Celia's House: D.E. Stevenson

The old border mansion of Dunnian had sheltered generations of Dunnes for hundreds of years. Celia Dunne had inherited her house from her great-grand aunt who had lived in it and loved it for ninety years. Celia loved it just as passionately, conscious of its uniqueness. The story of the Dunnes is a portrait both cheerful and varied: parties and escapades among the young neighbours, schooldays, weddings, the birth of a new generation...with memorable characters such as Humphrey Dunne, a naval officer so often away but thankful that Dunnian sheltered his wife and children; Mark, the eldest of the family, serious and thoughtful; pretty Edith and Joyce; lively Billy, who followed his father into the Navy and Celia's special friend - and Celia herself, loyal and honest. There is Cousin Debbie and Becky and Johnson, the two old servants who had been with Miss Dunne and who had stayed on. A wonderful novel of human nature.