Babbacombe's

by Susan Scarlett, Noel Streatfeild

"I thought we were allowed to sit. I mean I thought it was the Shop Act or something that we had to have something to sit on." Jenny laughed. "So they say, but it doesn't work out that way. You won't get sacked for sitting, but if you sit you'll get the sack."

Lovely Beth Carson is just out of school and beginning her first job at Babbacombe's department store. She is pure as the driven snow, and knows her "place", but she can hardly be blamed for tripping over a charming young man's dog, can she? And how could she help being trapped in an elevator with the same man a few days later, and giving him a piece of her mind before learning that he just happens to be David Babbacombe, the ne'er-do-well son of the store's wealthy owner? How could she possibly have known that her careless words would inspire him to take a new lease on life?

Along with vivid supporting characters, wholly believable family dynamics, and fascinating details about the inner workings of a department store, we get here a delightful frolic packed with humour, unlikely romance, and even a store detective.

Babbacombe's, first published in 1941, is the sixth of twelve charming, page-turning romances published under the pseudonym "Susan Scarlett" by none other than beloved children's author and novelist Noel Streatfeild.

Out of print for decades, they were rediscovered by Greyladies Books in the early 2010s, and Dean Street Press and Furrowed Middlebrow are delighted now to make all twelve available to a wider audience. "A writer who shows a rich experience in her writing and a charm" Nottingham Journal

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Classics, Historical Fiction, British Literature, Historical, Book Club

211 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1941

About the author

Pseudonym used by the English author Noel Streatfeild for publishing her romance novels.

Reviews

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars - written back in the early 1940’s with absolutely zero references to WWII, just a sweet “slice of life” type of fluffy read about a family all working at an English Dept. store. Delightful and nostalgic, charming and really sweet. May have to read more of this author’s re-releases.

[Antoinette · Rating 4 out of 5]

A light and frothy book that was utterly captivating. I don’t often read romances but this one was just right for me.

The title Babbacombe’s refers to the department store where Beth Carson goes to work after she finishes school. Inadvertently, she meets the son of the owner, David, and sparks fly. They are not of the same class, so will this work out for them? There is, of course, a villain in this book and it is Beth’s cousin, Dulcie. She wants rich David for herself.

The Carson family is portrayed as a perfect family- maybe too perfect, but what’s wrong with a family getting along and watching out for each other. This book actually was a good counterpart to the book I am listening to- French Braid by Anne Tyler- where the family bond is not quite so tight knit.

This book was a perfect little diversion. I raced through it getting to the ending I expected.

Susan Scarlett is the pseudonym for Noel Streatfeild. She wrote 12 romance novels under this name. If you enjoy an old fashioned, tame romance, then you will enjoy this book. I certainly did!

Published: 1941

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, I adored this! At one point, I found myself pounding my fist on the couch and yelling “Fur coat!” with glee. (It all becomes clear on the last page.)

This is a frothy yet heartfelt companion read to The Ladies’ Paradise with the department store setting and the similar titles for employees. The department store plays more of a background role in this story but it still comes into the plot in several key ways.

I think Noel Streatfeild’s writing is at its best when she’s writing about families, especially middle class families with a good number of children who struggle to make ends meet. So many of her families like this are pure delight to read about. The Carsons are right up there with the best of them. I want to jump into the pages and join them for dinner even if the Menace Dulcie is with them. Janet, the mother, is a special treat in this story. Her relationship with heroine Beth is so sweet.

I will look forward to reading this again in the future.

[Gina House · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5🌟 Another sparkling Susan Scarlett book! I liked it even a little bit more than Clothes Pegs, I think. Again, this story features a large, lovely family (with a mother, Janet, who is wonderful, caring, and spunky) and focuses on the daughter, Beth, who is kind-hearted, true, and loyal. All of the family members are likeable and unique, but Janet and Beth are my favorites. (also Edward, David, and Mr. Babacombe, too!)

I loved that this book takes place in a department store. That always appeals to me for some reason. Even though I've never worked in one, it's such an interesting space for a story.

The ups and down interactions with the Babbacombe family were thrilling, upseting, and also fun. I was highly frustrated with Beth's cousin, Dulcie, and wished there had been more of a turn around for her in the end.

