Catching Up with Miss Hargreaves, Poppy, and Summer in Cape Cod

Miss Hargreaves (1939) by Frank Baker

This book is a warning to anyone who ever embroidered a story or made something up that seemed hilarious to him (or her) but perhaps not so much to other people.  Norman Huntley and his friend Henry Beddow are on vacation chatting to a sexton when they make up an eccentric older lady called Miss Hargreaves.  Carrying on with their silliness, Norman sends a letter inviting her to visit his family in the Cathedral town of Cornford.  When he gets home, he is horrified to find someone named Hargreaves has sent a telegram stating she will arrive on Monday!  No one believes Norman when he says he doesn't know her and did not invite her, and once she arrives Norman is torn between pride in his creation, embarrassment at her behavior, and a strange affection for her that comes and goes. Miss Hargreaves' visit to Cornford threatens to destroy his life - unless or even if it is Norman who is behaving irrationally.  This is an amusing story, recommended by Simon at Stuck in a Book.

   

South Cove Summer (1956) by Sara Ware Bassett

I was unfamiliar with this author until Dewena of Dewena’s Window mentioned her recently, describing her books set on Cape Cod.   Well, as I couldn’t visit the Cape this summer, at least I could read about it!  This is the story about two Boston families who have summered at the Cape for many years.  Donald Williston is a successful Boston lawyer, still single, perhaps because lovely Sylvia Kent married someone else.  Now, her marriage is over and she has returned home with two children.  In the meantime, Don has met Judith Wyman, educated and self-sufficient, and suggests she help with Sylvia’s difficult son.   Can the two women’s friendship survive if Don is the prize?  Bassett surprised me with the ending of this story.

Bassett (1872 - 1968) turns out to have been a teacher in the Newton, MA school system I attended, prior to becoming a writer, and is buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.  I assume that is why the Newton Library has a special collection of her books, which include a lot of children’s nonfiction and adult fiction.  Those books don’t circulate but I got this one from Medway, MA.   South Cove Summer reminded me of Elisabeth Ogilvie’s books set in Maine and the Emilie Loring books I enjoyed in high school – both of whom also grew up in or near Boston.  Bassett clearly loved Cape Cod but I had to smile at the way she describes the homes as cottages.  They may not be mansions like those in Newport but Don’s parents’ cottage is “spacious and attractive” and is staffed by (at least) a gardener, chauffeur, and a cook.   Her description of the Cape is affectionate but you can tell the book was written a long time ago because the weekend trips from Beacon Hill to Cape Cod never once mention traffic!  And Don complains that he wouldn’t be able to support a family but he’s a Harvard-educated lawyer at a good Boston law firm and the only child of clearly affluent parents – if he can’t support a family, no one can!  Despite these quibbles, I really enjoyed this glimpse of bygone Boston and the Cape.

 

Poppy (2014) and Poppy in the Field (2015) by Mary Hooper

Hooper is a skilled writer of historical fiction and this is a very well done YA two-book series set in the early 20th century about a young woman who earns a scholarship to high school but instead goes into service to help support her single mother and siblings. Poppy is intelligent but inexperienced; she is encouraged by a former teacher to join the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) to nurse during WWI.  When the younger son of the house begins flirting with her, she does not take him seriously at first but then loses her heart, even though she knows his parents have planned for him to marry a young woman of his class.  A subplot involves Poppy’s brother Billy, who enlists but cannot handle combat and wounds himself to get sent back to England.

In the second book, Poppy has gone to Flanders as a VAD to mend her broken heart, but even the horrific conditions and a spiteful nurse Sister don’t sufficiently distract her from the pain she feels when she sees Freddie de Vere’s wedding announcement.  Luckily, she made good friends in the first book who continue to be important to her: Matthews, a VAD from a similar background as Poppy, and Michael Archer, a young doctor, who is often nearby when Poppy needs support. In the meantime, Billy lacks Poppy’s dedication and determination to better herself, and does not thrive in a military structure.   These books will appeal to fans of Downton Abbey and Maisie Dobbs.  

Addendum: when I first started reading books as a teen in which English nurses were referred to as Sister, I assumed they were nuns and I was VERY surprised when they started carrying on with the doctors.  It took me a while to ask my mother for clarification as I thought she might assume I was reading something really unsuitable, not that she censored my reading.