The original book was first published in 1899 by cousins Edith Oenone Somerville and Violet Russell, who took the pen name Martin Ross. The cousins completed 14 books together before Russell died, after which Sommerville continued writing as 'Sommerville and Russell' for more than 30 years until her death at age 91.
The book contains a series of vignettes relating to Major Yeates, a Residential Magistrate, who moves to Ireland and is shortly followed by his wife Philippa altogether there are 12 light hearted amusing stories all set in the Irish countryside at the end of the 19th century.