All in all, the plot and characters had me invested the entire time and I just wish there were illustrations to go along with the book. Definitely recommended if you're looking for a lively, light romantic, family-focused everyday adventure!

[Alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Susan Scarlett’s affectionate, rambunctious middle class families. That was all to the good in this book. But I was frustrated to the point of fury by the conniving, scheming cousin in this one, especially when people fall right into her traps even when they absolutely know better. That’s one plot trope that I am never on board with because it makes the drama feel so manufactured.
Aside from that, Babbacombe’s was a sweet story of a virtuous shop girl who falls in love, inspires her young man to be the best he can be, always makes her family proud, and triumphs over her vicious cousin.
Wholesome, easy reading, but I’m just not a fan of having such a hard-and-fast baddie in a book. I prefer my characters nuanced!

[Cindy aka "The Book Fairy" · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable and satisfying story with a slice of British life. Quaint little tale with a well wrapped up ending.....likeable characters. It was a different kind of book as my first read of Susan Scarlett, aka Noel Streatfield. I wouldn't mind reading others by her if they arose but on to checking out other new to me authors :)

[Rebekah]

*DNF**

I read through chapter 3, thought I saw where this was unenjoyably going and read the last chapter to be sure. I was hoping it would not go that way and could return to finish the book, but it did. Read a few bits in between. So not going to rate it.
It seemed like the whole book was going to be how this sweet and good family was going to tortured by their horrible niece. There was no redemption or comeuppance that I could see. She left the family just to go on to torture her poor aunt once again, learning nothing.

I must say though, that Noel Streatfeild, the author, seemed to have led a very interesting life. I might give her another chance at some point.

[❀⊱RoryReads⊰❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

This had charm, but was far too predictable. I swear I've seen a movie from the 1930s with this exact same plot. The writing is superior, but then this was written by the talented Noel Streatfeild under the pen name Susan Scarlett.

All in all a sweet, cozy, clean romance.

[CLM · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Fenella Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with Lesley that Susan Scarlett's (Noel Streatfeild) novels are similar, but I don't read them for the plot or characters. I read them for the social history. Particularly they are about a very working class, but close knit, family who struggle to get by. Also, the protagonists are women and you get a good glimpse of what life was like in the 1930s and 1940s for a lot of women. Most women weren't in castles or country houses. They were keeping a home and raising children and working in shops.

These books make me better appreciate my life. This family had just 2 weeks holiday a year. The workers in the department store worked 5.5 days a week. They couldn't visit family in the north of England due to the cost. Pleasures were simple.

Yes the plot is very predictable. Don't read it for the plot but for a glimpse into a London from the past. I enjoyed it and have stayed up past midnight to finish it.

[Isabel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was “Clothes Peg” rewritten with a change of setting and switching up some of the character names. The family of the heroine is almost indiscernible from book to book, except one mother has a “velvet curtains money box” and the other has a “fur coat money box”. The heroines are basically identical, wary of entering into relationships with men above their station, pure as the driven snow, and a bit naive. The love interests in both books even have the same name, David. And to top it all off, both books sport the “mean girl” character tearing up a letter from the heroine to her David that she won’t be able to meet him because some family member is in the hospital having surgery so that he thinks she has stood him up. Like, we couldn’t bother to come up with something even slightly different??
Nevertheless, it wasn’t an awful book. I just recommend reading either this or Clothes Peg, because if you’ve read one, you’ve read both.

[Lesley]

Didn't think this was one of the best of the books Streatfeild wrote as Scarlett, or perhaps after a bit they do start feeling a bit similar, although there's a fair amount of variation in setting, plot, etc. Plus, I don't really like the nasty cousin/female rival plot, which may be more to the point. It seemed a bit crudely done with not much nuance - the rivalry in e.g. Poppies for England was better done.

[Sheila Zenni · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book I received as part of a book subscription I have, I'm unsure how I feel about this one! It was a pleasant read about life in a different time. It's kind of "Father Knows Best" meets "A Christmas Carol", for lack of a better description. I did find it difficult to put down! However it won't be added to "my favorite books" case. If you're looking to read a light Summer romance from a time of innocence, maybe give this one a try.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another delightful and charming romance from Susan Scarlett. This is the third one I've read, and while they very much follow a pattern it's one I enjoy and find cozy and comforting.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This morning I was peacefully reading this on my phone in the dentist's waiting room when FOR SOME REASON an older man wanted to engage with me and asked what I was reading. I had to attempt to pronounce this title out loud and felt like an idiot.

