Susan Settles Down

by Molly Clavering

Young Susan Parsons has just moved, with her unmarried brother Oliver, to a newly-inherited property in the Scottish Highlands. Their neighbours prove a mixed bag, including the towering, kindly Jed Armstrong, a farmer whose land 'marches with' theirs, the local vicar and his family, and the three gossipy Pringle sisters, who travel by donkey-drawn cart and get their knives into one and all. After a bumpy start, with a disagreeable cook and her nincompoop daughter as their only help, Susan and Oliver begin to settle in nicely, and find themselves in the midst of romance, confusion, and earthy hilarity.

Molly Clavering was for many years the neighbour and friend of bestselling author D.E. Stevenson, and they may well have influenced one another's writing. First published in 1936 (under the pseudonym B. Mollett) and out of print for more than 80 years, Susan Settles Down is one of her most cheerful and vivid romantic comedies. This new edition features an introduction by Elizabeth Crawford.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Scotland, British Literature, Classics, Historical Fiction, Summer

247 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

AKA Marion Moffatt.

Molly Clavering was born in Glasgow, but lived in the country from an early age. After six years' service wiith the WRNS, she settled in Moffat, Dumfriesshire, where she served on the Town Council.

Reviews

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this! It's warm and witty with such lovely descriptions. A charming story, pure enjoyment to read. Earns a spot on my favorites shelf.

Kudos to Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow for republishing this and seven other out-of-print Molly Clavering novels. I anticipate lots of happy reading in the near future.

5 stars

Sequel: Touch Not the Nettle

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

For fans of DE Stevenson, Elizabeth Fair, and Angela Thirkell.

This was so enjoyable and full of characters that you will be rooting for. Lots of charm, funny quips, and also beautiful descriptions.

Brother and sister duo Oliver and Susan Parsons have come to live in the Borders of Scotland. Though neither of them is really used to the rural life, they settle in surprisingly well... but they each carry a bit of emotional baggage with them that complicates their social lives in the village.

For Oliver, it's resentment any time anyone pities him for his injured leg. Combine that touchiness with a tendency to always pair off with the shallowest of girls, and it's no wonder his sister sighs over the question of whether he will ever get together with the girl who is just right for him.

For Susan, it's a broken heart from an unhappy romance years ago. She's settled into spinster life, she can make her own money, and she's more than happy to live with Oliver and keep house... but Scotland has a few surprises in store for her. Starting with the neighbor, Jed Armstrong, who always seems to catch her at her most irritable.

This novel is a tale of friendship and of finding love and a sense of home where you least expected.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the new reprinted editions of Molly Clavering's books!

*Note, the proofreading on these isn't perfect. Use of OCR leads to some typos, but not too many.

[Elinor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those charming vintage novels, light in tone and content yet extremely well-written, set in Scotland between the wars. When a wounded naval officer inherits a house in Scotland, he invites his sister Susan to keep house for him (i.e. manage the servants). Both fall in love with the rugged beauty of the north and both find true love. A bonus is the presence of various amusing Scottish characters.

[JimZ]

It’s been a while since I have done a Did Not Finish but there ya go.

Usually I am pleased with re-issues from the Dean Street Press. Maybe I just didn’t have the patience for this one, and maybe it got better. I guess I will find out when I read the reviews for it.

I quit because:
1. The author had used over and over again long paragraphs of people talking in a Scottish dialect, and I did not have the patience to slog over this kind of writing over and over and over again:
• “Ma sister was in Kaleford yesterday, Donadina went on, not to be diverted from her narrative by side issues, “an sic a weddin’ she said, she never seen. There was Mistress Bald in a new dress an’ an awfu’ nice hat she got at the Jumbo Sale, an’ Bairniss wi’ a veil an’ a’ grinnin’ awa’ frae ear tae lug, an’ fit tae Inirrst wi’ pride because she’d got a man. An’ Wullie, he had a flooer in his coat, a muckle great rose....An’ the cawr frae Murifoot wi’ Gibbie Johnston drivin’ it, tae tak’ them off on their honeymoon, nae less, to some hottle I canna’ mind the name o’. But ma sister says it’ll need tae be a queer like hottle that wad tak’ in two tinkler-lookin’ bodies like yon, wi’ their luggage a’ done up in broon-paper paircels....
• I wish I could say some of the above was my typographical errors...they were not. Try reading this word salad for many a page with no end in sight....
2. She had characters not saying things but growling them. Yes, it’s ok to growl sometimes, but she used that word over and over again when people were talking. It was annoying,
3. I didn’t like any of the characters.
4. She was overly descriptive in describing gardens or houses and rooms within houses. It just got plain boring.
5. As far as I could tell, the book had no plot. There was one nasty character, and he might have done something nasty in the pages of the book I did not read...I wouldn’t be surprised, but that was not enough to hook me to see what he did.

