Marling Hall

Barsetshire #11

by Angela Thirkell

Mr. Marling, of Marling Hall, realizes he will probably never be able to hold onto his wonderful old estate and to pass it down to his children. World War II is bringing an end to so many things, but the Marlings carry on as best they can in the face of rationing and changed living conditions. Into their world erupt Geoffrey Harvey and his sister Frances, bombed out of their London home. Bohemian and sophisticated, they rent a local house and it is not long before they begin to have an effect on their neighbors. Geoffrey begins to court Lettice, the Marlings' older widowed daughter, but he finds he has rivals for her affections in her cousin David Lindsey and Captain Barclay. Observing everything and quietly keeping events on an even keel is Miss Bunting. Observing everything and quietly keeping events on an even keel is Miss Bunting.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature, Historical Fiction, Classics, World War II, Humor, Romance

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Angela Margaret Mackail was born on January 30, 1890 at 27 Young Street, Kensington Square, London. Her grandfather was Sir Edward Burne-Jones the pre-Raphaelite painter and partner in the design firm of Morris and Company for whom he designed many stained glass windows - seven of which are in St Margaret's Church in Rottingdean, West Sussex. Her grandmother was Georgiana Macdonald, one of a precocious family which included among others, Stanley Baldwin, the Prime Minister, and Rudyard Kipling. Angela's brother, Denis Mackail, was also a prolific and successful novelist. Angela's mother, Margaret Burne-Jones, married John Mackail - an administrator at the Ministry of Education and Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.

Angela married James Campbell McInnes in 1911. James was a professional Baritone and performed at concert halls throughout the UK. In 1912 their first son Graham was born and in 1914 a second son, Colin. A daughter was born in 1917 at the same time her marriage was breaking up. In November 1917 a divorce was granted and Angela and the children went to live with her parents in Pembroke Gardens in London. The child, Mary, died the next year.

Angela then met and married George Lancelot Thirkell in 1918 and in 1920 they traveled on a troop ship to George's hometown in Australia. Their adventures on the "Friedricksruh" are recounted in her Trooper to the Southern Cross published in 1934. In 1921, in Melbourne Australia, her youngest son Lancelot George was born. Angela left Australia in 1929 with 8 year old Lance and never returned. Although living with her parents in London she badly needed to earn a living so she set forth on the difficult road of the professional writer. Her first book, Three Houses, a memoir of her happy childhood was published in 1931 and was an immediate success. The first of her novels set in Trollope's mythical county of Barsetshire was Demon in the House, followed by 28 others, one each year.

Angela also wrote a book of children's stories entitled The Grateful Sparrow using Ludwig Richter's illustrations; a biography of Harriette Wilson, The Fortunes of Harriette; an historical novel, Coronation Summer, an account of the events in London during Queen Victoria's Coronation in 1838; and three semi-autobiographical novels, Ankle Deep and Oh, These Men, These Men and Trooper to the Southern Cross. When Angela died on the 29th of January 1961 she left unfinished the last of her books, Three Score and Ten which was completed by her friend, Caroline LeJeune. Angela is buried in Rottingdean alongside her daughter Mary and her Burne-Jones grandparents.

Reviews

[QNPoohBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Marlings are a County family, unremarkable but related to all the best families in Barsetshire. Mr. Marling, slightly deaf, can't understand why this war is not like the other (or much of anything else); Mrs. Marling does her best to deal with blackouts and rationing and things, while youngest daughter Lucy goes around doing war work and telling everyone "what." Younger son Oliver lives at home and works in a war office job while eldest daughter Lettice, a young widow, lives with her two daughters (and nanny) in the old stables. Life goes on much as usual until the intrusion of the Harveys- a brother and sister pair who make an entrance into Barsetshire society while renting a house near the Marlings. The Harveys landlady won't stop stealing things that do and don't belong to her. Former governess, Miss Bunting assists with anything she is needed to do and knows her place. Lucy's friend Captain Barclay resents the reappearance of David Leslie, handsome and charming, who may end up stealing the heart of the woman Captain Barclay loves.

Another charming novel in the Barsetshire series. Not much happens in the story but if you like English country village novels, this is a good one to read. The war is in the background, hardly intruding on daily life and there's a bit of romance and humor to liven up the ordinary story. The love triangle was a bit of a surprise. Towards the end of the book, jingoism and racism pop up, jarring an otherwise lovely story. The racist language is absolutely awful and I was surprised the 1990s reprint didn't change the word to something more tactful. The use of the n word was not at all necessary to understand the time period. Jane Austen fans will find the hidden Austen reference amusing.

The Marlings are a rather dull family. The story centers around Lettice, whose husband was killed at Dunkirk about a year earlier. She's sweet, gentle and not too bright. I liked how involved she was in the lives of her daughters and how she truly loved them and doted on them as any mother would, though they seem to spend most of their time with Nurse. While I liked Lettice, I did not care for her daughters. They're bratty and obnoxious. At 4 Clare should be able to pronounce "chocolate" and other words she mispronounces. There are far too many scenes with Diana and Clare. The point-of-view is sometimes in Lettice's head which gives the story more depth than some of the other books. Her feelings are very valid and even her "silliness" at the end shows what kind of person she is. I felt a little bad for her and wanted her to be happy whether alone or with someone. She's a better judge of character than she realizes and needs to learn to trust her own judgement in all things. The conclusion of the romance is very weak and silly.

David Leslie is very charming. I know men like him and I know better than to take them seriously. I found David's habit of getting bored easily very annoying. I felt he should have made more of an effort to remember Diana and Clare's names. I liked him a lot though and I hope he survives. He can't help being spoiled by his parents and nanny, as the youngest son. I'd like to see more of him because he's a fun character.

Captain Barclay is a non-entity for much of the book. He has very little personality and I can't say whether I like him or not. He comes across as silly and a bit slow, like Lettice in the beginning but his personality seems to change at the end. David and Captain Barclay are much better than Geoffrey Harvey. Geoffrey is a pompous pseudo-intellectual who only cares about himself. His sister is a little more likable because she makes an effort to make friends and be involved in country life. Then towards the end of the book, the siblings made me think of Henry and Mary Crawford from Mansfield Park.

