Described as the "Jane Austen of the 20th Century" by J. B. Priestley, her work enjoyed a period of great popularity between the wars, two of her novels being made into feature films, They Were Sisters (1945) and They Knew Mr Knight (1946). While the popularity of her work declined in the 1950s, it has seen a recent revival; four of her novels have recently been republished by Persephone Books. A volume of her collected short stories was published in October 2007. Five of these were broadcast as The Afternoon Reading on BBC Radio 4. After the death of her husband in 1958, Dorothy Whipple returned to Blackburn, where she died in 1966.

• Young Anne (1927)
• Greenbanks (1932)
• High Wages (1932)
• They Knew Mr.Knight (1934)
• The Priory (1939)
• They Were Sisters (1943)
• Because Of The Lockwoods (1949)
• Every Good Deed (1950)
• The Other Day: An Autobiography (1950)
• Someone at a Distance (1953)
• Wednesday and Other Stories (1961)
• Tale of Very Little Tortoise (1962)
• The Smallest Tortoise of All (1964)
• Little Hedgehog (1965)
• Random Commentary: Books And Journals Kept from 1925 Onwards (1966)
• Mrs.Puss and That Kitten (1967)
• On Approval
• After Tea

Republished by Persephone Books

• Someone at a Distance (1999)
• They Knew Mr. Knight (2000)
• The Priory (2003)
• They Were Sisters (2005)
• The Closed Door and other stories (2007)
• High Wages (2009)