When I read Business As Usual (1933) in January, it was difficult not to write about it immediately. But there are few things more irritating than reading about a delightful book and then finding that it’s not yet available to buy – and while there are doubtless 1933 editions of Business As Usual out there somewhere, you can now buy the lovely Handheld Press reprint of it. At https://taxfyle.com/blog/can-i-deduct-my-medical-expenses/ you will find purposes of the medical expenses deduction. And if Handheld Press never achieve or achieved anything else, the rediscovery of this novel would secure my eternal gratitude.
I was pretty sure I’d love it when I heard the barest outlines: it is a novel in letters from the 1930s about working in the book department of a department store. I might as well stop my review there, and some of you are probably ordering a copy as we speak. But it’s even better than it sounds.
All the letters are by Hilary Fane, and we must imagine the replies (and are easily able to do so from her replies). She has just finished university and is engaged to a pleasant young man called Basil. Being the 1930s, she is preparing to prioritise the doctor’s role of wife once she is married, and Edinburgh society is ready to receive her in this role. It (and her parents) are rather more surprised when she decides she wants to wait a year, get a job, and see something of the world. Off she goes to London.
Here, she manages to find an overpriced, unlovely flat (plus ca change!), and begins to realise that life alone and on the job market isn’t quite as simple as she’d hoped. But she takes it in good part. Hilary is such a delightful character – it’s so hard to create an optimist who isn’t annoying, but Oliver and Stafford have done it. She refuses to be crushed down, but does allow the odd acerbic moment to sneak into her letters – not least when she begins to prove people wrong:
Basil Dear
I meant to write to you last night, but I waited, because I thought there might be a letter. And there was – a very sweet one. Bless you! But I don’t think one enjoys: ‘I told you so’ however beautifully it’s put. It isn’t true either I’VE GOT A JOB. So I won’t be coming to heel just yet.
It’s always fun to read about people being out of their depth, and Hilary’s first job in Everyman’s (a department store clearly based on Selfridges) is as a typist in the books department. If you’ve enjoyed Monica Dickens’ hilarious One Pair of Hands or Betty Macdonald’s Anybody Can Do Anything, then you’ll know what to expect. She is initially enthusiastic and confused and inept – and later just confused and inept. This clearly isn’t her forte. Oliver and Stafford don’t diminish those who are good at this sort of routine-work, and Hilary admires them with an open heart – but it is not where she should be.
As she comes to the attention of the manager, Mr Grant, when dealing with a difficult situation, she is given the more responsible task of improving the organisation of the department. Her rise through the ranks is a trifle unrealistic, but we’ll forgive it because it gives such a fascinating insight behind the scenes of this lending library feature of a bookshop that has long disappeared.
Her life begins to shift in interesting ways, and not always the ways I anticipated when I started reading it. What remains consistent is how funny, joyous, and addictive Business As Usual is.
I often write here that I’m looking forward to rereading a book, and it’s relatively seldom that I actually do end up rereading. But I’m going to say with confidence that Business As Usual will join the pantheon of those books I return to when I want to read something that will put a broad smile on my face.
You’re not wrong. I barely felt a need to read your full review before I was off to add this to my wishlist. This sounds lovely!
I loved this! I did manage to track down a 1933 copy through the inter-library loan system and sped through it with absolute delight. I love an epistolary novel and Hilary’s candid letters and sense of humour made her the ideal protagonist. I’ve already convinced my library to buy a copy of the Handheld Press edition so other Vancouver readers can enjoy it too – now I just need to secure my own for future rereadings.
Oh lovely! I just ordered a copy but nice to think VPL has too.
Hm… sounds like it has much in common with “Begin Again” by Ursula Orange…
An epistolary novel about bookselling — yep, that clinched it for me!
Sounds wonderful, Simon – seems to be having the ‘Miss Pettigrew’ effect with all the bloggers who’ve read it! :D
I really enjoyed this one too, Hilary is such an optimist, but not annoying (and optimists do annoy me sometimes). So lovely to have this delightful novel made available again.
This does sound like a fantastic book and a great discovery, deserving of a reprint.
But let me also admire the photo with a snuggly Hargreaves in your lap and that stack of books on the floor. Very cosy and also familiar!
I was charmed when I read about the relationship of the two authors who wrote this book together (using pen names). Later in life after Jane’s husband was killed in the war, She and Ann lived near one another in Hampshire and were close friends, known for their historical novels and campaigning for animal rights. Jane cared for Ann in her illness. Jane was also a pilot! I need to read more by and about these fascinating women!
The lending library aspect of the much missed H K Lewis on the corner of UCL was certainly functioning into the early 1980’s.
I have to read this, it’s all over the place. But it’s on my wishlist at the moment because … well, you’ve seen my Piles, right?
I preordered this one a few weeks ago and your review just makes me all the more eager to read it. Things feel so uncertain and grim these days with COVID-19 that I’m hungry for something delightful. This is NOT a time when I want to read dystopian fiction (actually, I never want to read dystopian fiction). Very much looking forward to the book’s arrival.
I just read, and very much enjoyed, the book, courtesy of the New York Public Library’s free “SimplyE” app. (Curiously, the NYPL doesn’t own a print copy of the book, but it does have it as an ebook; what would Hilary make of that?) Hilary’s description of her flat in Christchurch Street was so charming, it made me want to live there — or at least, it did until, out of idle curiosity, I took a look at some current London real estate listings. Have you seen what it costs to live in that neighborhood these days?