Oliver Marling is kind of bland and boring. He has his own problems to deal with and work to do. He's somewhat sympathetic but towards the middle and end of the book, he isn't very likable. Lucy Marling is the type of aggressive, energetic young woman Angela Thirkell did so well. Lucy is similar to Lydia Keith: they're both tomboyish, energetic, eager and unromantic. Lucy also has all the ghoulishness of Delia Brandon with a healthy enough ego to bully everyone into listening to her opinions and acting on them. I rather liked her but not as much as Lydia. I liked her because she was the only one in her family to really understand what war meant and how it affected their lives and the only one to do something about it. Mrs. Marling goes on mostly as she always has and Mr. Marling is a grouch who constantly complains. I wish he had elaborated on why the war wasn't like the first world war. He didn't really amuse me even when he was supposed to.

Mrs. Smith, the Harveys' landlady, is the comic figure of the book. Her husband died of d.t. which I think means detox- as in he was a recovering alcoholic. It didn't sound like he recovered much from the way Mrs. Smith talked. Of all the characters, she reminded me of an Austen character or a Heyer spinster. While I felt bad for her being a poor widow, her opinion of her husband is a bit too high (reading between the lines) and she doesn't understand boundaries. I think everyone must know a Mrs. Smith who treats your house as their own! In this case, it is literally Mrs. Smith's house, however, she doesn't understand boundaries or legal agreements and willfully and ignorantly invades on the Harveys and steals her belongings back. The section with the "poor chookie" is my very favorite. It's very Wodehousian.

Finally, there's Miss Bunting. She scared me. She's a bit too efficient and self-sacrificing. She belongs to a different world- a world that was fast disappearing. I didn't care for her nationalistic thoughts but the exchanges with the French governess were funny. I don't know if "Bunny" can change with the times or if she even needs to. Thirkell seems very set in her own ways and belonged to that old world of landed gentry and aristocracy.

If you enjoyed Wild Strawberries you'll love catching up with the Leslies. Readers of the previous books in the series will also delight in discovering what has happened to their favorite characters since the war broke out. It feels like catching up with old friends!

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

A general conversation characterised by partial knowledge hovering on the verge of ignorance then took place, during which it was decided that no one knew if nurses were being sent out or not, that if they were it was a shame, and it was a shame if they weren't.

I've read a handful of Angela Thirkell novels, but although I can barely recall the plot of the others, I can say with some assurance that this one was my favourite. Perhaps it's because it is set during a six month period of 1941, when the war wasn't going very well and home-front privations were really beginning to bite, but I found it had a darkness and grounding realism which served as an effective counterbalance to the frothier (and sometimes absurd) aspects of Thirkell's signature 'comedy of manners' style.

Part of the pleasure of Thirkell's 'Barsetshire' novels is in the detection of parallels to that fictional county first created by 19th century novelist Anthony Trollope. Like Trollope, Thirkell delights in characterising her chosen microcosm of society: Aristocrats, County and Servants. Borrowing both place and character names from Trollope's work gives Thirkell's novels a familiar 'in joke' quality. It's not at all necessary to have read Trollope's Barsetshire novels first, but you will undoubtedly enjoy Thirkell more for having done so. Both authors have the same sly sense of humour, usually employed through a clever turn of phrase or authorial intrusion to the story. There is much less of Church and Politics in Thirkell's novels, as opposed to Trollope's, but they are both obsessed by Society and the nuanced and minutely observed distinctions of the English class system. The robust class system of Trollope's day is a fading system in Thirkell's; whether that is to be regretted or not depends on the reader's point of view. I can completely understand if some readers find Thirkell's novels snobby and silly, but there is also a sharp awareness at work here. Most of the novels turn on a marriage plot, but really that is just the frame for having fun with the characters and their bumbling progress towards a right and proper match.

In this book, Lettice Watson (née Marling) is a young widow whose husband Roger has died at Dunkirk. Lettice is pretty, well-mannered, quiet and diffident - in contrast to the majority of her strong-willed and outspoken Marling family. Three suitors present themselves in the course of the novel - one of them being a recurring character called David Lindsey. David is a cousin of Lettice's, and he is socially impeccable, handsome, irresistibly charming to everyone who meets him, and easily bored. Lettice's two other suitors are a nice but dull Captain Barclay and an upper-middle class bohemian poet named Geoffrey Harvey. Geoffrey and his sister Frances have come to the village of Marling Melicent (seat of the Marling family) in order to do some boring (ahem, highly important) administrative work for the war. They rent a house in the village from the widow Mrs. Smith (one of the comic grotesques in the novel) and in many ways function just as Henry and Mary Crawford do in Mansfield Park. (Thirkell is obviously a keen Austen admirer, and often pays homage by imitation to that author.) Although they are well-born enough, they are also outsiders in the Barsetshire world: Town instead of Country (or even more importantly, County). They are decidedly ill-suited to being proper suitors for either Lettice or her brother Oliver.

To those with real roots in the country the intolerance of the city-dwellers who come among them is always a little surprising. (the fact that) Mrs Smith was a troublesome woman was accepted like the weather or the rates.

There are numerous characters in the novel, but Thirkell is skilled at character portraits and I had no trouble keeping them all straight. In general, the most minor characters are also the most eccentric. The least silly and most formidable character is another recurring character in Thirkell's Barsetshire world: the retired governess Miss Bunting (or 'Bunny' to her former protogées).

Generally, a Thirkell novel is a 'period piece' sort of story. During these post-Brexit, full-on pandemic times, there are some parallels to war time - if only because the government can dictate to citizens in a way that's unimaginable in 'peace-time'. Because World War II does constantly intrude on the domestic events of the novel, there were some unexpected moments of recognition and relevance in the story. I didn't expect to find that in a Thirkell story, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed her sharp-eyed, tart-tongued observations.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book in the Barsetshire series. As usual, the sort of humor one finds also in Woodhouse. This is not the best book in the series though it contains some hilariously eccentric characters. A fun read.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS!
This is why I kept reading Angela Thirkell. I knew that there would be more books of the same caliber as Wild Strawberries.
This book is about the Marlings, but particularly the widowed daughter Lettice, who has two young daughters and is a bit susceptible to thoughts of a second marriage.
On her mind are two men: David Leslie, a distant family connection, and Tom Barclay, an officer stationed nearby.
David Leslie made his first appearance in "Wild Strawberries" as an undependable but irresistible flirt. He's still that way here, only slightly more dependable. In most books this kind of character can be easily dismissed. You think, "This guy's worthless," and anxiously wait for the heroine to realize the value of the better man. Not so here. David Leslie really is fairly irresistible, regardless of his flaws. How did Angela Thirkell do it? I look forward to seeing him in more books. There is a sense that he may outgrow some of his flightiness, and that would be...amazing.
The other suitor, Tom Barclay, is delightful in his own way, but not nearly as complicated.
Lettice's younger sister, Lucy, is hilarious for her unconscious way of always "telling people what" and being the happiest bossy person ever.
Lots of other good characters, like the insane but shrewd landlady who keeps popping in and "borrowing" things from the house that she agreed to rent furnished.
Another book set in the middle of World War II. Angela Thirkell was able to publish her books in what seems like nearly real-time during the war, about one per year, so what the British went through and their feelings are very near to the reader, very intimate.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
By the way, my edition had the worst synopsis ever on the back cover and made it sound like some thriller romance with jealous rival sisters. That, it most definitely is not. Awful marketing by the publisher in this case.

