My Turn to Make the Tea
by Monica Dickens. “Monica Dickens (Charles' great-grand daughter) spent a few years post WWII as a reporter for a English small town local paper. When she wasn't making tea (which of course she had to do as the "girl" in the office!) she was reporting the various petty small town dramas, vying for a spot at the paper's only typewriter and making a life for herself at the boarding house where she rented a room. Semi-autobiographical, the story doesn't really have a plot but describes the quaint old fashioned life of a journalist in the 50's and is wholly entertaining when describing the antics of the boarding house clan. Every chapter is some new escapade and seen through Monica's eyes there is a bit of golden nostalgia about the shared bath, the suspected haunted room and the suspected communist neighbor making me wish that I could have rented the front room and spent nights drinking with the girls while we washed our nylons in the sink.”
