Margery Sharp

“You can’t cheer a prisoner in the Black Castle,” said the old mouse. “But you can get him out,” said the chairwoman. The mice of the Prisoners’ Aid Society are determined to rescue a captive from the terrible Black Castle. So begins a mission to recruit the bravest mouse they can find, and Miss Bianca, the pet white mouse belonging to the Ambassador's son, is sent to Norway in search of such a hero – someone who can outwit the fearsome jailer and evade the jaws of his cruel cat. Someone who will risk life and whisker on the most dangerous and daring of adventures… Enchanting, magical, and filled with adventure, The Rescuers is a modern classic. NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE ‘A devastating mixture of magic and fantasy.’ Evening News

In 1930s France, a free-spirited mother undertakes to derail her very proper daughter’s engagement Julia Packett has barely laid eyes on her daughter, Susan, since leaving her with her well-heeled in-laws following the loss of her husband in World War I. Now thirty-seven, Julia’s lack of prospects hasn’t dimmed her spirit or her appetite for life. But when Susan asks her to come to France for the summer to persuade her grandmother to allow her to marry, she sets sail with the noblest intentions of acting the paragon of motherhood. At her mother-in-law’s vacation villa in Haute Savoie, however, Julia sees that her priggish but lovely daughter is completely mismatched with a man much more suited to herself: a charming, clever playboy. The arrival of Susan’s legal guardian, the distinguished Sir William Waring, further complicates the situation. Soon Julia’s efforts to pass herself off as a lady and secure her daughter’s happiness spin out of control, leading to romantic entanglements and madcap adventures that will challenge preconceived notions about the ultimate compatibility of any two people who fall in love.

An unconventional parlor maid upends the lives of an aristocratic family in prewar England Cluny Brown refuses to know her place in society. Last week, she took herself to tea at the Ritz. Then she spent almost an entire day in bed eating oranges. So, to teach her discipline, her uncle, a plumber who has raised the orphaned girl since she was a baby, sends her into service as a parlor maid at one of England’s stately manor houses. At Friars Carmel in Devonshire, Cluny meets her employers: Sir Henry, the quintessential country squire, and Lady Carmel, who oversees the management of her home with unruffled calm. Their son, Andrew, newly returned from abroad with a Polish émigré writer friend, is certain the country is once again on the brink of war. Then there’s Andrew’s beautiful fiancée and the priggish town pharmacist. While everyone around her struggles to keep pace with a rapidly changing world, Cluny continues to be Cluny, transforming those around her with her infectious zest for life. “An entertaining story of England just before the war . . . Top drawer reading.” —Kirkus Reviews

In 1950s London, a career girl decides it’s high time she snared herself a husband Professional dog photographer Louisa Datchett is indiscriminately fond of men. And they take shocking advantage of her good nature when they need their problems listened to, socks washed, prescriptions filled, or employment found. But by the age of thirty, Louisa is tired of constantly being dispatched to the scene of some masculine disaster. It’s all well and good to be an independent woman—and certainly better than a “timid Victorian wife”—but the time has come for her to marry, and marry well. With the admirable discipline and dedication she’s always displayed in any endeavor involving men, Louisa sets out on her own romantic quest.

A Jazz Age socialite impulsively adopts an orphaned boy in this humorous, heartwarming tale In 1929 London, twenty-eight-year-old Lesley Frewen lives a privileged, cultured life. But one thing is missing: love. When her aunt’s female companion suddenly dies, leaving behind a young son, Lesley decides on a whim to adopt four-year-old Patrick—though she doesn’t have any particular affection for children. As soon as Patrick moves in with her, Lesley gets to work using her connections to enroll him in the finest boys’ school. But she quickly discovers London is no place to raise a child, and they relocate to the tiny village of High Westover. The hamlet boasts a post office, a church, and a vicarage. There’s an apple orchard and children for Patrick to play with. However, the country comes with its own set of daunting challenges: Lesley can’t imagine how she’ll entertain her friends there! But ultimately life with Patrick will change her, bringing out her capacity to love and showing her the difference between pleasure and happiness.

Miss Bianca is a white mouse of great beauty and supreme self-confidence, who, courtesy of her excellent young friend, the ambassador's son, resides luxuriously in a porcelain pagoda painted with violets, primroses, and lilies of the valley. Miss Bianca would seem to be a pampered creature, and not, you would suppose, the mouse to dispatch on an especially challenging and extraordinarily perilous mission. However, it is precisely Miss Bianca that the Prisoners' Aid Society picks for the job of rescuing a Norwegian poet imprisoned in the legendarily dreadful Black Castle. Miss Bianca, after all, is a poet too, and in any case she is due to travel any day now to Norway. There Miss Bianca will be able to enlist one Nils, known to be the bravest mouse in the land, in a desperate and daring endeavor that will take them, along with their trusty companion Bernard, across turbulent seas and over the paws and under the maws of cats into one of the darkest places known to man or mouse. It will take everything they've got and a good deal more to escape with their own lives, not to mention the poet. Margery Sharp's classic tale of pluck, luck, and derring-do is amply and beautifully illustrated by the great Garth Williams.