[Lobstergirl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think if you liked Cold Comfort Farm you will like this. It also uses twee-ness as a literary crutch.

It was published in 1942 and set in the early years of the Second World War, but Thirkell's cutesy tone and racist dialogue make it seem even earlier. Parents, siblings, offspring, friends, acquaintances, retired governesses, visitors, living at or near Marling Hall, the seat of the Marling family, interact in a multitude of domestic tableaux. Twentysomethings flirt or fall celibately in love. Romantic musical chairs is played, sugar and butter are rationed. Mrs. Smith, recently widowed, is the novel's only engaging character as she rents out her fully furnished Edwardian McMansion to a brother and sister, and then obnoxiously lets herself in with her keys and absconds with side tables, fireplace tongs, chickens and eggs, and brings back her sticky unwashed juice bottles so the tenants can reuse them.

Angela Thirkell was literary high society. Her grandfather was the painter Edward Burne-Jones. Cousins included Rudyard Kipling and (Prime Minister) Stanley Baldwin. Her son from her first marriage was novelist Colin MacInnes. Her godfather was J.M. Barrie.

In these circles at this late date it was apparently still appropriate to term black people niggers.

"Hitler's a foreigner, but you can't exactly call him a native. He's not a nigger."
Lucy said stoutly that he was and Mrs. Bill laughed, because Lucy was always so amusing.

------

A yellow-faced soldier and two black-faced sailors got out and smiled at the company.
..."I'll tell you what," said Lucy, tempering her voice in consideration of the newcomers' feelings, "they're not real French, they're a Cochin-China or whatever it is and niggers."
"Hush, Lucy dear," said Miss Bunting.
...Mr. Harvey, feeling that the morning's nightmare would never come to an end, especially as, to his great confusion, the three strangers laughed very heartily, the nigger sailors with flashing white teeth, the yellow-faced soldier with rather unpleasant yellow fangs.

[Carrie Brownell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Angela Thirkell to have read and I did enjoy it. This is book 11 in a 29 book series but I felt it worked as a standalone (which was a relief because I didn't realize it was mid-series until I started it). This book takes place at the end of WW2, has a HOST of characters involved and was witty and engaging. Written in a style much like D.E. Stevenson, Thirkell's ability to write dialogue reminded me of the holiday dinner scene in While You Were Sleeping.

Cute. Fun. Diverting. I don't regret it.

[Eleanor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly enjoyable. One of the things I do enjoy about Angela Thirkell is that while she is very class conscious and her central characters are always the gentry of Barsetshire, she doesn't normally patronise the servants, the nannies and governesses or the farm workers. They have their pride in their work and often an amused contempt for their incompetent employers.

[Susan in NC · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire series, and this book finds our favorite county families deep in the blackouts, rationing, deprivations and non-stop war work of WWII. Several reviews note this is darker than previous books, and I agree, but it is fitting that characters would stop at certain points and reflect on those they have lost; not that these very proper British gentry with their stiff upper lips would ever do something so embarrassing as wallow in self-reflection and self-pity, of course! That's just not done; as the saying goes, the Right Sort of People - Thirkell's books are shockingly snobbish by today's standards of who those people are - Keep Calm and Carry On.

It was especially moving to me when Thirkell reflects on the difficulty her elderly characters face trying to deal with their world vanishing forever; yes, they are dreadfully politically incorrect, referring casually to any dark-skinned foreigners as the "n" word, which is always a jolt and gobsmacks the modern reader. But it is moving when Miss Bunting, or "Bunny", a beloved longtime governess to the best county families, reflects quietly at Christmas toward the end of the book on her charges that have been lost, and acknowledges that many more may not come home from the fighting. At the same time, Thirkell so bitingly and hilariously sums up scenes and characters that I find myself laughing out loud - always a treat! Two such scenes, just to give a taste -

Mrs. Marling and her adult daughters visit their cousins the Leslies for tea at Holdings, their family home. Lady Emily Leslie is aging and delightfully dotty, a million thoughts and comments going in different directions, and her adult daughter Agnes is soft, motherly, and totally besotted with motherhood and her 5 children. Between the children, the flaky but adorable Lady Emily and the oblivious Agnes, the Marling party begins to feel overwhelmed and seeks to extricate themselves:

"Mrs. Marling felt that the family atmosphere of Holdings was closing round her like treacle and she and her party would gradually be absorbed and live there unnoticed till they died. It was now or never. She stepped over the hassock and said good-bye to Lady Emily."

And this hilarious but refreshingly unsentimental introduction to a chapter about Christmas at Marling Hall:

"Most of the principal characters in this book being by now thoroughly uncomfortable in their various ways, Christmas did its best to bring on the culminating point of horror." Sounds harsh to sentimental American ears, but she goes on to irreverently and humorously explain the joys of tons of family, servants, dogs, and luggage descending on the Hall, as the residents try to put on a traditional English Christmas among the deprivations and shortages of war. I love her humor, her warmth, and her sharp (but never vicious) wit - delightful!

[Mela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, I had a great time reading another Thirkell's gentle satire of her own class and time . It is precisely what her all books are. And one of the strongest points is the fact that the novels were written in times they take place. So, they are free of later political correctness, modern points of view etc. They are simply truthful.

