A friend put this book into my hands. It was Miss Marjoribanks, written in 1858 and to me entirely astonishing. Mrs Oliphant, the author, writes about Carlingford - a small English provincial town peopled with small English provincial inhabitants - and about its most important citizen, Lucilla Marjoribanks. Take care: Marjoribanks is pronounced Marchbanks* (why?) and Lucilla would not wish you to get it wrong. She is one of the world's great interferers, drawn with such constant wit and humour that Jane Austen (who might have been a tad more brief about it) might have wanted her for her own. But of course this is a Victorian, rather than a Regency, novel.

I really recommend this to everyone, for the writing, for the character and for the understanding one gets from it of the place as it was in its time. Mrs Oliphant is the bridge between Austen and George Elliott, but oddly little remembered. Let's see what we can do about this.

* Quiz for Goodreaders - especially non-English ones: how should you pronounce the following names and place names?
Cholmondeley; Dalziel; Featherstoneshawe; Pontefract; Cirencester; Menzies (although that is a Scottish name).