One Fine Day

The poignant classic for fans of A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY

By: Mollie Panter-Downes

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Paperback | 2 September 2025 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
208 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.8 x 12.6 x 1.6

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'As profound as Katherine Mansfield, restrained as Jane Austen, sharp as Dorothy Parker' Independent

INTRODUCED BY NICOLA BEAUMAN

The lark rose in the brilliant air, higher, higher on its spun-glass spiral of song, knowing nothing of peace or war, accepting joyously the bounty of another day.

A hot summer's day in 1946. The village of Wealding is no longer troubled by distant sirens, yet the rusting coils of barbed wire are a reminder that something, some quality of life, has evaporated. Together again after years of separation, Laura and Stephen Marshall must find their way in an altered, shabbier world. Their rambling garden refuses to be tamed, the house seems perceptibly to crumble. Hour by hour, as the glorious weather holds, the Marshalls and their daughter Victoria are preoccupied by the small pleasures and irritations of everyday life. But alone on a hillside, as evening falls, Laura comes to see how much could have been lost - and how much the future might still hold.

Exquisitely written and achingly poignant, One Fine Day is an unforgettable portrait of a world, and a marriage, changed forever by war - perfect for fans of Small Pleasures and A Month in the Country.

About the Author

Mary Patricia (1906-1997) was a novelist and newspaper columnist for The New Yorker. Aged sixteen, she wrote The Shoreless Sea which became a bestseller; eight editions were published in 1923 and 1924, and the book was serialised in The Daily Mirror. Her second novel The Chase was published in 1925. Her selected works include My Husband Simon (1931), One Fine Day (1947) and Good Evening, Mrs Craven.

Industry Reviews

As profound as Katherine Mansfield, restrained as Jane Austen, sharp as Dorothy Parker . . . Its unity and perfect limpid tone convey not only a world on the point of being lost but also the radiant relief of coming through the war - Independent

One of the most influential in the small band of journalists who, in the late thirties and early forties, transformed The New Yorker's absorption with the Dubuque-denying, lighthearted world of Manhattan into a recognition of the dark, dangerous world outside....A wonderfully clear writer - New Yorker

An unerring observer, with a stunning gift for economy of description; with a few strokes of her pen she could summon a vivid sense of the odd effects of war or display her gift for elucidating what is eternal in human relationships - The Times

As with the very best modern fiction, [Panter-Downes] doesn't invent, but rather frames reality in new ways. . . A writer who makes searingly accurate yet poignantly subtle observations about human beings and how they deal with life - Guardian

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