Dear Hugo

When the time comes for you to retire Hugo if you want a quiet life dont settle down in the country. Bury yourself in London or any really large city and you can live like a hermit but avoid the outskirts of a village. I am dazed by the ceaseless whirl of activities in which almost everyone in and round Ravenskirk is involved.Sara Monteith makes an ideal correspondent for Hugo Jamieson brother of her lost love Ivo killed in the war before they could marry. Her neighbours in the lovely Border village of Ravenskirk dont know that Sara has moved here because its where Ivo and Hugo grew up but they welcome her warmly. Soon shes drawn into the active village social scene of tea parties gardening carol-singing and Coronation festivities dodging the judgments of stern Miss Bonaly defending her helper Madge Marchbanks an unwed mother befriending kind practical Elizabeth Drysdale and charming Mrs. Currie and her daughter Sylvia (the latter first met halfway through Saras drawing room window) and having an embarrassing first encounter with rugged Major Whitburn. Add in her nephew Arthur neglected by an indifferent father Arthurs dog Pam and even Hugo himself returning unexpectedly from overseas and Saras life is a ceaseless whirl indeed!Molly Clavering was for many years the neighbour and friend of bestselling author D.E. Stevenson (in just such a village as Ravenskirk) and they may well have influenced one anothers writing. First published in 1955 Dear Hugo is one of the funniest of her spirited joyful comedies of Scottish village life. This new edition includes an introduction by Elizabeth Crawford.