Burlington Square

by Laurence Meynell

It was the halycon days of 1910 in fashionable Brightsea. To the serene seclusion of Burlington Square came Virginia Dillon-Stuart, formerly Countess Carweston, a much-married, outspoken and spirited woman who both astounded and intrigued the staid inhabitants of the Square with her cigarette smoking, trouser wearing and the suggestion of scandal that surrounded her. Mrs. Dillon-Stuart's impact on the residents of the Square, and theirs of her, was immediate.

Ivor Pelham Standish of Number Four prided himself on being a well-preserved fifty. He had not looked at another woman since the death of his beloved wife in childbirth but Mrs. Dillon-Stuart stirred a half-realized old desire. Mr. Ivor Pelham Standish found himself shining his shoes to a brighter polish.

For Colin Standish, seventeen and a budding socialist, the lady was a disconcerting presence.

And to Dorothy Lefanu, the Square's number one busybody, Mrs. Dillon-Stuart was nothing short of outrageous.

The newcomer at Number Five despite or perhaps because of the fact that she's approaching forty promptly fell in love with the young Colin. He was as he put it, too young and not interested. So Mrs. Dillon-Stuart must look elsewhere to remedy the loneliness that beset her.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Born in 1899, in Wolverhampton, Laurence Walter Meynell was the son of Herbert Meynell, chairman of Meynell and Sons Ltd., and his wife Agnes. He was educated at St. Edmund's College in Ware, Hertfordshire, and served in the artillery in WWI. He worked for an estate agency, and as a teacher, before his first novel, Mockbeggar, won a competition run by the publishers Harrap in 1924, and he turned to writing as a career. Meynell also worked as an editor, beginning in the 1950s, for the Bodley Head, and for Time and Tide. He was married twice, to novelist Shirley Darbyshire, and to Joan Belfrage, and had one daughter. He died in 1989.

Meynell is primarily remembered for his crime fiction, much of it published under his own name, but he also published children's fiction under the pseudonyms A. Stephen Tring and Valerie Baxter. He also used the pseudonyms Robert Eton and Geoffrey Ludlow.