Heaven is Here

by Lucy Walker

To English Jeanie, heaven was the Wilstock farm in Western Australia. She had nowhere to clal home until she went to teach young Matt Wilstock the violin, and found a family - which included Hugh, handsome, dynamic, charming, a giant among men, but as his mother said, he could be as close as Napoleon's tomb!Jeanie could not stop herself falling in love with Hugh, but no one knew whether he noticed Jeanie, or if he loved Sophy, their friend and neighbour....

Genres: Romance

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Lucy Walker (1907–1987) was the most famous of a few pseudonyms used by Dorothy Lucie Sanders (née McClemans). She was born in Boulder, Western Australia, on 4 May 1907. Her father was of Irish stock, a minister of the Church of England. Her mother was from New Zealand. Dorothy began writing at an early age, despite her father’s scepticism about her ability.

A qualified teacher from Perth College (1928), she taught in state schools in Western Australia until 1936. She continued teaching later in London while her husband, a fellow school teacher whom she married in 1936, completed his doctorate in education.

They returned to Perth, Australia in 1938 but Dorothy Lucie Sanders only began her writing in 1945, producing articles, short stories, and later novels. In 1948 her first novel, Fairies on the Doorstep, was published.

As Lucy Walker, she wrote about 39 romance books:
Fairies On the Doorstep (1948)
Who Leaves the Crowd (1952)
The One Who Kisses (1954)
Sweet and Faraway (1955)
Come Home Dear (1956)
Heaven is Here (1957)
Master of Ransome (1958)
Kingdom of the heart (1959)
The Stranger from the North (1959)
Love in a Cloud (1960)
The Loving Heart (1960)
The Moonshiner (1961)
Wife to Order (1961)
The Distant Hills (1962)
Down in the Forest (1962)
The Call of the Pines (1963)
Follow Your Star (1963)
The Man from Outback (1964)
Reaching for the Stars (1964)
A Man Called Masters (1965)
The Other Girl (1965)
The Ranger in the Hills (1966)
The River Is Down (1967)
Home at Sundown (1968)
The Gone-Away Man (1969)
Shining River (1969)
Six for Heaven (1969)
Joyday for Jodi (1971)
The Bell Branch (1971)
The Mountain That Went to the Sea (1971)
Ribbons In Her Hair (1972)
Pepper Tree Bay (1972)
Pool of Dreams (1973)
Girl Alone (1973)
Monday in Summer (1973)
Runaway Girl (1975)
Gamma's Girl (1977)
So Much Love (1977)

These romance novels were very successful in Australia and overseas. The stories were meticulously researched; the writer travelled extensively in the Western Australian outback, recording details of scenery, personalities and social customs in her notebooks and diaries.

Other pseudonyms used by this author: Shelley Dean, Dorothy Lucie Sanders, and Lucy Walker.

Dorothy Lucie Sanders was widowed in 1986 and died the following year. Her daughter and two sons survived her.

Reviews

[Flo · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is hard to believe that Lucy Walker could write a lovely romance like Heaven is Here and some of her later badly written books as well. This one is so good with a different yet wonderful hero and a sweet but not too sweet heroine. Jean Bedford takes a job as violin teacher to Matt Wilstack, aged 12, the youngest Wilstack of the family. She becomes friendly with his mother as well as with his two older brothers, Anthony who is 20 years old and the boss of the family, Hugh Wilstack, a fiddle playing sheep station manager who barks orders at everyone and at Jean from day one of her job. But when he plays Jeannie with the Light Brown hair at a local party, it is obvious he is falling in love with Jean. Only she doesn't realize it for another 5 months. I enjoyed this book very much. Hugh is a doll. And a very pleasant surprise.

