Comfortable little novellas are Alexander McCall Smith’s
stock in trade. He has hit the bestseller list with almost
everything he’s ever written. Most famous for his No. 1
Ladies’ Detective Agency series and his insightful and
bemusing Edinburgh stories about 44 Scotland Street and Isabel
Dalhousie, this most recent work is a stand-alone title taking
place in a new era and setting.

LA’S ORCHESTRA SAVES THE WORLD takes place in East Anglia,
England, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. Lavender (aka
La) Stone, a recent and promising music major graduate of
Cambridge, lives in London with her new husband, Richard, whose
father owns a French winery. Unfortunately, their marriage falls
apart when he runs off to France with another woman, and
Richard’s parents, humiliated by his mistreatment of La, vow
to make certain that she is well cared for by giving her their
country house in a tiny rural Suffolk village.

As the war intensifies, rumors are rampant of the pending German
invasion, so La is resigned to living a two-hour drive far from her
native London. She misses her circle of friends and the theater
scene, but resigns herself to fixing up the old farmhouse and
planting a garden. Adjusting to the country life and making new
friends with the insular residents of the surrounding farms nearly
drives her to moving back to London despite the growing threat of
war.

When the bombs start to fall in London and the number of sorties
of British and German war planes crossing the channel grows, La is
no longer able to seclude herself in her safe haven. She decides to
throw herself into the war effort by planting a victory garden and
enlisting in the volunteer Women’s Land Army as a farmhand,
the only job suitable for rural women. La finds herself helping an
arthritic chicken farmer by cleaning the coops and gathering
eggs.

A nearby Royal Air Force base brings hundreds of airmen into the
area. Morale is low due to high casualties and fierce fighting with
the Nazis early in the war, persuading La to form an orchestra
among the servicemen and local residents in order to raise their
spirits. Civilians from nearby Bury soon join in, and a ragtag
orchestra of musicians of vastly different levels of ability is
formed.

Joining the war effort is a handsome young Polish officer, a war
refugee staying at the British base. He goes to work at a farm near
La, where he learns of the orchestra. His inclusion in the story
sparks a subplot in which La suspects that everything is not quite
above board with the Polish airman, a suspicion that is shared by
her neighbors. Even though she is attracted to him, she has reason
to believe that he may not be who seems to be. He is eventually
taken away from the area by the authorities, and the situation is
resolved, but it doesn’t turn out to be as exciting a plot
twist as it might have been.

La’s situation points up the lack of utilizing capable
women in a time of war, and in a mild way even the ingrown
prejudices against foreigners that existed in the 1930s. The book
does not lend itself to serialization and will no doubt remain a
stand-alone novella, but it is a novella that will appeal to fans
of the Isabel Dalhousie books. They will recognize and appreciate
the pace and style as the story remains a mellow slice of life in a
historical era.