The Gossip Shop

In the English village of Wendlebury, a steady stream of ladies visit Miss Dickson’s front room. Poor Miss Dickson has been an invalid for years and relies on the village women to keep her posted on the life going on outside her parlor walls, and the ladies gladly oblige. But when a chance remark about the young architect Maurice Unwin—told over Miss Dickson’s delicious tea and cakes—is repeated and embellished, the tale takes on a life of its own. Soon everyone in Wendlebury is talking about Mr. Unwin, and no one, including Mr. Unwin, can foresee the consequences.


First published in 1917, this edition of The Gossip Shop includes a biography of the author.