Growing Pains is about the delights and irresponsibilities of adolescence, the sowing of mild oats…. Writers of best-selling fiction tend to have peculiar bees in their bonnets, but if Dame Daphne has any she is keeping them for later. She writes with enough warmth and humour to captivate all but those who are allergic to the small stuff of childhood and other people's dogs and boats.

E. S. Turner, "Mild Oats," in The Listener (© British Broadcasting Corp. 1977; reprinted by permission of E. S. Turner), June 9, 1977, p. 760.