The Blue Sapphire

Surely you can sit on a seat for a few minutes without getting into conversation with a perfectly strange young man!Julia smiled. It isnt as easy as you seem to think.While waiting in Kensington Gardens for her stuffy fiancé Julia Harburn at a loose end following the remarriage of her father encounters Stephen Brett a young mining engineer just back from Africa on exciting business involving an abandoned mine and a perfect blue sapphire. Its a brief meeting soon forgotten in her fiancés irritation and her own relocation to a boarding house run by the theatrical (and lovable) Miss Martineau who also finds her congenial work in a hat shop. But Julia has little time to settle in before a letter arrives from a hitherto unknown uncle in Scotland inviting her to visit as his health is failing and he hopes to heal the rift between himself and Julias father. She knows her father traveling in Europe with his new wife would disapprove but she sets off for Scotland anyway. Her decision naturally reaps all sorts of complications and Stephen reappears to dramatic effect.The Blue Sapphire first published in 1963 is justifiably a favorite of D.E. Stevenson fans. A spirited heroine an array of delightful characters both irritating and adorable romance and comedy in equal parts and the wanderlust-inducing beauty of Scotland-all mixed here in one of Stevensons most satisfying and entertaining confections. This new edition includes an autobiographical sketch by the author.Miss Stevenson has her own individual and charming way of seeing things. Western Mail