In this book, we have again the country life in the UK in times of WWII. Rationing of food (gas etc.), coupons, a blackout, organization in case of even worst times. To me, very fascinating were conversations about current events, about who allies are and who not etc.

I liked also very much how Thirkell showed here:
--> a family which consisted of different personalities (like Lucy vs. Lettice)
--> different kinds of mothers (Mrs. Marling vs. Lettice)
--> David (from Wild Strawberries), I understand now what "David-ish" means ;-), the character of David is/was one of the most interesting characters I have ever read about
--> Mrs. Smith, nurses, governesses - priceless
--> the love life of Lettice, her love stories, it was one of the best romances amongst Thirkell's stories I have read, as for now.

Nonetheless, I wasn't so much gripped like with a few other books of the series and I was annoyed that there were too many French sentences, the whole conversations in French. There should be footnotes with translations. If there were few French sentences, I would have translated it, but there were so many that it would have taken too many time.

[Jocelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A typical Angela Thirkell comedy of manners. The gentry flirt and the servants play power politics. I loved Mrs. Smith, whose husband has drunk himself to death. She has to find lodgings and rent her house furnished, and then keeps barging in on her tenants to pick up her side table, swipe some lime juice, etc. The flirtatious gentry discuss a 17th-century poem entitled "To his Mistrefs, on feeing fundrie Worme-caftes." In response to the question, "What about a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Adults?" a loving mother of two small children remarks that she has often thought of founding a Herod Society. Ha, ha, ha!

[Molly]

My mother used to read Angela Thirkell when she had insomnia. The books are bland and comforting, about rich white people in the English countryside. They fall in love and then they get married. For me it's one of the comfort foods of reading.
I'm re-reading Angela Thirkell. Did I really read this twice in four months? Apparently. It's because I'm re-reading all the ones that are out in Kindle, in the order in which they were written.
If you're old fashioned, and need something reassuring to read in a stormy time, I recommend Angela Thirkell. Almost like heaven as described by the Talking Heads: nothing, nothing every happens.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy Angela Thirkell's sense of humor and the view of English county life she portrays in her novels. This, the 11th of her Barsetshire series, is a bit more bittersweet as it is set in the midst of WW2. This is by no means a war book, but even life in the manor house is affected by the rationing, the young men off in one branch of service or another, and the evacuees.

[Idril Celebrindal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely funny, but takes a hard turn to the racist a few pages from the end.

[Bryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirkell is not nearly so grumpy in this novel as she is going to be in the later ones, but it is definitely starting to show in her thread of constant complaint about refugees, foreigners, and bureaucrats. It is not strong enough to overcome the actual pleasures of the book, however, which are many -- first and foremost, the return of the beautiful and impossible David Leslie, who is absolutely unwilling to do anything he doesn't want to do and thus wreaks havoc in all of his relationships because he couldn't care less about how anyone around him feels. I am very fond of him as a character; he is so exactly the son someone as self-centred as Lady Emily Leslie should have; she gets away with it by being fluttery and aging, he gets away with it by being younger and charming, but they both have the same lack of interest in the reality of the people around them -- and in David's case it is mitigated (but not excused) by the fact that he knows very well what he is and that nobody should trust him.

Along with the return of David, there are Lettice and Lucy; I am forever fond of Lucy because of her habit of Telling People What and because she eventually marries the self-made man Sam Adams who adores her for her strong personality and deep sense of responsibility -- I haven't reread those yet, they may be terrible this time around, but in my memory it made me very happy that she appreciated him and vice-versa. And Lettice's relationship to her mother is very interesting; Mrs. Marling is much like Lucy, always busy getting things done, with a strong sense of duty and responsibility that translates into organising everyone around her and wanting to know all their business, whereas Lettice has actually some desire for privacy and solitude, and the tension between them is not something I recall having seen in Thirkell before this book. That Lettice ends up with a crush on David is simply perfect; he is so good at seeing inside of people and so charmed by getting inside their defenses -- until he is suddenly bored and leaves -- and the trajectory of her emotions is spot-on, including the inevitable crash because he is not really a kind person and she is smart enough to see ahead to that and avoid committing herself. And finally, the first time around I took Miss Bunting at her own valuation, but this time I am certain Thirkell means for the reader to laugh at her snobbery, even if they happen to share it.

Thirkell is so good about some kinds of emotions and relationships, I love how she lets her characters be self-aware enough to laugh at themselves but at the same time unable to keep their feelings entirely in check. I love how accurate she is at tracing the growth of feeling between two people, and how very funny she is about them. If only she considered people other than the British upper middle classes human! Sooner or later I will start getting to the books where she has characters daydreaming out loud about all the urban working class people conveniently dying so that they (the daydreamers) can go shopping more pleasantly and I will have to yell about that instead of enjoying her humour and observations -- but thankfully not yet.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lettice Watson has lost her husband at Dunkirk. Left with two small children to raise, she is living at home (Marling Hall), but in an apartment over the stables. Recognizing her mother's tendency to 'take over' Lettice's life, she very wisely distances herself as much as possible.

"She recognized, without rancour, that it always had been and always would be impossible to talk to her own friends when her masterful mother was present. For this reason, as we know, she had preferred to live in the flat over the stables where at least she had solitude when she needed it and could ask a friend to tea."

Lucy, Lettice's sister, on the other hand is assertive, bossy, and totally the opposite of her sister.
When Lucy invites a friend (Captain Barclay), home to tea, he immediately detects the contrast in personalities and is attracted to Leticia. But is it kind to Lucy, Lettice thinks, to steal her sister's friend?

'Marling Hall' was published in 1942, written in 1941. Thirkell gives the reader a window into what everyday life was like in the beginning years of the war for England. Food and clothing rationing has not yet made a full impact (although the reader can tell that the effects of rationing will be felt soon).

There are several characters with not only the challenges of the war to overcome (and the changes brought to their personal lives), but their own internal foibles and problems. The charming David Leslie whom everyone seems to love (although he can't fool his old nurse, Miss Bunting), is also enamored of Leticia. Whom will she choose? The Harveys, a brother and sister, rent from Mrs. Smith and Miss Harvey sets her cap at Oliver Marling.

"One of the things he admired in Miss Harvey was her firm, nay almost overbearing attitude towards her brother. He liked her spirit and did not stop to think that her power of bullying might be equally applied to a husband."

