants of Kirkmeikle. In Nicole’s view, however, “Life is too short to be exclusive in. One misses so much.”
On returning to her seaside home after a trip, Nicole told her mother, “Mums, I don’t believe there’s an ill in the world that a good fire and a good tea can’t do something to lighten.’ This city reader derived vicarious pleasure in sitting down to endless pots of tea next to a roaring fire. What comfort!
I thought I could read the author’s mind and predict the turn of events. I can’t say I like the way this story ended. It is, however, not unrealistic. What remains to be seen is how the characters respond yet again to the vicissitudes of life.
O. Douglas is the pen name of Anna Masterton Buchan (24 March 1877 – 24 November 1948), a Scottish novelist. I am pleased to have made her acquaintance.
Big thanks to Diane Barnes whose lovely review led me to this book.
The early 1920s is not an easy time. The aristocratic Rutherfurd family has fallen on hard times after its patriarch died from grief over the loss of his two sons to the Great War. Lady Jane Rutherfurd, her daughter (Nicole) and her niece (Barbara) are forced by circumstances to give up their grand country house to the newly rich Jackson family from Glasgow.
The charm of this novel rests on the strength of its key character, Nicole Rutherfurd. It was heartwarming to observe her friendship with Mrs Jackson who is talkative and outspoken, ‘half-proud, half-deprecating.’ Nicole does not show a shred of envy or resentment as strangers install themselves in the house that has for centuries belonged to her family.
Here is a description of Nicole’s feelings towards the Jackson family that is taking over their house and furniture. “In a way the Jackson’s are benefactors. They have saved those things for Rutherfurd when they might have had to be scattered aboard…. Everything in its proper place…”
It was also delightful to follow the Rutherfurds’ quest for a new home. In a humbler whitewashed house in Kirkmeikle, Fife, Nicole and her mother forge new friendship ties with the folks in this seaside community.
Nicole has ‘that touch that makes the whole world kin.’ In contrast, her cousin, Barbara, is arrogant and thinks she is too good for the inhabitants of Kirkmeikle. In Nicole’s view, however, “Life is too short to be exclusive in. One misses so much.”
On returning to her seaside home after a trip, Nicole told her mother, “Mums, I don’t believe there’s an ill in the world that a good fire and a good tea can’t do something to lighten.’ This city reader derived vicarious pleasure in sitting down to endless pots of tea next to a roaring fire. What comfort!
I thought I could read the author’s mind and predict the turn of events. I can’t say I like the way this story ended. It is, however, not unrealistic. What remains to be seen is how the characters respond yet again to the vicissitudes of life.
O. Douglas is the pen name of Anna Masterton Buchan (24 March 1877 – 24 November 1948), a Scottish novelist. I am pleased to have made her acquaintance.
Big thanks to Diane Barnes whose lovely review led me to this book.
August 4, 2025
An old-fashioned story set just after WWI, main characters are from the gentry: widow Lady Jane, her daughter Nicole, and her niece Barbara are forced to sell Rutherford, their ancestral home on the Scottish border, now that the father has died and the two brothers were killed in the war.
Barbara is rather a snob, prefers only to associate with her own kind and hates this small coastal town they now live in. Nicole is a Pollyanna-type, always looking on the best side, willing to meet new people no matter what their station. Lady Jane is gracious to all.
They take this smaller home at Kirkmeikle, and several of their servants go along. Interesting to follow their efforts to make the acquaintance of new neighbours. They get involved in the life of an orphan boy, Alastair, who's being raised by his austere super-religious aunt. They also make friends with Simon Beckett, who's writing a memoir about his attempt to climb Mount Everest--and is determined to make a second attempt.
Rutherford is bought by the Jacksons, a merchant family from Glasgow. Jane and Nicole keep tabs on how the Jacksons are fitting in among their old neighbours. the two families connect again later in the story. So lots of interesting day-to-day activities in an old-time setting, but readers need to be prepared: there's a lot of Broad Scots dialect used by the folks in this story. You many wish for a dictionary!
