{weekend words}

Women of all ages liked Winthrop Biddle - 'He's a great dear' was the expression they generally used - and he was devoted to the whole sex in the cosy way of an uncle who enjoys the confidence of a vast number of totally unrelated nieces. His feminine friends knew that he could be relied up to provide a lunch, a bed, sound advice, or a cast-iron alibi as required, and not to go in for jolly avuncular pouncings in taxis.

'Lunch with Mr. Biddle', 1940, in

Good Evening Mrs. Craven:

the Wartime Stories

of Mollie Panter-Downes

(Persephone Classics 2008)

I loved this book - review here.