Last Christmas I started watching Hallmark movies. They are rather formulaic, but they are sweet, clean, and have predictable outcomes. With all of the crazy happening in the world, Hallmark was just what I needed, at least for awhile. And I know I am not alone.
Then just the other day I came across a new author—Ann Masterton Buchan, who wrote under the pen name O. Douglas. Ann was Scottish, the daughter of minister, and lived her life—as her books portrayed—in small villages. When I read a particular quote from one of her books, the words jumped off the page at me:
“This is a book about good, gentle, scrupulous people who live on the bright side of life.”
That was it exactly! That’s what I needed: kind, positive, striving, not necessarily always sunny, but always true literature. As it happens, there is quite few wonderful books written by Ann Buchan and others like her. Many are in the public domain, free for the asking, but the world seems to have forgotten these beautiful books written by lovely souls.
Take a walk with me back a generation or two and let’s rediscover the wonderful literature created by extraordinary women who were courageous, educated, loved beauty, and saw the world truly.