First published in 1932, this illustrated novel tells the story through letters of Hilary Fane, who is determined to support herself in London for a year. Working in a department store, she must enforce modernising systems on her entrenched colleagues.

Jane Oliver was the penname of Helen Evans Rees (1903-1970). Formerly Clemence Dane¿s secretary, she developed a writing career, and wrote many successful novels with Ann Stafford, the penname of Anne Pedler. Business as Usual was their first joint novel. Jane became a pilot and married the author John Llewelyn Rhys, who was killed in the war. She founded the Llewelyn Rhys Prize in his memory. She later lived in Hampshire near Anne Pedler and cared for her in her last illness.