The Friend in Need (1957) by Elizabeth Coxhead

There’s always a danger, when reading a novel almost 70 years old on a potentially sensitive topic, that it will not be readable by today’s standards. When I saw that The Friend in Need (1957) by Elizabeth Coxhead was about a social worker I was torn – it would be fascinating to read a novel on this topic from the 1950s, but would elements of classicism, racism or simply outdated methods make it feel unreadable? Thankfully, I needn’t have worried. There are definitely some things that would be phrased a bit differently today, and I can’t imagine Isobel Fairlie’s approaches as a social worker would be endorsed by anybody working in that field now, but it’s a novel that vibrates warmth, compassion and sense. It also, incidentally, has one of the more lovable romantic pairings I’ve come across in a long time. We first meet Isobel Fairlie, social worker, through the eyes of a man in a teashop – he is waiting for his girlfriend Mercedes (he lives with her and her mother) and not with any…