Ergo the above, I bailed on p. 82 of the 236-page book.

Reviews (they all love it, although at least one reviewer said it had no plot):
• https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2...
• https://thecaptivereader.com/2021/12/...
• https://leavesandpages.com/2022/01/27...
• https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/20...
• https://furrowedmiddlebrow.blogspot.c...

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my third Molly Clavering book and her books run to a certain form...and it's a form I love. The plot usually centers around a house and its inhabitants and then the wider village in a Scottish border town. There is humor, romance, adventure, and ever so many delightful domestic details.

Susan Settles Down is mostly from the perspective of two young women. Susan, 33, has just moved to a house with her brother that he inherited from an old relative, and Peggy, 19-ish, is the daughter of the local Anglican clergyman. Susan's brother, Oliver, was a Commander in the Royal Navy, but had to resign because of an injured leg. Susan and Oliver are English and town-bred, so they have a lot of adjusting to do as new home-owners and country-dwellers in this small Scottish village.

I don't want to say too much more about the plot because I think reading it blind is part of the fun. Susan and Peggy are wonderful lead characters. Peggy cares for her nieces and nephew, and she calls them The Infantry. They are a force to be reckoned with, but add so much humor. Peggy has a much more conventional storyline, but it's no less a treat because Peggy herself is so sweet. She also matures through the story in a very believable way.

I love Susan's growth through the book. She enters the book quite mature, and yet she has chances to blossom in this new setting. Her storyline was my absolute favorite, perhaps because I am now 32, so I relate to her time of life very well. I love to find a story with older heroines.

There are a lot of fun (and awful) side characters that make this a particular joy to read. Also there are so many quite wild adventures! That was a surprise to me, but also so much fun. The adventures create good ways for the characters to bond more quickly than they might have with more demure tea and dinner parties.

I feel like I can't say much more without running amok with spoilers, so I'll just quote Kathleen Kelly: "Read it. I know you'll love it."

Review right after I finished reading: This was wonderful! Happy tears on finishing it, such a perfect, satisfying ending.

*It just came to my attention that Touch Not The Nettle (which Dean Street Press has also re-published) is a sequel to this book!

[Gina House · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Molly Clavering novel so far!

The pace was absolutely perfect for me and I found the plot to be both immensely interesting and comforting at the same time. Susan and Peggy (and her younger siblings, The Infantry, are so funny!) are the perfect positive female characters, while the Misses Pringle (similar to Miss Read's Mrs. Pringle!) are delightfully irritating gossips that need a good set down! lol.

Besides the wonderful domestic details and lovely Scottish countryside, there were multiple romances happening and that made it all the more enjoyable. The more MC novels I read, the more I want to read!

I have to admit that I had a little crush on the strong and silent Jed Armstrong (shhh...don't tell anyone).

The only small challenge that I had was trying to decipher the conversations written in the Scottish dialect. I was like..."what are they trying to sayyyyyy???" Luckily, the surrounding paragraphs helped me to figure it out.

So many thanks to Caro (@carosbookcase) for buddy reading this book with me! Molly Clavering's books are definitely meant to be savored and then discussed with your favorite friends 😍❤️

Highly recommended and I can't wait to read more!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another wonderful novel from one of my new favorite authors. I loved both Susan and Peggy in this story and even though I could see how things would turn out for them both, I enjoyed the meandering ride to get there. I will say that the Scottish dialect that quite a bit of the dialogue is written in was difficult to decipher and really slowed down my reading. I could have used a translation after each passage! But this was lovely and light with beautiful descriptions of the Scottish countryside and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Susan and her family and friends.

[Abigail Bok · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s tricky trying to write about the places and people closest to your heart. Too easily the writer can get lost in her own feelings, forgetting to shape the narrative for the reader’s eyes. Molly Clavering falls into this trap with Susan Settles Down. She stops too often to savor the moment, leaving the plot to molder, and she doesn’t see her characters with clear enough eyes.

Although the story begins by treating Peggy, the nineteen-year-old daughter of a Scottish village’s minister, as the heroine, she never really comes alive. Instead the focus is stolen by Susan Parsons, the thirty-something spinster-in-waiting sister of a former Navy man who has been invalided out of the service. He has inherited a small estate in the Lowlands (the era is the mid-1930s) and has asked Susan to come keep house for him.

