Susan's Kind Heart

Susan’s Kind Heart brings Susan and her cousins Midge and Charlotte Carmichael to France, in the optimistic hope that this will improve their French. Being Susan, she is no sooner arrived than she begins interfering in everyone’s lives, including their hostess’s.

The village of Kerdic on the north coast of Brittany will be known already to Jane Shaw fans, as it features under various names in her first book, Breton Holiday, as well as Twopence Coloured and The Moochers Abroad. Here, in its final appearance in her work, it remains as charming as ever. Jane Shaw herself, along with a cousin, spent a summer in the real chateau in Binic before the Second World War, and the holiday activities of Susan and her cousins mirror her experiences three decades before. Apart from the breath-taking plot, the book perfectly conveys all the pleasures of an endless sunny summer, with bathes, walks and just sitting around talking and singing.

As well as these more usual holiday activities, Susan is fully occupied with bestowing happy endings on everyone – except, of course, for the suave smuggler, who gets his come-uppance in the final exciting pages.