My Turn to Make the Tea: 'I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens ... she's blissfully funny' Nina Stibbe

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INTRODUCED BY LISSA EVANS 'I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She's 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 unerring' OBSERVER 'Monica's 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 he's wrong in his belief that 'Women are a nuisance in the office'. He certainly doesn't think she's a nuisance when it's 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. She'll 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 doesn't consider Poppy to be quite respectable to changing her editor's deeply entrenched ways. This semi-autobiographical novel, recounted with Monica Dickens's 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, Dickens's novel of being a wartime trainee nurse, also published in Virago Modern Classics.

Monica Dickens MBE (1915-1992) was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Expelled from St Paul's Girls' School, she was then sent to a finishing school in France, before returning home to life as a debutante. She then spent two years as a cook and general servant, which she wrote about in her first book, One Pair of Hands (1939). The book published when she was twenty-four, was a bestseller and established her reputation as a writer. During the Second World War, Dickens trained as a nurse and again successfully recounted her experiences in One Pair of Feet (1942). In her career she wrote over fifty books for both adults and children including the Follyfoot series. For twenty years, Dickens also wrote a much-loved column for Woman's Own. She was involved with the NSPCC, the RSPCA and the Samaritans.

Wherever her eye falls, it finds the exact, significant detail, and her ear for dialogue is unerring * Observer * I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She's beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny -- Nina Stibbe One of the most affectionate and humorous observers of the English scene, particularly of the pretensions of genteel suburban life, that we have. Not only this, but she can always tell a good story -- John Betjeman Monica Dickens is an author who needs to be rediscovered in a modern age -- Jacqui Howchin * Hunts Post * Monica's naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with, and as a narrator she always tells us what we're longing to know - it's like listening to a friend's anecdote, and egging them on -- Lissa Evans