Noel Streatfeild is a comfort author for me, and I'd never read any of the books she wrote as Susan Scarlett. It felt like a classic Noel Streatfeild (I mean, there was a spoiled girl named Dulcie!), but more adult, in a charming, old-fashioned way, of course. Overall, just the light and nostalgic read I needed!

[Marisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a delight, and my favorite so far in the Susan Scarlett books! I love movies and books that are set in old department stores, they just transport you to a simpler yet more refined time in the world. It truly is literary escapism at its finest. I was just sad it took me so long to finish because I had other library books coming in that I had to read first.

[Mrs]

Very sweet. We meet Beth as she is leaving school, an exemplary head girl. She goes to work at Babbacombe’s, in Gowns. David Babbacombe’s dog, Scissors, trips her up, and he is instantly smitten. But she thinks he is above her station…
The dastardly Dulcie is a fly in the ointment, and there are tensions around Edward’s sight, otherwise this is a very gentle story, a proper comfort read.

[Elyse Mcnulty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Babbacombe’s (paperback) by Susan Scarlett was a perfectly charming reading experience. It is our FB bookclub read for March. If not for this wonderful group, I would never have come across this wonderful book. This was published in 1941 under the pseudonym “Susan Scarlett” but, you would know her other books by Noel Streatfeild (Ballet Shoes is one.)
Beth Carson has just finished school and is starting work at Babbacombe’s. Prior to her first day, she meets David tripping over his dog, Scissors. Soon after starting her job, she gets trapped in the elevator with none other than David. It turns out he is the store owner’s son. The story is funny and interesting with lots of details of the inner workings of this department store. The family characters are wonderful and I am sure you will all hate Dulcie. Don’t miss this one. Enjoy!

[Hope · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

There are times you’ll want to throw this book across the room because of an unusually obnoxious female character. But the thing that kept me coming back to the book over and over was not even the love story, but the Carson family itself. From the very first pages, when we hear about Janet Carson’s money box (where she puts away pennies in the hopes of someday buying a fur coat), and how often she has to dip into it to meet some financial crisis, you know that this is a loving, working-class family that will stick together through thick and thin.

I enjoyed reading about Beth’s relationship to her parents and siblings and seeing the many ways that she gave up what she wanted for the good of everyone else. She was not faultless, but she did her best, which I found heartening. Her love interest was a bit of a cad, but as I said before, the Carson family made up for the book’s other flaws.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written little book with delightful characters set in England during simpler times. Very reminiscent of Cinderella story. A perfect cozy escape from the hustle and bustle of our modern days.

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure fluff but completely enjoyable nonetheless.

[Calli · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. Fluff

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such an absolute delight to read! Light and fluffy just like a good, old-fashioned romance should be, and full of likeable, heart-warming characters. And what fairy tale would be complete without a handsome prince - whose imperfections make him all the more lovable. Escapism at its absolute best!

[Anne Libera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is like eating homemade pudding, exactly what you want when you want to be reminded of what it felt like to be a child and to be given something sweet and "wholesome." I loved the "Shoes" books when i was a kid and while this is ostensibly a romance for adults, it has a similar feel and very specific to its time and place.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book started promisingly and rapidly took a nosedive from which it failed to recover. The main issue is simply that it hasn’t aged well. It seems to have been received well in 1941, and ‘Susan Scarlett’ was a writer for ‘women reading during the blackout’. Which reminds me a lot of ‘books for smart women with the flu’, which are, I’ll be quite honest, my favourite genre of book. Certainly this is structured in that filed-edges comfort zone, but in 2025 what’s comforting is simply not the same. And it’s interesting, because plenty of books from much older eras are ones I find comforting – Jane Austen or LM Montgomery, for example. In these books the plucky heroine does end up getting married, and it is the focus of the story arc, but there’s something weird and cheap and off-putting about how it happens in this book.