The annoying Mrs. Smith, who is also a widow, rents her home out and then continually returns to 'borrow' the items she misses and her tenants seem unable to resist her.

"Oh, Mrs. Smith,' said Mr. Harvey. 'Is she a friend of yours? I wish you would ask her not to come and take things out of the house now we have taken it. She has got two saucepans and a reading lamp and she has just taken the dining-room tongs.' "

Not my favorite Thirkell but entertaining nonetheless!

[Michael Bafford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading Ms Thorkell's series in order I arrive at 1941 and Marling Hall. I complained in reviewing her first few books that she cast out a horde of characters in the first chapter and then expected the poor reader to connect them to each other and to everyone else they met. Then, I said, she learned her craft and built an easier threshold to climb over, introducing some characters early and others later on. Also many characters were recognizable from previous books. So then we come to Marling Hall and are immediately presented with a full cast of family, present, absent, and dead. I stumbled early on but used my previous practice of leaving the book for a day and then starting over. This worked, though I was not really comfortable with the Marling's, their friends new and old, their servants and the villagers for many pages.

Amabel (sic) Marling, Mrs is the matriarch of the family: "She had the tradition of service, the energy, capacity for taking pains and, let us frankly say, the splendid in-sensitiveness and the self-confidence that make the aristocracy of the county what it is..."

The war has brought changes that have had to be made, often deplorably. For example, much of Marling Hall is shut down and the family now meet in the former "servants hall". "As the servants’ hall overlooked part of the garden, the original builder had put the window at a height which prevented any one looking out. During the nineteenth century the very reasonable idea of treating servants like blackbeetles had led Mr Marling’s grandfather to plant a thick laurel hedge directly in front of the window, to keep the kitchen in its place..." This hedge Mrs Marling had cut down.

Ms Thirkell has the habit of poking fun at people, particularly the lower orders, and then presenting their admirable traits and qualities. This is best expressed in this book by Ed who is a "half-wit" He is: "mentally far below even the standard that the BBC sets in its broadcasts to the Forces..." But he is also a mechanical genius who keeps the Marling mechanical and electrical apparatuses running.

This being the days of Empire, we meet also a colonial bishop, now working as a simple vicar but filling his house with refugees. Two of these, young girls, he is walking to dancing class when offered a lift: "The bishop, who was a man of action and the terror of all backsliders in his sub-equatorial diocese, pushed his two charges into the back, telling them to sit on the floor and himself got in beside Lettice." This was done as Lettice Marling's two daughters were already sitting in the seat. Still it rankles a republican, such as myself, to treat two girls whose mother has suffered from alcoholism and whose father is in the forces in the Middle East, and who are considerably better dancers than any of the more refined girls in Barchester, in such a degrading manner.

Lettuce – no, that's not right, Lettice; a name and not a salad – our heroine speaks of her two darlings, those who sat sedately in the back seat of the car: "‘I think they are very nice little girls, but if I hadn’t got Nurse I mightn’t like them so much. Nurses really make mother-love possible'." My daughter, mother of two months, would probably not agree.

Lettice's husband died at Dunkirk so she has been a widow for over a year and is marriageable again. One of her admirers is David Leslie. In Wild Strawberries he was a terrific flirt who won our fair heroine Mary Preston's heart but lost it again when she discovered that as well as being charming, intelligent, well-dressed, and good-looking, he was also just a flirt and easily bored. Now he is an airman as well.

He does excite the ladies, as at the Regional Office where Lettice is touring what would become the administrative headquarters in case of invasion.
"... 'I always say, Mrs Marling, that Mr David Leslie is quite my beau ideel of a gentleman.'
Amanda said one could always tell a gentleman by the way he acted and Mr David Leslie always acted like a gentleman, while another young female, the slave of the teleprinter, said he'd look lovely on the films. Lettice felt how true it was about people being sisters under their skin, but was glad on the whole that it didn’t show outwardly."
This is not only interesting as regards David but as regards Lettice. David excites exactly the same thrill in her as he does in the working girls, still she stands aloof, her nose slightly tilted upward, one supposes.

When they first meet in this novel David asks how her husband is doing – not knowing of his death. Lettice is made speechless, but at a later date apologizes for being startled by his callous, if unknowing, question. "David quite understood the courage behind his cousin’s jumbled remarks and admitted to himself, a person with whom he was upon very frank terms, that she was braver than he was."

He is brilliant in his way and a lot of fun, tossing out quotations from all the ages of literature and turning them to his needs in the present: "If you not be driven by me, what care I by whom driven you be" says David when Lettice's younger sister asks another man to drive her. This is reminiscent of "‘Shall I, wasting in despair,/Die because a woman’s fair?...If she be not so to me,/What care I how fair she be?’" by George Wither (1588-1667) The Shepherd’s Resolution For this and much other help with quotations, translations, and thoughts I am indebted to Hilary Temple whose notes on Ms Thirkell's novels can be found at The Angela Thirkell Society

David can show a bit of wisdom on occasion: "It is never one’s duty to tell people unpleasant things, because they only make them miserable and usually aren’t true." He goes on to explain how no one ever feels it is one's duty to tell someone something pleasant.

In Lettice he sees a possible mate:
"...Money David did not need, but that his wife should have money of her own would not be unpleasing." And later: "Lettice had a quiet distinction of manner, good enough looks for any man, the right kind of birth and background."
What more can a man desire the reader may ask?

Lettice unfortunately is not nearly as much fun as he is; she pines for David while enchanting Captain Barclay. He, however, was "discovered" by her younger sister, Lucy, and therefore Lettice fears being beastly to Lucy if she falls for him. And she is also a mostly disinterested mother.

"[Lettice] was far too apt to imagine the scenes of her life as she would like them to be and to feel disproportionate disappointment when they turned out to be as they were..."

While visiting the Regional office: "...she had a strong feeling that it was better for her not to know what they were about in case she suddenly met a German and told him all about it..."

And "...she thought of dropping his gloves behind the radiator again. Then her upbringing told her that though it would be amusing, though Captain Barclay would at once understand the signal, though it would mean another visit and possibly the fun of talking about oneself again, that it could not be done, because a lady would not do it..."

