Alice Gedge is a Treasure.

Once a lady’s maid, then, during WWI, a supervisor in the Ministry of Pensions, she is now housekeeper, cook and friend to the tenants of the flats in Alfred House in Silver Street.  Here live welfare worker Miss Snow, librarian Vera and writer Beatrix, the incompatible newly married couple, the young barrister and the Government official.

And not far away, in Tufnell Road, is Alice’s own family: Thomas, her lazy husband, and her children, clever Dulcie and street smart Len.  

This intricate and satisfying novel, linking together such disparate lives, is set in London between the wars, from the Armistice in 1918 to Armistice Day in 1932. 

Originally published in 1935