This is another in the series of evangelical/career novels published by Victory Press, and written by Patricia Baldwin. My copy is a reprint in 1965, the original having been published in 1961. In this story, Linda is leaving school where she has been learning the skills necessary to become an accomplished secretary. She has had to get over her disappointment at not having passed the 11+ exam, and so being unable to go to the local grammar school, like her younger sister. One has the impression that she has something of a chip on her shoulder about it and feels that her parents favour her sister over her. Mary, we are told, was an annoying brat of a kid, until she found God and joined the “Friday Club”, a youth group for like-minded teens.
But Linda has done well and she find an interesting, though junior, position in a chocolate factory. Through hard work and determination, she rises up through the ranks, from the typing pool, to becoming the personal secretary of the heir to the company. In the meantime she makes friends with a couple of colleagues who are also members of the Friday Club. I was rather annoyed at the fact that her friend Joan never lets an opportunity pass to evangelise. I would not have thought the workplace would have been the appropriate place for that kind of thing. But then, this is a piece of evangelism novel masquerading as a career novel.
Of course, Linda finally find God, as she climbs up and up the career ladder. She discards a boyfriend she has known from her first school when he is jealous of her new faith. But she finds a new love, and ends the book with a staff party given for her when she is about to leave to be married.
The story is better written than “Rosemary Takes To Teaching”, especially as we see Linda’s resistance to Joan’s evangelism. She is perhaps more single minded than Rosemary. I’ll be interested to see what the rest of the series has to offer. (Though I am not convinced that being a Pagan is the wrong path to take!)