Barbara is rather a snob, prefers only to associate with her own kind and hates this small coastal town they now live in. Nicole is a Pollyanna-type, always looking on the best side, willing to meet new people no matter what their station. Lady Jane is gracious to all.
They take this smaller home at Kirkmeikle, and several of their servants go along. Interesting to follow their efforts to make the acquaintance of new neighbours. They get involved in the life of an orphan boy, Alastair, who's being raised by his austere super-religious aunt. They also make friends with Simon Beckett, who's writing a memoir about his attempt to climb Mount Everest--and is determined to make a second attempt.
Rutherford is bought by the Jacksons, a merchant family from Glasgow. Jane and Nicole keep tabs on how the Jacksons are fitting in among their old neighbours. the two families connect again later in the story. So lots of interesting day-to-day activities in an old-time setting, but readers need to be prepared: there's a lot of Broad Scots dialect used by the folks in this story. You many wish for a dictionary!
January 29, 2024
(In spite of its cover), this book was a joy to read! I mostly read it while I was exercised on my stationary bicycle, and I rode much further each day than I otherwise would have, because I didn't ever want to stop reading. The characters are real and believable and delightful. I loved following the story of mother, daughter, and niece who have to sell their ancestral home in Scotland after losing both sons in WWI, and the father shortly afterwards to illness, and move to a small fishing village on the other side of Scotland. I also loved following the story of the newly rich family who bought the first family's ancestral estate. One family had lost their place in the world, and the other had risen to a new place they weren't comfortable in. All of it was so very compelling and likable and interesting. I adore books like this that were written in the same time and setting where they are told. This was my first introduction to the writing of O. Douglas, and I will be reading more of her works.
February 6, 2024
I must admit, I do enjoy books in which all the characters are likeable, where the worst people are only possessed of some annoying personality quirks, and where the goodness of life is meat enough for serving up a story. There is not a great deal of plot in this book, although it surprised me with a bit more romance than I expected from its beginnings. There are echoes of Jane Austen, though more in the detailing of country life without the satirical eye to people's oddities. All around it was a comfortable, cozy read, something like what I find with Anne Shirley Blythe in her volumes. At one point I also thought of this book like The Enchanted April with its happy, fitting relationships, but the ending here twisted less happily than I expected and even felt somewhat unresolved. Still, just an enjoyable diversion of people and place.
September 17, 2024
I was looking for something easy and pleasant to read and this was from my kindle recommendations. The blip about it sounded good, so I purchased it for next to nothing.
How have I not heard of O. Douglas before?!
Well, better late than never. This was an absolute delight of a read. Light, but not too light, with wonderful quotes from classics throughout. The story is beautifully written, wholesome and good, even those who are not good, come out shining in their best light. It is not fluffy, nor does it have a
'happily ever after' ending. The ending is purely good, and right. I set the book down, content and with a desire to be a better person.
Looking forward to reading the sequel.
How have I not heard of O. Douglas before?!
Well, better late than never. This was an absolute delight of a read. Light, but not too light, with wonderful quotes from classics throughout. The story is beautifully written, wholesome and good, even those who are not good, come out shining in their best light. It is not fluffy, nor does it have a
'happily ever after' ending. The ending is purely good, and right. I set the book down, content and with a desire to be a better person.
Looking forward to reading the sequel.
January 23, 2023
Data reveals that over 70% of men in the U.S. do not read fiction. I am glad not to be part of that group. The Proper Place is another example of life long learning. It speaks of compassion and empathy and of attitudes towards life that make living it worthwhile, and not. I highlighted only one passage, but a most meaningful one about how each of us lives a certain reality, but that is nothing more than our reality not "the" reality. The overwhelming theme of the book is about how people can and do change, redefining themselves as they explore new aspects of their life. It may be fiction, but it is not to be demeaned unless one isn't interested in experiencing life through stories.
October 29, 2024
This is far better than 3-star book, but to keep within my own arc of review scores this falls within the 3-star range. Someone else wrote a review with the sentence "a book where nothing happen but actually a lot happens" and that is so correct.