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet heroine (24) who wants to feel part of a family moves to a ranch to teach violin to the youngest son in a musical family. In this case the hero (30) is not one of the author’s shy and monosyllabic personas - but rather a jovial and confident chap who all the local ladies are lusting for. He spends any free time with his best friend Sophy who is outspoken, overly familiar and obsessed with golf. Apparently the hero knew he was in love with the heroine straight away, but didn’t think it odd to go off at any spare moment with the girl he has been paired off with for years. There is no courting whatsoever. Nethertheless it is quite a nice story, with a lovely ending - just somewhat lacking in romantic moments like most of Lucy Walker books tend to be.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is somewhat incomprehensible and the characters are difficult to understand and figure out. The main character Jean comes to an outback station to teach a young 12-year-old boy the violin but there’s no mention of any lessons throughout the entire book. The other characters are poorly defined and very vague as to what their motivations and thinking processes are. We know the Hugh is the big man and his brother Anthony is a little lost and met the youngest Matt has a gun. There is an over anxious helicopter mother who worries and makes cups of tea. That about sums it up.
Hugh, the hero says I love you but I have been very careful over the past several months to never let you know I found you interesting or attractive. I would rather spend time playing golf with another girl than give you the time of day. Jean tells him repeatedly to stop calling her Jeannie. I was blown away by the romance. Thankfully they did get together at the end of the book and it was not on the last page either they had a whole chapter or so for smooching.

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far a little hard to understand. Wording seems very busy. Feel like I’m missing what author is really trying to say. Does Hugh like Sophy… does she like him?

Jean travels to ranch to teach music to younger brother. She is attracted to his older brother Hugh but doesn’t think he notices her and loves Sophy.

Sophy was an odd character that was just in the background all of the time.

This is an older story so not sure if that’s the issue but I didn’t enjoy it until the last 2 chapters.

[Judith Byrne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heaven is here

Enjoyed this story,love how things happen in the Outback,always cooking and taking care of everything,while passion simmers,that in itself is a slice of heaven.

[Robin Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jean Bedford has traveled from Perth to the middle of nowhere to give violin lessons to young Matt Wilstack. Matt’s mother and older brother, Hugh, are both musically inclined, often playing at gatherings and parties, and Mrs. Wilstack hopes that with Jean’s help, Matt will begin to take an interest in his own musical studies.

Jean is just the violin teacher, and not meant to be household help, but she is unable to just lounge around and do nothing when not working with Matt. Good thing since, on the page at least, we rarely see any music lessons actually happening. Jean’s father is always traveling, and she has no mother, and the one thing she longs for more than anything else is a home full of people to love and be loved by. So she happily throws herself into the Wilstacks’ daily routines and helps out wherever she can.

The other two occupants of the home are the area’s most eligible bachelors, the self-proclaimed non-marrying Wilstacks, Hugh and Anthony. Hugh, as the oldest brother, runs the homestead, often barking out orders that everyone instantly follows with no hesitation. In fact Jean often fumes to herself that he never says please or thank you, and that everyone waits on him hand and foot, which he seems to accept as his right. For instance, he leaves his clothes on the bathroom floor, and she resolutely tells herself she will not pick them up, she’ll leave them until he picks them up himself, but then, realizing that Mrs. Wilstack will end up picking them up instead, she gives in and picks them up because she wants to do everything she can to make life easier for his mother.

Lucy Walker’s books are always delightful (except Girl Alone which I found somewhat boring and disappointing). They are always quaint, sweet romances, and I quite love her writing. They’re a bit old-fashioned (this one was first published in 1957), with passages like this:

So contrary is the heart of woman that now that Hugh had offered to help, Jean no longer wanted him to do it. It was true…the men worked terribly hard outside in the paddocks all day and at night Hugh came in and sat all hours doing the book management of the estate. Perhaps after all it had only been the “willingness” that she had wanted and not the actual “doing”.

Moreover, she had the woman’s natural instinct to help the man. She understood Mrs. Wilstack’s anxiety to do all for her sons. It satisfied a need within herself.

Despite that, Jean is a strong and modern feeling heroine, and I don’t think Lucy Walker’s books will ever get old.


For another good Walker book, I recommend Follow Your Star.

Review first posted on my blog.

[StMargarets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aww Jeanie with the light brown hair is such a great heroine. And the oldest brother who plays the fiddle, runs the station and is also a veterinarian is a great hero.

I loved that the heroine fit into the family so well. The author's descriptions of lazy Sundays and the endless cups of tea they all drank were so fun to read about. I felt like I was there.

The last chapter really brought this up from a four to five star rating. H/h were so hot for each other, heroine had to leave for two weeks so she didn't end up in his bedroom before the wedding. And then he left the station in the middle of a workday to bring her back. So sweet.

[D.D. Chant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favourite Lucy Walker, mainly because Huge is so lovely and because I like their first meeting. Jeanie is nice (if a little bossy to a guy who’s just put in a hard day’s work!) and I liked Anthony as well. I absolutely love it when Huge starts whistling ‘Jeanie with the light brown hair’ absent mindedly, too cute!