If you read my last review, you will know how much I loved Dorothy Lambert’s All I Desire (1936). It was such an easy book to love. The epitome of a gentle read. When I picked up Scotch Mist (1936), I was hoping for more of the same. I’m happy to report, I found Scotch Mist to be even more delightful. Not only does it contain the same sharp, witty dialogue that can be found in All I Desire, it also has many beautiful descriptions of the Scottish Highlands. In my review of All I Desire I compared Lambert’s writing to Molly Clavering, and if anything Scotch Mist is an even closer match to Clavering’s books. I’m most eager to pick up my third Lambert. But first, let me tell you about my newest favourite title from Dean Street Press, Scotch Mist.
Thirty-four year old Alison lives with her friend Jane in a London apartment. Jane is an architect and Alison is a designer/artist. Together, they run a reasonably successful interior design company. It’s not been easy work. The women used to do the practical side of the business themselves, the painting, wallpapering, etc., but more recently they have been able to focus their efforts on the management and design side of things.
There are only two clouds in the sky—but they are dark ones—and that is Alison’s mother and sister, who keep showing up uninvited to the women’s apartment and sponging off of Alison. Lady Caroline and her daughter Pamela fancy themselves part of the leisured class without actually having the money to carry it off. So when Alison manages to get her mother and sister off her hands, Jane encourages her to take a holiday. She loads up the car with practical clothes, brushes, paint, and canvas, and heads off to the Scottish Highlands in search of artistic inspiration and adventure.
When the mist lifts, Alison is surrounded by stunningly beautiful views, a handsome laird, who will whisk her off her feet—if she lets him—and his timeworn ancestral home turned hotel, just waiting for the right decorator to bring it back to life.
On her first night at Glenlochart House she happens to be the only guest. To make certain that both the prickly housekeeper, Mrs. McCaig, who doesn’t approve of single ladies staying in a bachelor establishment, and the laird, Neil McPherson, know she isn’t a single lady on the lookout, she dresses accordingly.
[S]he attired herself in the form of evening dress that she and Jane had adopted when, in their professional capacity, they stayed in the houses they were engaged in decorating, or when they attended dinners or “At Homes” in the course of their career, which they took very seriously. It was something of a pose and an excellent advertisement. (34)*
When she comes down to dinner, Neil is astute enough to understand the gesture Alison is making with her outfit of “well-cut black velvet dinnerjacket and pleated white silk shirt worn with a neat black tie and straight close-fitting skirt to her ankles” (35). But if Alison is trying to disguise her femininity with a more masculine outfit than an ordinary evening dress, the outfit is a failure.
[H]e realised that with all her suggestion of masculine severity she conveyed also a feminine hint of allure that was probably quite unconscious on her part, for her intention was quite obviously to submerge the fact of her sex in a display of independence and claim for sex-equality. (35)
Ultimately, Neil decides she is more striking in this outfit than she would be in an “ordinary evening frock, and the hint of feminine vanity was provocative and disturbing” (35-36).
Neil is impressed by Alison, and she is not blind to his attractions, as she notices him from their first meeting on the misty moors, but they both keep their distance on this first evening. So perhaps Alison’s outfit has the desired effect, after all. But there is an instant connection between the two, an unsaid appreciation that gives the reader hope the two will find love despite not acknowledging to themselves they desire it. There is an occurrence early on when the housekeeper refers to Alison as “yon spinster body”, which at first Alison laughs at, but when Neil, finding it funny, casually repeats the remark, Alison is quietly hurt (40). Spinster is a name she can revel in as long as she doesn’t feel she is the butt of a joke.
Early on in the novel, Neil and Alison go for a walk over the high moors behind the house. Alison admires the views, mapping out plans for which ones she will paint, which is the purpose of her trip, to make paintings Jane and her will sell to their interior design clients, and be able to afford to stay in “this paradise” (43). Her silence provides Neil with opportunity to observe her unnoticed.
It was rough going, steep glens to scramble down and climb up, rocks to surmount, and finally the long slope down to the road again. Alison was a good walker. She had a swinging stride that crossed the moorland with ease. She was part of it all. Her tweed skirt was sensible, and she wore a gay Fair Isle jumper, for the wind was keen in spite of the sunshine. The sun glinted on her red-gold hair, ruffled by the wind, and she was flushed and eager-looking and feminine, and more attractive than Neil thought possible. (44)
I believe it is in this moment that Neil falls in love with Alison. She moves across the moors “with ease” and she is “part of it all”. She fits. With her sensible clothes and flushed face, she suits the place. I think the deeper meaning behind this passage is that Neil not only finds her attractive in this setting, but as we are first introduced to him on the moors “coming out of the mist so suddenly”, he is part of the landscape, too (29). They both fit. And if they both fit the landscape belonging to Neil’s ancestral home, it isn’t much of a stretch to see that the two will fit each other, too.
But as Shakespeare so aptly wrote, “the course of true love never did run smooth”, and there are a number of misunderstandings and distractions to keep the two apart. This book is full of characters that are intended to make you laugh and to highlight how much of a catch both Alison and Neil are.
On Alison’s second day at Glenlochart House, a father and son arrive for the fishing, as the clientele at this hotel generally do. Andrew Tosh and his son Roddy are so abysmal that when they showed up I knew Alison’s mother and sister were bound to descend on Glenlochart House eventually, too. In a letter to Jane, Alison describes the Toshes as such:
‘Two simply dreadful people arrived this afternoon, father and son. I’ve hardly spoken to the old man, but he offered me champagne, unless I could suggest something better. By that time, however, I had had more than enough of Roddy (the son), a terrible young man who tells one about all his wealth and what he does with it.’ (71)
They sound like the perfect pair for Lady Caroline and Pamela. Pamela’s cruise has fallen through when she is forced to quarantine because one of her party contracts measles and she winds up destitute at Jane and Alison’s apartment. Lo and behold, Pamela winds up reading the letter Alison has written to Jane. The Highlands sound like the perfect place to quarantine, not that Pamela has any other option, but to follow Alison to Scotland, when Jane throws her out. I won’t go into how Lady Caroline winds up on the doorstep of Glenlochart House too, as the circumstances are much too crazy to be explained succinctly. Besides, experiencing the whole insane situation first hand as it plays out is much more fun. Lambert’s flair for situational humour is just one of the aspects of her writing that make this book a delight from start to finish.
To close, I want to share what is my favourite passage from the book. More than the descriptions of nature, the witty banter, the funny situations, I love this part because it captures something I have felt myself.
The wonder of the hours on the loch would be the most beautiful memory of her life, so beautiful to be almost a pain. That was how she always felt about beauty. The possibility of happiness she had never considered. (208)
Thank you to Dean Street Press for kindly sending me a copy of Scotch Mist for review. As always, all opinions on the book are my own.
My review of Dorothy Lampert’s Staying Put (1941), will be posted in a couple of days. Hope to see you then! In the meantime, it’s not too late to preorder your copy of Scotch Mist. Scotch Mist, All I Desire, Staying Put, and Harvest Home are being republished under Dean Street Press's Furrowed Middlebrow imprint on 1 July 2026.
*All page numbers are from the ebook and may not correspond to the paperback edition.
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