We chose this 1937 cotton printed dress fabric, made for the Calico Printers Association, because the fairy tale element of the ''Masqueraders' (as the fabric is called) suited Lady Rose so admirably, hinging as it does on themes of discguise and changed identity. And the flower in the frieze might be roses.

224p PERSEPHONE BOOKS ISBN 1903155436
PREFACE BY CANDIA MCWILLIAM

Like Miss Pettigrew, this 1937 novel is a fairy tale for grown-ups, but one 'with an uneasy crash into social reality.' Lady Rose Targenet, later created the Countess of Lochlule, marries Sir Hector, owner of the estate next to 'Keepsfield', the palatial Scottish mansion where she lives. But one day she meets someone on a park bench in Edinburgh... 'It's a little book about dreams and the hard world of money and position and their relations to one another. It's also a love story and a love letter - to Scotland' (Candia McWilliam). The Guardian called Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary 'a curious, affecting confection of high Scots romance and social realism.' It was a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother.

 

Hopetoun House, South Queensferry near Edinburgh. 'Keepsfield', the house in the book, is obviously not a 'real' house; but Hopetoun bears many similarities to it.