This is not a plot-heavy book and it's not a character study - it is a character-experience book. You will get to meet and know the characters, and there are a lot of them. What they do and why the do what they do is always secondary to who they are which is quite an achievement for a book and a very grand achievement for a book not that long and not very involved.
You will enjoy the book and you will enjoy all the characters you meet...
This is not a plot-heavy book and it's not a character study - it is a character-experience book. You will get to meet and know the characters, and there are a lot of them. What they do and why the do what they do is always secondary to who they are which is quite an achievement for a book and a very grand achievement for a book not that long and not very involved.
You will enjoy the book and you will enjoy all the characters you meet...
April 2, 2025
‘The Proper Place’ (1926) is a historical romance, not quite run-of-the-mill, but very captivating all the same. It is so completely character-driven that one reads it for the sheer pleasure of getting more and involved in the people's individual joys and fears, rather than in the plot, which piquantly doesn't follow the usual line in such novels.
The setting is Fife, in a little fishing village called Kirkmeikle, and the descriptions of the sea and the countryside in the years after the first world war are as moving as they are beautiful. The pace of the book, the style and the language prepare us for books of Susan Ertz, ‘Miss Read’ and Barbara Pym.
January 22, 2024
Chose this book because the reviews described Scottish scenery and village life. I didn't stop reading until I finished, and moved on to the second in this series. Love the quiet details, the characters, the Scottish scenery and village life. Reminds me of D. E. Stevenson's books, as well as Miss Read's, if softer and sweeter. Enjoyed it very much and will recommend it to my aunt, a veteran of good books. (The cover shown gives NO indication of the main characters or tone of the story, by the way.)
June 26, 2023
3.5 Stars.
A cozy slice-of-life book set in a small Scottish seaside village, with elements reminiscent of Jane Austen and L. M. Montgomery. I wish there had been slightly more plot and more fleshed out romances for the main character. Also the end has such an ache to it. This is first book of a trilogy.
A cozy slice-of-life book set in a small Scottish seaside village, with elements reminiscent of Jane Austen and L. M. Montgomery. I wish there had been slightly more plot and more fleshed out romances for the main character. Also the end has such an ache to it. This is first book of a trilogy.
September 1, 2024
Why this cover? You absolutely cannot judge This book by This cover!
It is a snug, feel-good read, but not soppy. I shed a tear, but quickly recovered as the characters are resiliant and insightful.
Wish the leaves were turning, it feels like a good fall read to me.
I will seek this author out for comfort reading.
It is a snug, feel-good read, but not soppy. I shed a tear, but quickly recovered as the characters are resiliant and insightful.
Wish the leaves were turning, it feels like a good fall read to me.
I will seek this author out for comfort reading.
October 24, 2025
I truly enjoyed this rather old fashioned novel. Written between the wars. It’s gentle, heart warming and a wee bit sad. It is set in the border country of Scotland and along the North Sea in Fife. The main characters are Lady Jane Rutherford, daughter Nicole, niece Barbara and the Jackson family.
June 19, 2022
this book contains no sex scenes, violence, or foul language.
The plain old-fashionedness of it was what I liked best. It’s why I’m reading all the books I can find by this particular author.
The plain old-fashionedness of it was what I liked best. It’s why I’m reading all the books I can find by this particular author.
February 16, 2024
A pleasant read
A pleasant book about a family going through changes. I was surprised to find that the ending wasn't a happily ever after for everyone but a realistic positive ending.
A pleasant book about a family going through changes. I was surprised to find that the ending wasn't a happily ever after for everyone but a realistic positive ending.
April 28, 2024
A beautiful book, but . I am going to continue immediately with the sequel.
July 9, 2025
This was a charming portrayal of life in a small Scottish village by the sea. Nicole, Lady Jane, Barbara, the Bat, and all the residents of Kirkmeikle are memorable characters, lovingly portrayed. I enjoyed it very much (although I would have liked a happier ending).
June 13, 2022
Written in 1926 and with obscure biblical references at times, but interesting for social customs and characters.
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