It is young Helen Moore’s first taste of living away from home, working in a seaside guesthouse in Bridlington and gaining some domestic experience.  There is Dan, the handsome fisherman son of the proprietor, and James, the quiet guest who is writing a book about local working people.  Helen soon gets drafted in to help with this book, and meets all sorts of interesting local people, many of whom lead very hard lives.  Things take a turn for the worse when she is wrongfully accused of stealing some diamond jewelry, and has to prove her innocence or get sent to jail.

This is a gentle but involving story about life in a seaside town in the late 19th century.  Helen’s position as a trainee housekeeper in a boarding house run by an independent looks towards the next century of working women who are not in service, and the traditional lives of the fisher folk who are threatened by progress.  Anybody hoping for romance might be disappointed, however, as this all rather takes a back seat with the various plot strands, but I personally was enjoying it all so much I didn’t truly mind.  In a novel set at a time when social and scientific development was set to sweep away many ancient traditions forever, Helen’s determination to avoid the path of other women is more central to the tale than falling helplessly in love.  I was impressed by the great feeling of the time and place; this is a novel with plenty of local color and a great sense of the period.  I will be seeking out more from this author.