Mariana, my second book by Monica Dickens, is a much loved book and perhaps the one she is quite famous for. It gives an honest and extremely funny portrayal of the life ‘upstairs and downstairs’ in an English household.

I loved One Pair of Hands (which made it to my list of favourite books of 2016), a semi autobiographical story of the time Monica worked as a cook. I remember smiling to myself thinking readers might think that she is related to Charles Dickens, later to get my facts straight that she is indeed the great grand daughter of Charles Dickens. My first tryst with Monica Dickens was when I happened to find a copy of One Pair of Hands and the surname Dickens caught my eye.

Now a freelance journalist, Harriet Lane worked as a reporter and columnist for the London Observer.Mariana by Monica Dickens is a coming of age story set in England and a pursuit of love and happiness. She was an active humanitarian and is the author of numerous novels and children's books. Her father was Henry Charles Dickens, the eighth son of Charles Dickens. Monica Dickens was born in London in 1915. This, and her work as a cook and servant, informed much of her writing. Despite her privileged upbringing, Dickens volunteered in the service and worked in an aircraft factory repairing Spitfire fighters. She was an active humanitarian and is the author of numerous novels and children’s books.

She wondered whether they had gone through these pangs before they bobbed it, or whether their husbands had laughingly clapped a basin over their heads one fine Putney day and run a pair of scissors round as casually as they would trim a garden hedge. A bestseller in its time, Mariana is the often-comical story of a typical English girl growing up in the 1930s.Ī lively young woman who has no idea what to do with her life, Mary is often at loose but happy ends: going to school and vacationing in Kensington a hilarious failed attempt at drama school a year in Paris learning dressmaking and getting engaged to the wrong man and finally her romance with the right man. Monica Dickens, the great granddaughter of Charles Dickens, published Mariana in 1940 when she was only twenty-four years old. This book is written with verve and exuberance.”- The Sunday Telegraph

Mariana by monica dickens