Kiss Them for Me

SING FOR YOUR SUPPER by Pamela Frankau. 311 pages. Random House. $4.95.

Sherry is the drink Pamela Frankau is offering here for those who take it--out of a cut-glass decanter, and perhaps a biscuit to go with it. The time is 1926, when England was just recovering from the general strike. Back from assorted boarding schools, the three Weston children are assembled at a seaside resort where Daddy's musical show, The Moonrakers, is definitely not raking in the cash. Mummy has been dead for years, and Daddy has contrived a living out of a shoestring and the old school tie (Eton) by writing and acting in summer revues. Sample dialogue: "What did you do in the General Strike?" Answer: "I struck a General."

By invoking the perpetually Edwardian world of the British upper-class family, where Nanny's always Nanny and nobody dares call her Nan, Pamela Frankau has performed what must by now be almost a ritually required act for all female British authors. Despite this, the Weston children's summer opens onto satisfyingly sunny uplands of the past. Predictably arch and fey and charming, the characters are nevertheless conveyed with a kind of loving concern that can make even a relative seem momentarily fascinating.

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