Lucy, on the other hand, is one of these boisterous, brash, unafraid and slightly morbid young women who abound in Ms Tinkerbell's novels. We have Delia Brandon in The Brandons, Lydia Keith in Summer Half and in this book also Octavia Crawley who is only given a mention. "...As the car drove up, an uninteresting girl, who was Octavia Crawley, came to the door in VAD uniform..." "Ackcherly", as Betty would say, she seems to be more "uninterested".

There are many other colorful characters, not all of whom are also interesting. Mrs Smith, for example is as trying to the reader as to the other characters, and so I find even the Harveys, brother and sister who move into Mrs Smith's house, to their regret.

"...The Harveys, having the intellectual’s humanitarian feelings towards animals on whom kindness is entirely wasted..."

"Do you know Mrs Brandon? She wasn’t anyone very particular, but she is very charming..." A thoroughly apt description by Lettice.

At Canon Crawley's wife's tea party, discussing nurses going "out" of which no one knew anything: "A general conversation characterized by partial knowledge hovering on the verge of ignorance then took place..."

As often before we get a few glimpses into the life of an author. Mr Harvey has published a very literary book and was also "silly enough to subscribe to a press-cutting bureau and read all his notices..."

While Mrs Morland is the author of many popular novels.
You ought to know Mrs Morland’s name, David, even if you haven’t met her. You must have read her books.’
‘I don’t see why at all. How do you do,’ said Mrs Morland, who hated this form of introduction almost more than she hated the people who told her proudly how many friends they had lent her books to..."

Oliver laughed and settled himself more comfortably in his deck chair, if the word comfortable can be applied to those draped skeletons.

The patriarch of the Marling family is blunt and irascible, happy to take on the role of country squire, when it suits him. Lucy is his daughter. He remarks, being dissatisfied with the government, that it's "Enough to make a feller cut his own throat. Well, I’ll soon be dead, that’s one comfort."

Regarding dogs: "These and other beautiful traits of canine fidelity too numerous to mention, for nothing is so boring as other people’s dogs, we merely note in passing to show that the dogs of Barsetshire... were pulling together against Fascism, communism and all forms of government which tend to suppress the liberty of the individual---"

Ms Thirkell suffers a sad lack of Yuletide spirit: "It was a cold December day and the blight of Christmas was already settling on England..."
And: "Most of the principal characters in this book being by now thoroughly uncomfortable in their various ways, Christmas did its best to bring on the culminating point of horror..."

Lettice's younger brother rhymes: "‘Christmas,’ said Oliver with measured hatred, ‘comes but once a year, Its advent we do hate and fear, But even that is as absolutely nothing to the infernal nuisance it is when it is really here..."

"Christmas cards of various degrees of inapplicability, including a half-sheet of paper from a militant-pacifist acquaintance on which was printed in imitation copper-plate, ‘With good wishes for as happy a Christmas as the world will allow and that next year may be less wretched than the last.'"

"She liked both the Harveys well enough, but they were not quite her sort" is Lettice's reflection which in this case is not snobbery but the difference between town – the Harveys – and County – the Marlings.

Another instance of classless behaviour is when the Harveys' cook is offered a new position to keep her from leaving: ‘I’ll tell you who will,’ said Mr Govern, and drawing a small sprig of mistletoe from his pocket, he waved it above his head and saluted Hilda with great gallantry...."

Or when the long-time governess and snob Mrs Bunting hands out cigarettes to two black and one "yellow" Free French: "‘Tommies are Tommies all the world over,’ said Miss Bunting..."

This is a wonderful novel of the dark days when Britain stood alone anticipating an invasion. The days were not quite so dark as before the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union but dark enough. Good news was very scarce.

It is in this context that Captain Barclay remarks: "Jolly news from Pearl Harbour today, isn’t it." This was December 7, 1941. The news was jolly as it meant Britain would no longer have to face the Axis alone.

What brought this novel down a full star was the French! As an educated English Woman Ms Thirkell no doubt spoke French, and she expected her readers to do the same. I speak English, Swedish and a smattering of German and Hindi. I see no reason why I should be subjected to several pages of ‘Tenez, je vais vous raconter...*’ etc. without even footnotes. Thankfully The AT Society notes helped me to understand what was often not worth knowing.

A novel of manners and a glimpse into the dark days of WWII in an England "getting on".

*"Hang on, I’ll tell you about it." In fact this reflects Lucy's favourite phrase: "I'll tell you what..."

[Kay Robart · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review here:

https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2022...

[Kris Larson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This particular edition has shocking blurbs on the front and back covers. The front says "Two sisters become rivals in a delicate and daring triangle of romance." The back says something similar, only longer. I was startled by this because it doesn't sound like the gentle storylines you usually find in a Thirkell book, and I almost didn't want to read it.

Fortunately, it's all wrong. This is a perfectly ordinary Angela Thirkell story, full of sedate English ladies and gentlemen, a few too many characters and a gentle, meandering plot. The publishers, I guess, decided they needed to add drama (front cover) and blatant lies (back cover) to attract readers, who I imagine were very disappointed in the story they actually got.

Anyhow, if you stumble across this particular edition don't be fooled. The cover is ridiculous but the story inside is, like Mrs. Morland's books, basically the same pleasant Thirkell story you've read ten times before.

[Jennifer Heise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lettice, the widowed daughter of the Marlings, struggles here with her fate, and it's rather touching. (She also struggles with her nanny, which is more amusing.) But if you love the whole series, you will probably be more interested in governess Bunny, irrepressible Lucy Marling (first really Telling Us What here), irresistable Lady Emily Leslie and her possesions and her soft-but-capable daughter, and the usual flirtations of David Leslie.

[Tania · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as easy as others of hers I've read. The main characters were dull, but the lesser characters were much more interesting. I would have liked to read more of Lucy and Mrs Smith. Both were more amusing than the love triangle.

[Catherine]

#11

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much enjoyed!

[Jenny Land · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite British social comedy since I Capture The Castle-- easy, fast, and delightful.

[Trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered Angela Thirkell over 30 years ago and have read almost all her 28 books based on what Anthony Trollope’s 1850s era Barsetshire was like nearly a hundred years later. I loved the books the first time I read them because of the recurring characters that kept showing up from book to book in the same familiar places I ended up knowing quite well. I’ve missed them all, so I’ve decided to go back and get re-acquainted by re-reading these books the way I first did – out of order. But it doesn’t make much difference since I already know what happens during the years they take place beginning in 1933 and ending in 1962.