Like the author, Susan is a writer, with one novel and many articles under her belt. She is a sophisticated woman accustomed to city life and doesn’t see herself as either the rural or the marrying kind. But she quickly falls in love with the house and the countryside, allowing the author to indulge all too often in lyrical descriptions of the natural setting. I generally love descriptions of nature in fiction, but these passages tried my patience with their drawn-out, strained floweriness.

The plot was also pretty half-hearted. I knew from the start who was going to pair up with whom and was unsurprised by any twist. And some of the characters and attitudes left me cringing—the city sophisticates making fun of the yokels they had come to live among, the stereotypical gossips and feline femme fatale, the painfully rendered Scots brogues of less-educated people, patronized by protagonists and author alike. For many middlebrow British authors it took World War II to pummel that nonsense out of them, I know, but I am increasingly impatient with those who couldn’t even muster affection for the simple folk they looked down on. There was an edge of cruelty and heedlessness here that left me squirming.

I love tales of straight-arrow British young people coming together, so much of this story passed pleasantly enough, but it left a bad aftertaste on my palate.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Susan and her brother Oliver move to a house in the lowlands of Scotland while Oliver is recovering from a bad accident which has left him lame. There is a gruff bachelor farmer next door whom Susan takes a dislike to (no prizes for guessing how that turns out). There is a sweet young minister’s daughter who gets a crush on Oliver but think it is hopeless., him being so much older and more sophisticated. There is some very heavy handed humour involving supposedly comical spinster ladies who are, naturally, gossips and stirrer ups of trouble. And there is a melodramatic subplot about a young servant girl who gets ideas above her station and is clearly heading for trouble. This book has apparently been out of print since the 1930s and frankly I am not surprised.

[Susan in NC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars, for some interesting characters and humorous situations, but there was a LOT of incomprehensible (to me) Scots dialogue, and I really didn’t warm to many of the characters.

This is my third Molly Clavering novel, and probably my least favorite; it would take a lot to top Dear Hugo and Near Neighbours, two of my favorite reads of the last few years! It had an interesting start and premise, fish out of water brother and sister move from England to a rural Lowland Scotland house they’ve inherited. Oliver has been badly injured (we don’t get details of the accident until much further into the story), but it was apparently bad enough where he’s got a bad limp and had to give up his naval career, leaving him depressed. His sister Susan is a writer, but agrees to come keep house for him. She cares deeply for him and wants to keep an eye on him, and help him recover. So far, so good.

We first meet young Peggy Cunningham, the reverend’s daughter at The Manse. She’s 19, but seems younger; she’s a sweet, shy heroine, while newcomer Susan is a likeable, older heroine, in her early 30s. She had a heartbreak years previously, but we don’t learn about that until nearly the end…they were my two favorite characters. The men, from their prospective love interests to the side characters, were less satisfying, I guess to be expected in a novel from the era (1930s). There were some nasty old sisters, gossiping about everyone, a nosey postmistress, some comical servants, whimsically cute little kids.

Definitely some humorous moments-but I couldn’t figure out why I was struggling to get back and read a couple chapters a day, so I looked at other GR reviews to see if it was just me. Many readers liked it, but there were some complaints about the incomprehensible dialogue, others about the sexist attitudes, and the male characters grabbing and kissing our two heroines roughly-one guy is a real nasty piece of work, preying on a couple female characters. Finally I hit on a review that reminded me of the other Clavering novels I had enjoyed so much, and the reviewer said this novel wasn’t as good. That resonated with me - I didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it.

So, I wouldn’t say don’t read this book, but I’d recommend starting with Near Neighbours or Dear Hugo if you want to sample Clavering’s work. Several of her books have been reissued, and I’ll definitely read more of her work, but I’ll check the reviews first!

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a fun read. When Susan Parsons leave her life in London to go to a small town in Scotland to live with her brother who inherited a house and land there, it doesn't seem like something she will enjoy. But Susan finds it wonderful and delightful, and is herself surprised to realize how content she is.

This book reminds me a lot of those by Barbara Pym - though I guess you could say that Molly Clavering was an earlier Barbara Pym. The writing is really on point, the characters are fully drawn, and the story is one that would be really boring and seemingly predictable if it was not for the wit and precise character observations that Clavering provides.

A really enjoyable read.

[Tuesdayschild · Rating 3 out of 5]

2022: 3.5* (e.book. library loan) (249pgs)
Molly’s writing style felt like a mix of D.E. Stevenson and Carola Oman which made for, mostly, enjoyable reading.
The story lost my interest in parts and some of the scenes where men think it’s okay to grab a woman and forcibly kiss her - against her will - always loses points in a book for me, vintage era author or not.
Extra: The church organist is a rapist on the make.

