My Turn to Make the Tea

Wherever her eye falls, it finds the exact, significant detail, and her ear for dialogue is unerring * Observer *
I envy anyone yet to discover the joy of Monica Dickens. She’s beady eyed, big hearted and blissfully funny – Nina Stibbe
One of the most affectionate and humorous observers of the English scene, particularly of the pretensions of genteel suburban life, that we have. Not only this, but she can always tell a good story – John Betjeman
Monica Dickens is an author who needs to be rediscovered in a modern age – Jacqui Howchin * Hunts Post *
Monica’s naked curiosity and general bolshiness are easy to identify with, and as a narrator she always tells us what we’re longing to know - it’s like listening to a friend’s anecdote, and egging them on – Lissa Evans

Monica Dickens MBE (1915-1992) was the great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens. Expelled from St Paul’s Girls’ School, she was then sent to a finishing school in France, before returning home to life as a debutante.

She then spent two years as a cook and general servant, which she wrote about in her first book, One Pair of Hands (1939). The book published when she was twenty-four, was a bestseller and established her reputation as a writer. During the Second World War, Dickens trained as a nurse and again successfully recounted her experiences in One Pair of Feet (1942).

In her career she wrote over fifty books for both adults and children, including the Follyfoot series. For twenty years, Dickens also wrote a much-loved column for Woman’s Own. She was involved with the NSPCC, the RSPCA and the Samaritans.

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