Have you every been in any of these situations?

• You have been upset by something of yours being damaged or lost, and the person responsible makes you feel you are overreacting because it was ‘only a thing’?
• It’s late, you really need to sleep, but people are making a noise and you know that if you say anything at all you will be cast as the dull person who is spoiling the party?
• There is something you want to do that you know is fair and reasonable, but you are reluctant to act because you know that if you do it you will be made to feel that you were acting unfairly and selfishly?

Situations like that are  at the heart of this book, and they are brilliantly portrayed 

Late in the summer of 1945, Miss Elinor MacFarren was living alone in her family home. She was middle aged – on the cusp of elderly – and she was content with her life. She followed in a family tradition of writing about botany, and she was respected in that field; and had a fine collection of botanical prints and antiques. It was because her finances were just a little stretched that she decided that it would be a good idea to rent out part of the house.

Mrs Antonia Bankes presented herself as the perfect tenant. She expressed warm admiration for the house and for Miss MacFarren’s lovely things and promised to love and care for them as she did; she said that, as the wife of an American with the occupation forces in Europe, she would be bringing little with her; and she professed a love of quiet domestic pursuits and housework. 

It seemed too good to be true – and it was!

Miss MacFarren found her hall full of packing cases a day before Mrs Bankes was due to move in; the next day a merry band of ladies came to help Mrs Bankes move in, and took over the ‘shared’ spare room; not long after that, before Miss MacFarren began to spot damages ….

Nothing in the landlady’s experience had equipped her to deal with such a tenant!

Mrs Bankes presented herself as being quite helpless, she was utterly charming, and she made promises that rang with sincerity. 

Miss MacFarren was confounded and exasperated!

The story follows her as she first tries to cope with the situation, then she tries to take control of the situation and finally tries to evict her nightmare tenant. It sounds simple – and it is and it isn’t – because the story is so cleverly plotted, because actions often had unexpected consequences, and because she learned a lot and changed somewhat as the result of her experiences.

As her antique dealer friend, Harriet, who had introduced Mrs Bankes when she though her one of her best customer and later learned that she was one of her worst, said:

“If you used to have one fault one tiny fault, my dear, it was that you were becoming – no let me say you were in danger of becoming smug. This Bankes situation has been a great ordeal, but its done you all the good in the world. It’s humanized you. It’s broadened your mind. You’re a far more adaptable woman the you were this time last year.”

The story is filled out by a fine and diverse supporting cast, including Mrs Manders, the daily help, who was charmed into doing a great deal of work for Mrs Bankes, until she buckled under the load; Dr Wilmot, who Miss MacFarren had thought of as a rival in her field but who became a good friend and co-conspirator; Mr Bankes, who won over Miss MacFarren with his wry acknowledgement of his wife’s ‘weaknesses’ and his genuine interest in her field; and Miss Maxine Albert, a friend of Miss MacFarren’s nephew who she took time to warm too but who would become her most valuable co-conspirator. 

Doris Langley Moore  wrote very well, she told an engaging, distinctive and unpredictable tale, but I have to address one concern.

A fox terrier appeared in the story, and the dog came to an unhappy end. It was signposted and it wasn’t gratuitously described, my problem was that  hardly anyone cared and those that did care weren’t as upset as that should have been.

That fixed my opinions of certain characters more that they should have been fixed, and it made me feel the lack of an emotional side to the story.

But Miss MacFarren was an unexpectedly wonderful heroine, and I was with her every step of the way.