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

The love stories are interesting, but the anti-gay rant at the beginning of the book was off putting. The author was a woman of her time though, so you can't really hold it against her. It seems to me she was a rather naive person.
Otherwise charming and the descriptions of Scottish scenery are very well done.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite Clavering so far!

https://perfectretort.blogspot.com/20...

[T.J. Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Every couple of months, I get a yearning for books that are British, pastoral, and old-fashioned, and I have been having so much success with the Furrowed Middlebrow collection of books by lesser-known women writers of the early and mid-twentieth century. Each one I have read thus far has been a jewel! Maybe I should read them exclusively. 😅But no, no, I like to read diversely. But at least one Furrowed Middlebrow a month might be just what the mental health doctor ordered! "Susan Settles Down," like the other Furrowed Middlebrow books I have read, is cozy without being trite or schmaltzy. It strikes the perfect balance between sweet nostalgia and thought-provoking authenticity. I had a lovely time with it.

Description (from Goodreads):

Young Susan Parsons has just moved, with her unmarried brother Oliver, to a newly-inherited property in the Scottish Highlands. Their neighbours prove a mixed bag, including the towering, kindly Jed Armstrong, a farmer whose land 'marches with' theirs, the local vicar and his family, and the three gossipy Pringle sisters, who travel by donkey-drawn cart and get their knives into one and all. After a bumpy start, with a disagreeable cook and her nincompoop daughter as their only help, Susan and Oliver begin to settle in nicely, and find themselves in the midst of romance, confusion, and earthy hilarity.

I really enjoyed the characters of Susan and Peggy. They were funny, rich, interesting, and fallible. I was less enamored with "brother Oliver" and his hairwire temper; I wasn't particularly cheering on that romance. But I was happy with the direction that Susan's affairs went. Jed Armstrong - quiet, steady, and with a sly sense of humor - was a very attractive male lead!

There are so many little details in this book that brought it to life for me - from the realistic child characters Bun and Cilly (I am hard to satisfy with child characters; so often, their dialogue or actions don't match their given age, or they sound too twee and cutesy), to the fascinating descriptions of the local country festivities, to the dialogue in Scottish dialect that I sometimes had to try reading aloud to understand, to Susan's relatable inner monologues about life, work, and love. The plot is not propulsive, but all of these elements worked together to provide something fresh and engaging on every page. I was never bored.

"Susan Settles Down" was my first book by Molly Clavering, but I know it will not be my last. She has quite a few books that have been published through the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint, including "Touch Not the Nettle," a sequel to "Susan Settles Down"! So the next time I need a little palate cleanser between bouts of depressing nonfiction and morally grey fantasy characters, I will probably seek out Molly or another Furrowed Middlebrow author.

[Caro (carosbookcase) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1936, Susan Settles Down is the first Molly Clavering book I’ve read. From the start I knew that I was going to get on well with this book. Molly Clavering’s writing has an effortless style that draws you in and allows you to just sit back and enjoy the experience.

Susan Parsons moves from London with her brother Oliver to a property he has inherited in the Scottish Highlands. While eager to support her brother’s excitement of being a landowner, Susan is less than optimistic about how they will get on in Easter Hartrigg. Met with a drunken cook and her useless daughter upon arrival at their new homestead, Susan has to take the situation in hand as soon as she’s through the door. But soon she’s befriending the daughter of the local vicar, cleaning house, and despite their very rocky start, she begins to almost like her brother’s new friend, Jed Armstrong, a farmer whose property abuts theirs. Not all the neighbours are friendly, though. The three Pringle sisters provide hilarity and frustration, as do the misunderstandings and romances.

I had a great time reading this book. It was funny, easy to digest, and charming. My only qualm is that I read in the introduction of the Dean Street Press edition that Susan is a writer. I kept waiting for this information to be imparted in the book. It wasn’t until about the half way point that Susan’s writing is mentioned and while I understand that looking after her brother’s home has been her main priority up until that point, it seemed very odd that it wasn’t at least mentioned earlier. If I hadn’t gone into the book knowing that Susan was a writer, perhaps this wouldn’t have bothered me. Of course, the fact that it isn’t mentioned earlier could be an indication of how serious Susan is about her profession.

The only reason I’m giving this 4.5 stars and not 5 is because I wanted a bit more at the end. Clearly, that’s preferable to being left wanting less! I’m very much looking forward to reading Touch Not the Nettle which carries on Susan’s story. Who knows? Maybe I will find what I was looking for at the end of Susan Settles Down in that book!

