My Turn to Make the Tea

INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS

I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. Shes beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny NINA STIBBE

Wherever her eye falls, it finds the exact, significant detail, and her ear for dialogue is unerringOBSERVER

Monicas naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with LISSA EVANS

Poppy, newly recruited cub reporter at the Downingham Post, is determined to prove to the editor that hes wrong in his belief that Women are a nuisance in the office. He certainly doesnt think shes a nuisance when its time for the tea round - a job which never fails to fall to the only female reporter.

What Poppy lacks in experience, she makes up for in spirit and ambition. Shell make the Downingham Post the best regional newspaper there is - even if she occasionally gets the names wrong in court hearings. Life for a single professional woman in the post-war years certainly has its challenges - from finding a room, when the tyrannical landlady doesnt consider Poppy to be quite respectable to changing her editors deeply entrenched ways. This semi-autobiographical novel, recounted with Monica Dickenss wit, warmth and wry observation will charm all who read it.

If you enjoyed My Turn to Make the Tea, you will love One Pair of Feet, Dickenss novel of being a wartime trainee nurse, also published in Virago Modern Classics.