Maybe it’s the setting. Someone getting married at eighteen in the 1810s or even the 1890s/1910s isn’t that mind-boggling. That being said, LM Montgomery’s heroines generally aren’t that young on marriage. On meeting the end-game man, sure, but Anne Shirley got through her university education first, for example. The heroine of this novel, Beth, starts the novel saddened by leaving her academic success in school to start work in the same department store as her father. Her parents are presented as nice and noble people, yet they don’t perceive there’s any waste in a bright girl like her not continuing her education. They also KEPT HAVING CHILDREN. I don’t know if that’s a personal thing, or a time period thing, but come ON. You have a TWO-BEDROOM HOUSE. Stop having children! They’re expensive! There’s five or six younger siblings (they do tend to blend together).

Early doors Beth encounters the son and heir of Babbacombe’s, David, and they are both struck with insta-love. Beth – via her father – raises some reasonable objections to a shop girl carrying on with the rich son. It’s fine, though, David’s intentions are always noble! Beth is Not Like Other Girls, you see! She dresses up like a QUAKER for a fancy dress ball, which David finds incredibly hot (??). She also stands in direct contrast to her frippery cousin Dulcie, to whom the family has reluctantly given house room. Dulcie commits such awful crimes as a) wearing make-up and b) wanting a rich husband, even though the whole narrative frames Beth (EIGHTEEN YEARS OLD) marrying a rich husband as the Cinderella ideal. Scarlett makes no effort to make Dulcie even slightly empathic, so her intrusions into Beth’s romance always feel negative. How much easier it was to write books when you could blithely hew to the Madonna/whore dichotomy without question!

David is a dumbass. This is what really gets trying, really quickly. Aside from the jail for a thousand years crime of using the pet name ‘ducky’ (NO), he’s a terrible communicator, he goes off in a towering huff every time his will is even slightly questioned, and he bullies Beth at every turn. Good thing he’s rich, I guess.

There’s also some really funky stuff going on with class dynamics here. Not only Beth but a customer she helps in the shop jump several social classes in marriage, and it’s fine because they’re somehow better quality than the equivalent Dulcies. Yet do Beths really exist? The idea of a family living on one shop assistant’s salary in a four-room house somehow having better morals and quality of mind than the family that produced Dulcie, or equalling the one that produced the Oxbridge-educated David … where’s the evidence for this? In reality, Beth and Dulcie would be the same. Then it transpires that Babbacombe Senior is just another shop assistant made good. So bootstrapping is the best … in interwar Britain?! Or anytime in history Britain? Be so for real. The British higher classes have never considered either the Dulcies or the Beths their equal. They might dally with them but they don’t marry them. Usually the Jane Eyre character proves themselves worthy by high moral stature and/or education, which is sort of the case here, but because it’s such a soft-focus story there’s a lot missing.

[Mbuye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a straight carryover from schoolgirl romances, complete with the humble shopgirl in love with a baronet’s grandson, and her lazy, spiteful cousin playing the spoilsport. With the father, Mr Carson, also employed there, there are three Carsons serving in the same establishment, and this allows for confusion in the name to be a plot driver.

For all that the story is predictable and vacuous, it also throws light on the class and social distinctions still existing in the 1930’s between the gentry, to whose ranks the owner and CEO of Babbacombe’s, the elder Mr Babbacombe, has risen, and the working middle class, usually in trade or else serving in shops and restaurants, belong. Mr Carson’s objections to David Babbacombe the son, as a suitor for his daughter, is that as the grandson of a baronet, he belonged by birth and education to a socially superior caste, and marriages between the two classes rarely proved successful.

The book also emphasises the rising costs of everything from the hiring of a taxi to a cataract operation for a young boy, in the days when such operations were not the laser procedures of today, but expensive and uncertain of outcome. The Carson family count literally every penny they spend, whereas their paying guest Dulcie, in expensive but tasteless finery, flashes her money around, to the envy of the younger Carsons.

‘Babbacombe's’ was published in 1941, two years into the war, when life was admittedly bleak. It is to be hoped that the little shopgirls who read it were brightened by the prospect of a peer of the realm walking into their great emporiums and falling madly in love with the girl who showed them a dozen handkerchiefs, would be their story too.

