I accidentally read Mrs. Tim Gets a Job first, but when I discovered it was third in a series, I decided to read the rest in order. Mrs. Tim of the Regiment is the first.
Hester Christie (Mrs. Tim—I didn’t discover her first name until I read this book) leads an active and happy life where her husband’s Scottish regiment is based in Southern England. However, her life is upended when her husband is temporarily transferred to Westburgh, Scotland. She must find a house, move, and then try to create a new social life. She feels especially close to her neighbor, Mrs. Loudon.
It isn’t long, though, before her husband gets his majority, which means they must move right back to where the regiment is stationed. Tim is sent back almost immediately, while Mrs. Tim prepares for the move. Before she leaves, though, she is invited to see the real Scotland by staying with Mrs. Loudon farther north.
At first, with its diary entry format, this novel was so full of little everyday events that, even though amusing, it began to seem too like the Provincial woman series. However, it eventually develops more of a plot, in particular, Hester’s attempts to help Mrs. Loudon, whose son Guthrie has fallen for an unsuitable young lady.
Although written in 1940, Mrs. Tim of the Regiment is set earlier. The exact year isn’t stated, but the soldiers all have relatively recent memories of World War I. This is a charming novel, although it does have some snobbery toward some wealthy acquaintances. However, Hester is a lively, likable heroine.
What? Me Read? 
Sounds cute…
I’m ashamed to say I hadn’t realised DE Stevenson was Scottish – must give her a try!
She’s very light.
I loved this although I read it just around having an operation and it got blanked out of my mind! https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/book-reviews-mark-ellen-rock-stars-stole-my-life-and-d-e-stevenson-mrs-tim-of-the-regiment-plus/ I have read all the sequels from Dean Street Press, too. A lovely series.
I have only read this one and Mrs. Tim Gets a Job.
I got the Mrs. Tim quartet a little while ago, and just finished a couple days ago.
I found it a comfortable, engaging read. Although I thought her husband was rather boorish in the first novel, he matures as the novels progress, and Hester joins the ranks of literary “excellent women”–they seem to be a staple of the novels of that era.
As I read more about the novel, I learned that Steveson had originally written this as two novels–“Mrs. Tim’s Regiment” and “Golden Days.” I think this explained –for me, at least–why the tangled romance seemed tacked on. There’s nothing about it for so long, and then, suddenly, there it is in the last half of the book. I figured that last half must have been published as “Golden Days.”
The others in the series are just as enjoyable.
I actually don’t remember her husband being in much of the first novel. I read that, too, in fact, just the other day in the back of a Furrowed MIddlebrow book.