This time I’m back in 1941 with the Marling family who have made memorable appearances in several other books in the series. In this one, WWII is far from over and while Thirkell doesn’t dwell on it, neither does she ignore what’s going or the impact it’s having on members of the family, including Lettice Marling Watson who has been living at Marling Hall because her husband was killed at Dunkirk. She has two young children and as befitting the offspring of all the upper-class families who live in the pages of Thirkell’s novels, they are being looked after by a nurse. As Lettice says of her daughters, “they are very nice little girls, but if I hadn’t got Nurse I mightn’t like them so much. Nurses really make mother-love possible.”

Thirkell’s major characters belong to a privileged class that was living at a time when the old order of things was changing forever; but for the Marlings and the Leslies and the other Barsetshire families, class consciousness was still very much a part of their lives. It’s why to read these books is to cringe at some of the things Angela Thirkell puts into the mouths of her characters who have grown up expecting to be waited upon by those they feel so superior to. Aside from that, these books are a delight because Thirkell is a clever and gifted writer with a knack for creating unforgettable characters we love to follow from one novel to the next as they grow up, get married and have children of their own.

Thirkell is skilled at capturing the ordinary, often rather dull minutia of English daily life in the manor houses, halls, stately homes, estates, parsonages, churches and villages of Barsetshire. The people who live there go about their lives the way they always have and that’s what I love about these books - it’s a glimpse into a way of life that’s so different from mine, at a time that simply doesn’t exist anymore.

Like Jane Austen, Thirkell unflinchingly captures the quirks, temperaments, and personality characteristics of the people in her novels. There’s Lucy, the youngest Marling daughter who is in her early 20s in this book and has no interest in settling down or being lady-like. Instead she barges in and out of the house, quick to “tell you what” about whatever happens to be on her mind. And while we’re easily drawn to almost everyone else in the book despite their idiosyncrasies (like old gruff old Mr. Marling) there are also a few thoroughly obnoxious characters who must be put up with by everybody else because etiquette demands it.

High on that list is the arrogant and self-centered Geoffrey Harvey who used to work at the Board of Red Tape and Sealing Wax before the war and is now working in the Regional Commissioner’s Office doing war work, as is his equally unlikable sister Frances who works for Oliver Marling, which is how they become acquainted with the rest of the family and decide to rent a furnished cottage nearby. Unfortunately for them, their unbelievably unpleasant and offensive landlady Mrs. Smith, is forever popping in to reclaim something she’s left behind, help herself to what’s growing in their garden, and even make off with a few eggs and eventually some chickens as well. Thanks to Thirkell’s way of including characters like these in her books, I’m ready to forgive her offensive upper-class snobbishness and keep right on reading.

[Classic reverie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angela Thirkell’s 11th book of the Barsetshire series with some new and returning characters. This WW 2 centered story concerns the Marlings and guests. Somethings are mentioned about wartime activities but this mostly concerns widowed Lettice Watson and her various suitors visiting her at Marling’s estate. Once again a character that thinks Russia is wonderful! Another author added to a character.

Story in short- Lettice cannot resist the charm of her cousin David Leslie but is this lady’s man finally decided to settle down?


❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert

Returning characters-

-David Leslie- “Wild Strawberries” - The Leslie’s younger son who is a charmer. He ends up proposing to Lettice who refuses him because she knows he would find her too boring but really she was in love with Tom Barclay. Serving in the military also.

-Agnes Graham and her children who is David’s married sister.

-The Leslies- Emily who is a Pomfret daughter.

-John Leslie and his wife Mary- with their young son.

-Miss Merriman who is thr sercretary of Emily Leslie. She keeps things in order in the Leslie’s home.

-The Nortons- the Harveys staying at their home, relatives.

-Martin Leslie- serving and won medal.

-Guy Barton married Phoebe Rivers

-Julian Rivers- War artist and quite strange,

-Mrs. Morland makes her appearance.

-Octavia Crawley is still nursing and engaged to Tom Needham serving in the war as a chaplain.

New characters-

-Lettice Watson, widowed to Roger who was killed at Dunkrik. Two younger daughters, Diana and Clare. The attentions of David Leslie, Tom Barclay and Geoffrey Harvey. She is engaged to Tom Barclay who loves her.

-Miss Bunting- the governess of many good families and especially David Leslie. Now staying in her older years with the Marlings. Very perceptive.

-William Marling- father and very quirky always forgetting Mr. Harvey’s name calling him Carver

-Amabel Marling- mother and very talkative taking the spotlight off Lettice at times.

-Bill Marling- eldest son and married with several children, a soldier.

-Oliver Marling- working in Regional Commissioner’s Office working with John Leslie and the Harveys. Liking Frances Harvey. Oliver had poor eyesight, and not qualified to be a soldier but working at the home front.

-Lucy Marling- very talkative and domineering. She had Tom Barclay as her own until it was clear that Tom loved Lettice. Lucy was not in love with Tom.

-Geoffrey Harvey- works with Oliver. Comes to stay at widowed Mrs. Smith’s home. He cannot stand Mrs. Smith and is domineered by his sister Frances. He is glad to return to London. An author that is too high brow.

-Frances Harvey- Oliver’s secretary and Geoffrey’s sister. Looking to marry Oliver but after several blunders which showed her temper and Oliver not being the first son, does not mind leaving and starting a new job.


-Mrs. Joyce Smith- widowed and renting her home to the Harveys but always coming over and taking things with her.

-Bill Marling - Oldest son and professional soldier married with kids.

-Hilda- the Harvey’s maid who decides to marry the carpenter.

-“Lady Pomfret had been a Miss Wicklow, whose brother Roddy,
agent to the late and to the present Earl, had married Alice Barton, whose brother Guy had married the archdeacon’s daughter from Plumstead, whose mother had been a Rivers.”



I was happy that Lettice did not fall for David Leslie and I wonder what will happen to him in other books.

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The epitome of a light novel, like reading champagne. There were about a million characters and I never mixed anyone up. The plot is -- well, there isn't really a plot, more a series of witty sketches about the people in and around Marling Hall as they deal with wartime rationing and inconveniences. I read this in a few great gulps, it just keeps galloping ON in a very entertaining way. The writing is very assured; it feels like an omniscient view of a real village. I really admire the skill it took to take all the details and people in this book and make them make sense in a coherent narrative.