Hopefully, young girls today are more practical, level-headed and independent, and do not see marriage as the ultimate goal in life.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been 4 stars if Scarlett/Streatfield hadn't either reached her page-limit or lost interest. Or indeed both. Published 1941 so paper rationing may have been an issue.
This book started out well enough: a young girl finishes school (age 15 or 16 in those days) and joins the workforce at Babbacome's, the local department store where her dad also works, still run by its founder. She's proud to be contributing to the family finances. Apparently the job includes standing all day ("You can't be sacked for sitting down, but if you sit down you'll get the sack!"), long hours, and low wages; she is after all a "trainee" and a female. She's young and strong so she gets to run (literally!) errands, pack and sometimes deliver dresses and do anything the better paid adult saleswomen don't want to do.
Beth literally runs into the scion of the department store dynasty and romance doesn't quite ensue. There's a family crisis, a puppy, and what could have been the classic "horrible misunderstanding" except that Scarlett/Streatfield tends to let things happen off the page: ie, skips over a lot of stuff that could have been interesting if developed. When everything comes to a head, she ignores the reader and leaps forward to a patched on "happy ending" scene that I had to read twice as some important things are implied but not stated. That took a star. When I finished the book last night I was in a snit because of her off-camera "resolution" and would have given it two; this morning after coffee I was in a better mood and give it a grudging 3.

[Ruthiella · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Beth Carson leaves school, she wishes she could go on to secretarial college, but there isn’t enough money. As the oldest in her large family, she’s got to go to work. Her dad gets her a job as a junior assistant at the department store he’s worked at for 30 years, Babbacombe’s. Beth is a trooper. She puts her dreams aside and does her very best to do well and make her family proud. Complicating the matter is, however, Beth’s spoiled and devious cousin, Dulcie, who has come to live with the Coopers. Also complicating the matter is the store owner’s son, David, who falls for Beth. Only Beth won’t have anything to do with him because of the class difference, regardless of how attractive and charming she finds him.

This was very similar in many ways to the previous Scarlett title I’d read, Clothes Pegs. A sweet Cinderella story, I enjoyed it a lot. I also liked the glimpse of the inner workings of a department store from the 1940s when everything really was under one roof, from groceries to ball gowns. I wish I had come across Scarlett’s novels when I was a teen/tween. Young me would have adored them.

[Emma Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh what a charming book! Beth comes from a loving family of modest means. Her father works at a big department store - Babbacombe’s - and soon offers her a position there as a junior salesgirl working in gowns. One day, she’s stuck in a lift at the shop with an intriguing stranger. Meanwhile, her very different cousin Dulcie is sent to live with them.

I loved Beth very much in this - she’s a curious, interesting young girl - and the romance and all their little dates. I love the family in this too. A few of the characters are quite well developed - Beth’s brother Edward and her mother and father - and they felt very real to me. What I loved most was the setting - Babbacombe’s and all its different departments and the world of luxury shopping, complete with a small adventure for Beth. I could have read about this for several books, I love Career Books where you get to explore a workplace.

Noel Streatfeild is one of my favourite authors, it’s always such a treat to read a new book by her! Thank you so much to Dean Street Press for reprinting these. I paid for this with my own money, they don’t know I exist, I just love that they’re doing this!

[Louise Culmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beth Carson has just left school and is soon to start work at Babbacombes, the department store where her father has worked for thirty six years. Her cousin Dulcie arrives to stay with the family, and she too gets a job at Babbacombes. Beth is a good well behaved girl, but Dulcie is neither good nor well behaved. In fact she is a hussy. The story is very similar in plot to the earlier ‘Clothes-Pegs’, but I found this somewhat less engrossing, perhaps the two stories are a bit too similar. Beth, like Annabel in Clothes-Pegs, has a warm, kind friendly family and an intensely happy home life. Beth, like Annabel, falls for a glamorous man who is above her socially. Beth, like Annabel, has a malicious rival who tries to make things difficult for her etc etc. Even some of the minor details are the same, Beth’s mother like Annabel’s is trying to save for something she really longs for, but like Annabel’s mother has to keep dipping into her savings for family emergencies. I felt almost as though I was reading a rewriting of the same book, while preferring the earlier version.