Title: Honey for Tea
Author: Elizabeth Cadell
Date: 1962
Publisher: William Morrow
ISBN: none
Length: 190 pages
Quote: “‘Has anybody proposed to you?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘And you
said?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why? Are you sure you’re not leaving it too long? You’re going on
for twenty-five.’”
During the years when Elizabeth Cadell was one of Britain’s
most successful authors of young adult novels, that was about all teen readers
expected in the way of a plot, although the blurbs promised parents that her
stories also delivered “a proper moral at the end.” Nobody expects Jendy, the
sister who’s going on for twenty-five, or Nancy, twenty-seven, to have serious
life goals other than marrying suitable property owners. They’re reasonably
attractive upper-middle-class young women, and they’re in England, so what else
would they do? The question is whom they’ll marry.
Moral? In 1962, it counted as a moral if the heroine doesn’t
sleep around and thus gets married at the end, but Honey for Tea offers more in the way of a moral than that. In the
course of this story the Marsh sisters and their aunt, who frets about not
having a male heir, discover a lovable relative who’s been cheated in many ways
because his parents weren’t Properly Married, and bring him around to the idea
of “settling” into a proper house and marriage.
None of Cadell’s novels was ever a great favorite of mine, but
novels aren’t my favorite kind of books anyway; a lot of people all around the
world enjoyed them as new books, and they’ll certainly enliven any time of
predictable boredom, commuting, convalescence, etc. These days, they’re even a
nice nostalgia trip for baby-boomers, or a pain-free history lesson for
the younger generation.
And are they ever increasing in value as the original library copies begin to wear out. Check out those Amazon prices! What I physically own is a hardcover library copy, which I'll physically sell for less than $95, but if you want a hardcover copy that's where the prices start. If you just want to read the story, send $25 per book + $5 per package for the paperback edition. (As always, the $5 shipping charge covers as many books as fit into the package--one to three more of this approximate size.)
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