I enjoyed how it wasn't clear at first how I was meant to feel about any of the characters; they were presented as people with, it must be said, their share of foibles. Mr and Miss Harvey were hilarious, as is their landlady Mrs. Smith, constantly taking things out of the house she has sublet to them.

I had a hard time getting very invested in Lettice's Romantical Troubles, but they didn't bother me. (I do confess to being weak and wanting more David, though I don't disagree with Lettice's choice.) In general I just enjoyed being with these people. I think that because the time and place is so foreign to me there were many nuances that went over my head, but the book is nevertheless entertaining.

I WILL say I was taken aback by the casual use of what is now racist language toward the end of the book, though the character who uses it never thought before she spoke in the whole book. Bunny the governess shows true class by then giving cigarettes to these maligned Free French soldiers of African and Asian descent as she does to all soldiers, but ... yeah. There is the British Imperial view of "the natives" that comes as a point of view from some of the very Landed Gentry characters that does not work at all today. It is, however, about 0.3% of the book's content, and I can't tell if the author thinks it acceptable or if she is putting the words in someone else's mouth as being obviously unacceptable. (Like I said, a lot of the class nuance was over my head.)

I would quite happily read more by Thirkell, her life (as detailed above) seems to have been quite eventful!

(I am also glad to see other reviewers note that the Harveys are a clear callback to John and Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park. Fun literary echo. Also it was completely disconcerting to be suddenly reading about, say, the Duke of Omnium or Glencora Palliser and say to myself... wait, is she riffing on Trollope? Yes. Yes, she is. Not that I could get through more than a few of the Trollope books myself, though I tried.)

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mlle Alice, pouvez-vous nous raconter votre rencontre avec Marling Hall ?
"Je suis prise dans la toile des Barsetshire Chronicles depuis bien des tomes déjà, dans la légèreté de la plume d'Angela Thirkell, dans les beauté des couvertures de cette série."

Dites-nous en un peu plus sur son histoire...
"Les Marling s'adaptent tant bien que mal aux changements qu'amènent dans leur vie la Seconde Guerre Mondiale. Mais c'est finalement l'arrivée des Harvey, le frère et la soeur, qui pourraient le plus bouleverser leurs habitudes..."

Mais que s'est-il exactement passé entre vous ?
"C'est le genre de lecture qu'il faut savoir savourer, prendre le temps d'apprécier et je n'étais pas dans le bon état d'esprit pour cela. J'ai quelques difficultés à me concentrer en ce moment si l'intrigue n'est pas vraiment prenante et ce n'est certes pas le cas des romans d'Angela Thirkell où il ne se passe quasiment jamais rien. Habituellement, ce n'est pas un problème parce que c'est voulu, bien sûr, et que ses personnages m'amusent beaucoup mais ce ne fut pas le cas cette fois-ci. Je les ai trouvés, pour la plupart, plutôt ternes, sans peu d'intérêt, voire carrément agaçants. Les seules qui m'ont amusées ce sont les nurses, Miss Bunting en particulier, et j'ai hâte de découvrir l'opus qui lui est dédié. Mais quant à celui-ci, aussi difficile que ce soit pour moi de l'admettre, et malgré les parallèles interessants que l'on pourrait faire avec Mansfield Park, je n'ai pas vraiment apprécié ma lecture. Voilà, c'est dit."

Et comment cela s'est-il fini ?
"Ça n'enlève rien à mon envie de lire l'ensemble des Barsethsire Chronicles bien sûr, après tout il est rare que tous les tomes d'une série aussi longue soient aussi bons les uns que les autres, et je me suis trop souvent amusée à les lire pour leur en tenir rigueur."


http://booksaremywonderland.hautetfor...

[Ginni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book by this author for me; very much ‘of its time’ and probably requires the reader to be English and of a certain generation to untangle all the prejudices, class attitudes, historical references and general nonsense. However it did make me laugh, and there are some memorably awful characters - irascible Mr Marling, reminiscent of Uncle Matthew in Nancy Mitford’s ‘Pursuit of Love’, the French governess Mlle Duchaux who believes everyone and everything totally inferior to the French and France, and Mrs Smith, who rents out her house but keeps coming round and removing items...
The book is set during the first years of WW2, a period personally interesting to me as a ‘baby boomer’ whose older brothers and sisters all experienced the war as children. My family were nowhere near ‘the county set’ as described in this novel, but the social history is relevant; nor were they prejudiced against foreigners as these characters are. Very much ‘England is best’ - little tolerance or admiration for anyone else, even allies of Britain in the war.
I shall probably read more Thirkell; she is not Nancy or Jessica Mitford, but a good light romantic novelist, and very funny.

[Hilary Tesh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe more 3.5 stars.

Another visit to Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire - this time a rather long stay lasting 348 pages so perhaps a little too lengthy! The story is set in wartime 1941 and centres this time on the Marling family and their immediate acquaintances - but characters from other books appear or are mentioned and you’d need a photographic memory to recall which of them came from which previous book. My favourite section was the description of Lady Emily’s knitting (p220-221) which had me quietly chortling. The characters are, of course, stereotypical. - but it’s quite clear who you are supposed to like despite their faults and whose faults make them totally unbearable! Lucy “I’ll tell you what” Marling and the wise Miss Bunting who warrants her own book later in the series were my favourites.

(Ironic error in the back cover blurb - David’s surname is Leslie not Lindsey. Ironic because Mr Marking always calls the unpleasant Mr Harvey, Mr Carver!)

[Mbuye · Rating 3 out of 5]

The vast cast of characters - a few actually playing a part in the novel, a few referenced from as far afield as Anthony Trollope's original Barsetshire personages, like the Dowager Marchioness of Hartletop, and the rest from earlier Thirkell novels in the series might have made a difficult read, except that Thirkell's (and Trollope's) people are utterly unforgettable.

That is the strength of this novel, too, for although the satire is slightly subdued, the quirks and oddities of each person are brilliantly drawn, from the too-charming David Leslie to the Harveys and their two nightmares, their old French governess and their new landlady, Mrs Smith, to say nothing of the Marlings themselves. A few favourites wander in and out: Ed Pollett, the half-wit with the magical hands, Mrs Laura Morland, others by name only. The dance of marriage partners continues despite the war, its inevitable casualties, and the knowledge that the world has changed out of all recognition.