[Christine Goodnough · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful old-fashioned tale of country life with romantic overtones and a good dose of humor. Susan dreads moving to the Scottish border country but her brother has inherited this property and wants her to come help him manage his new home. Initially meeting with a domestic disaster, Susan eventually finds so many interesting aspects to country life, and makes friends in the community, that the prospect of returning to life in London leaves her quite despondent.
Her brother Oliver, left somewhat crippled after an accident, finds his niche here in East Hartrigg and makes great strides getting back to his old, upbeat self. Friendship with a local, Jed Armstrong, helps him a lot--and Susan, too. But before long Oliver finds himself on a very rocky road of romance when he's attracted to a local girl.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susan Settles Down is my second Molly Clavering. I didn’t like it as much as my first, the delightfully cozy Dear Hugo. In this book, the characters didn’t appeal, which makes what is basically a romance a bit of a bore.

Susan Settles Down was published in 1936. Dear Hugo was published in 1955. For my next Clavering - and there will be a next - I’ll look to one of her later novels.

[Olya · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much brogue to wade through, not enough sense of place (or people).

[Julia Extance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and wholesome story, with a lot of very funny moments, but a super subtle and slow-burn romance. More of a slice of life story instead of romance

[Christine McCann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very good, interesting story, but it felt as though it shifted in tone throughout. The beginning reminded me of O. Douglas, and the interactions with the first cook and her daughter, of Angela Thirkell. The final chapter was very satisfying, though!

[Vicki · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the latest books I’ve read in my binge of older books, is “Susan Settles Down” by Molly Clavering. It was written long ago and, as such, has a lot going on that would never happen today. For the most part, I find all of it charming.

The story is a slice of life and some of the funny parts don’t translate as well as I don’t know the reference points, but that is what searches on the internet are for.

A brother and sister (Oliver and Susan) go to Scotland to make a new home for themselves. The village people are quite different from what they are used to. The two are a bit smug and feel they are just a tad above their neighbors.

As the story progresses, and they become part of the community, things start to change. Watching these two on their journey makes for fun reading. There are sad times but mostly quite jolly.

I was engrossed from the beginning right through the end. I will be looking for more books by this author to read in the near future.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A delightfully cosy read!

Susan and her brother Oliver move out to the Scottish Highlands to take up a new life in their recently inherited patch of land.
We get to follow them from arrival over I think about a year or so as they settle in and get to know their new neighbours and people from the local community.
There is a lot of local flavour that makes for fun reading and I also just really enjoyed Susan as a character, she's my favourite kind; competent, clever and with a well honed sense of humour.

There's a lot of lovely descriptions of the countryside and all in all this is just a nice relaxing read, no stress just comfort :)

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Susan joins her brother Oliver in his inherited home with acreage in the Scottish Border Country, a far cry from her life in the big city. Will they be accepted by the locals? Adjust to the remoteness of this rural area? Find happiness and peace, perhaps even love?

There are actually multiple story lines interwoven, all skillfully developed. One suggestion: find an online dictionary of Scottish terms; it will come in handy as you read.

Another engaging, lively comfort read by Clavering. Highly recommended!

(Thank you, BJH!)

[Christina Dudley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rounding up from 3.5 stars. Happy to discover these vintage authors, and I would read another by Molly Clavering, though at times this one could have used some conflict (there didn't seem to be much, really, keeping the two sets of lovers apart, except that it wasn't a novella) and was a little dull in stretches. The characters were generally delightful and interesting, though the "villains" could have used a few shades of gray.

If you love descriptions, there are plenty of them. I confess by the end I was skipping them. :)

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with Clavering's other novels that I've read so far, I enjoyed the setting, and the story was pleasant. I do think it's funny how the author tends to make her romantic leads brawny, "masterful" yet soft-hearted men. The same type shows up in several of her novels that I've read so far, but he was a pleasant enough character. Enjoyable if not outstanding.

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some lovely descriptions of rural Scotland over the course of a year made for a relaxing read. Unfortunately, I never got attached to any of the characters, thus my low rating.

Thank you so much to Dean Street Press for providing me with a digital reading copy!

[Bookworman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Was hoping for D. E. Stevenson-like but her characters didn’t capture my interest in the same way.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Molly Clavering book. I'm looking forward to reading more.

[Iffah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of DE Stevenson, but Molly Clavering... Whoa. Her writing style reminds me of Miss Read, but richer, somehow. And I really like the way she ended this book.

I'm a fan!! ❤️