90: Table Two - Marjorie Wilenski
A bit of a curiosity, but this was interesting for the fact that it was was published in 1942 and clearly written by someone living through the London Blitz - it was her only book, too.
In the 'Ministry of Foreign Intelligence' in Lincoln's Inn Fields, an unlikely assortment of women work as translators, the staff of the titular Table Two. Graceless, discontented Elsie Pearne has spent her life striving to succeed and coping with disappointment, and now, at 48, broodingly resents her lowly position on Table Two. When a pretty youngster, Anne, joins the staff, Elsie begins to hope she might finally make a friend. But her own difficult character and ingrained bitterness put problems in her own path.
This is quite an inconsequential book in terms of plot - there really isn't much - and I think we're supposed to admire the heroine, bright and plucky Anne, who's from a 'good' family and had to suffer through the horror of moving to a smaller house in the village when the manor had to be sold (and, when she comes to London, gets a room with an old family retainer who cooks all her meals and sees to her every need).
The real interest, and pathos, is in Elsie, a hugely capable woman who's fallen down the career ladder as she ages, is facing a lonely and frightening future with no financial security, and can't see any way to break out of her own isolation. Together with vivid descriptions of daily life in bombed-out London, this kept me reading.
Incidentally, Barbara Pym records in her diary that she was reading this novel in 1943 but frustratingly she didn't go on to say what she thought of it. I'd have been interested to know...!