Early to Bed

By Anne Piper

Perhaps Jenny was rather flighty, but as she says, she “married most of them in the end.”

Jenny never realised she was beautiful until the fascinating Jack told her so, and kept painting her, and made life altogether brighter and merrier.

He was not the only man who wanted to look after her (though she was perfectly capable of looking after herself)-a Welshman marries her, a French sailor woos her, a Commander, a Colonel-but not so very many really, and after all Jenny is a lot better than a good few people you meet, and not always in books.

It’s easy to see why people grow fond of Jenny. And there are other likeable people in the story, Betsy and Mrs. Higgins, for instance; the picturesque figures she keeps house for in France; a bear, a monkey, and of course Jack.

Early To Bed is an unconventional romance-but a good old-fashioned title, and an old-fashioned ending too.

Anne Piper has been a land-girl and a despatch rider; she worked in a canteen in Burma during the war, after spending some time in India with the Ministry of Information. She met her husband when they were both acting in a play at Cambridge before the war. Anne Piper died at the age of 96 following an energetic and full life. She is survived by her four children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. This was her first book.