First of all, I've been revisiting my review of the Nancy Drew film , which should teach me not to comment on things I haven't read/seen, because I liked it despite my misgivings when I heard of the project... and the 'sympathetic' heroine's inadequacies made me quite see why it was forgettable. The only difference this time around was that I had to wait fo a bus after reading it, so I had to consider it

A Girl of Mettle: Frances West. Collins. Amazon dates this book at 1908 and 1922 - there's no indication which my copy is, or whether it was published at another time entirely. My research (Googling...getting in the way of the story, this book has a lot of charm, and I laughed out loud at some of the characters' escapades - particularly the local doctor's two young sons and their games. Fun, then

I am currently using a library to access the internet, because I have what feels like a backlog of reviews - I've been reading a lot over August, enjoying the time that my holidays have afforded me to...some nasty emotional cruelty, though the writer doesn't linger on it, before it all comes right in the end, in an appropriately 'romantic' way - to use one of the supporting characters' favourite word.

A Crime for Caroline: Pamela Mansbridge, Dent, 1962 'I don't want to be a woman police officer and I certainly don't want to be a store detective! I want to solve real crimes --nothing else. I want...I will be watching Veronica Mars too. An easy enough read, even if the criminal plot is immediately apparent, the take on village life from the young Lesters' perspective is interesting enough

Eek! It's a week since I scrawled the first version of this. Apologies for not typing and pasting it sooner. Apart from some transportation problems - a late bus here, me missing a train there - there...the character growth is a theme Pocock also looks at in 'Margery Finds Herself', which I own and read many, many years ago. A brief biog for DP can be found here and dates dates P, P at B at 1925