Share a Shelfie

If, for some terrible reason, I had to choose to keep the books of just one of the authors I collect, without a shadow of a doubt I would select Dorita Fairlie Bruce. That’s not to say that I like all of her books more than any of those by any other author I collect. I would be devastated to lose some of LM Montgomery’s, the early Chalet School books, many by Mabel Esther Allan, and my collection of career novels. But so many of Dorita Fairlie Bruce’s are favourites that they’d have to stay.

Like many people, I was introduced to DFB through the Dimsie books – and the kindness of the late Janet Stow. Mum bought me a few books from her and she threw in some fairly beat-up Dimsie stories as she thought I might enjoy them. And I did. So much that I began collecting the author. At that stage in my life, though, I was still attempting to complete my Chalet School collection and everything else was taking a back seat. But I read and re-read Dimsie, found a couple of the Springdale books in my school library and picked up others whilst searching charity shops and secondhand bookshops for the last few elusive Chalets.

I enjoyed the Dimsie series a lot, and was intrigued by the books’ very definite old-fashionedness, something that didn’t strike me quite as forcibly with the Chalet School or even the rest of DFB’s books when I found them. Even yet, Dimsie feels much more of a different era than Nancy or Springdale or the Colmskirk books. I read many of Dorita’s books for the first time as a teenager or when I was in my early twenties. So perhaps it’s not surprising that my favourites are those books that feature characters of the same age. As you already know, Nancy Calls the Tune and The Serendipity Shop are stand-out titles for me, but I also like Dimsie Grows Up and Dimsie Carries On, the latter featuring as young adults Anne and Primula Mary from the Springdale books.

And what do all those books have in common? Yes, they’re set in Scotland. A Scotland that is described as a real place populated by normal everyday people rather than an exotic outpost of Great Britain or a romantic misty place stuck in some imagined history! I’m more sanguine about the depiction of my country now but thirty or forty years ago some of the stereotypes of people and place drove me mad!

I’m an east-coaster through and through but I have a soft spot for Largs which DFB renamed twice as Redchurch and Colmskirk and so when I embarked on my only piece of fan fiction to date, I chose it as a setting. You can read my attempts here:

https://picturesandconversations.co.uk/2020/08/29/some-fan-fiction/ https://picturesandconversations.co.uk/2020/08/30/some-further-thoughts-on-dfb/ 

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