Shelf Control #167: Jane’s Parlour by O. Douglas

Wednesday, the 5th of January, and time for Shelf Control once again, the first one of 2022! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!

Today’s pick is Jane’s Parlour (1937) by O Douglas. O Douglas was the pen name of Anna Masterson Buchan. Anna Masterson Buchan was an English author who wrote under the penname O Douglas. Her writing career began in 1911, and she went on to write 12 novels and also an autobiography. She also wrote a memoir of her brother, the more prolific author, and also statesman John Buchan. O. Douglas’ books are described as gentle domestic fiction and are usually set around the lives of families in Scotland.

O. Douglas was not an author I’d come across before and only recently (over the last year) discovered her from posts by Arpita of A Bag Full of Books on her instagram page (here) and also another instagram page, OldBookDreamer. The books looked and sounded charming, and I simply had to try one. So I downloaded a couple in public domain via fadedpage. Jane’s Parlour, published in 1937, seems typically to fit the description of her books I read. It is set in Scotland, and focuses in events of everyday life. It is a tale of countryfolk between the wars, of their families and friends. Jane’s Parlour is a ‘sanctum’ to which Katherine, wife and mother of five, retreats for some peace and quiet.

This sounds like a pleasant and gentle read, and the kind I would enjoy very much, but only when writing this post did I realise that this is a later instalment in a series of books, so I’ll probably look up the first two or read the other O. Douglas I downloaded before getting to this one.

Have you read any books by Anne Buchan/O. Douglas? Which ones and how did you find them? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!

Cover image and book description from Goodreads as is the author info (here)

Lisa’s pick this week is Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer, the first of a scifi series.

Advertisement