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Barsetshire #9
Cheerfulness Breaks In
Against the backdrop of the early part of World War II and the arrival of energetic refugees from Eastern Europe, the English gentry try to find love and happiness
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
30 people are currently reading
415 people want to read
About the author
Angela Thirkell
58 books258 followers 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 72 reviews
November 15, 2021
This is a part of a series of books, so a lot of the characters and references I didn't understand. Overall, it is an intriguing time capsule of pre-war Britain, especially the role of women in the run-up to World War two. The city where the action takes place is fictional. A boys' school is the centerpiece of the social and spiritual life of this city. All the men are gone to enlist or do other jobs for the war, leaving their women on the home front.The main characters are all solidly upper and middle class. Most of whom are very decent and hard working girls who take on elderly and sickly parents and evacuee children from London with skill and cheerful good manners.
There are several marriages that come about very quickly between the couples and the very first one in the story is the funniest. The girl is a silly, but beautiful twit and the boy, a take-charge marine type. Her parents are overjoyed to get her off their hands. The father, being honest, almost tells the groom what a mess he's getting, but soon discovers the boy sees her clearly and loves her anyway.
There is a bit of snobbery, for foreigners, a bit of prejudice for poor people and a bit of anti-Semitism, all what you expect from an author of the time period, but very dispiriting, nonetheless.
There are several marriages that come about very quickly between the couples and the very first one in the story is the funniest. The girl is a silly, but beautiful twit and the boy, a take-charge marine type. Her parents are overjoyed to get her off their hands. The father, being honest, almost tells the groom what a mess he's getting, but soon discovers the boy sees her clearly and loves her anyway.
There is a bit of snobbery, for foreigners, a bit of prejudice for poor people and a bit of anti-Semitism, all what you expect from an author of the time period, but very dispiriting, nonetheless.
February 15, 2025
I needed this to get through the past week. Just getting back to feeling better after unbreathable air for last few weeks, skies overcast from fires, so apocalyptic and depressing. Reading about my friends in Barsetshire cheered me, even as the war casts a shadow, mostly off-stage, but many young men from the county’s families are off to serve, and the women are buckling down to the tasks left vacant. There were a few awkward “clangs” where the author reveals the societal attitudes of the time towards “dusky-hued” people, stereotypes around Jewish people, a mockery of socialism, and some class prejudices, but one need go no further than Agatha Christie to find the same prejudices, especially when one considers the original title of And Then There Were None, and its later title change which was not really any better, before they settled on its current title, which is the definition of a spoiler alert. I think being reminded of how things were—and, sadly, still are in many pockets of society—is a good thing. I think it is good that we are reminded, and I think it is important that what we once read and accepted as a norm now makes me notice, makes me uncomfortable, makes me think.
I was happy to catch up with Lydia & Noel, the residents of the Deanery & the Southbridge school—with Rose Birkett driving everyone mad until her fiancé steps in—the lovely Mrs. Brandon, so many others, with some new likeable people & some new obnoxious ones—and the lovely Laura Morland, shedding hair pins everywhere she goes. I love these characters, faults and all, and sleep well after a chapter or two at bedtime. Highly recommended for those who love books about English village life of the 30s & 40s, with some humor and quietly touching relationships.
I was happy to catch up with Lydia & Noel, the residents of the Deanery & the Southbridge school—with Rose Birkett driving everyone mad until her fiancé steps in—the lovely Mrs. Brandon, so many others, with some new likeable people & some new obnoxious ones—and the lovely Laura Morland, shedding hair pins everywhere she goes. I love these characters, faults and all, and sleep well after a chapter or two at bedtime. Highly recommended for those who love books about English village life of the 30s & 40s, with some humor and quietly touching relationships.
July 21, 2022
This is my fourth Angela Thirkell book from the Barsetshire series, and my enthusiasm hasn't waned. However, I realize that the books should be read in order, as there were just too many characters in this novel (I love the title and all it implies) and I had trouble keeping track of their back stories. England is bracing itself for a long, painful war and typically, everyone is being very pip-pip tally-ho about it, while filled with secret dread. As other reviewers have mentioned, the final paragraph sees a telegram delivered to a young wife -- who is just about to open it and learn whether she is a widow, when the book ends. This would be enraging if I hadn't planned to read the next book anyway!
May 20, 2017
This is a touching portrait of middle class middle England coping with the start of World War II. Mr Birkett is adjusting to sharing his buildings with a school evacuated from London as well as hoping that the current engagement of his daughter Rose will actually result in marriage. Novelist Mrs Morland has moved out of her house - letting it to her publisher and his family and she is staying with Mr and Mrs Birkett for the duration.
Lydia Keith is trying to hold everything together at home as well as doing more than her fair share of voluntary work. Everyone is battling with the black out and the problems of food rationing and petrol rationing but somehow they retain their sense of humour and carry on as usual for at least the majority of the time.
This is an entertaining and amusing read as well as being poignant at times. Because it was written at the time it really does show how World War II affected a certain section of society and how they responded to the many challenges involved.
Lydia Keith is trying to hold everything together at home as well as doing more than her fair share of voluntary work. Everyone is battling with the black out and the problems of food rationing and petrol rationing but somehow they retain their sense of humour and carry on as usual for at least the majority of the time.
This is an entertaining and amusing read as well as being poignant at times. Because it was written at the time it really does show how World War II affected a certain section of society and how they responded to the many challenges involved.
November 9, 2022
This book was one big tribute to all ordinary people (British) who became extraordinary in September 1939. I feel that this one sentence could be my whole review. But I will try to tell more.
From the beginning, I felt sadness. That constant uncertainty about the future. These all characters I knew from previous books and these new... They all struggled and fight. Men on the fields and camps, women and men at homes, in the countrysides. Everyone had some duty. Taking care of refugees, feeding children from London, sewing socks... I had so vague idea how all those people lived then. It was so heartening how everyone wanted to contribute. I was almost overwhelmed with their eagerness.
The title of this novel is perfect. I mean, through all pages sadness was in the air, but here and there cheerfulness broke in. Like to me, this cheerfulness was too small, too rare, but life in the British countryside looked like that then, I think.
It was one of very memorable novels. Not only because of the emotional level, but also because of many facts about the life of ordinary British people during the WWII.
Then, the love stories. They were so... ordinary and so... marvelous. Really, I don't know how more to describe them. From silly Rose and rational Lieutenant Fairweather, through some unexpected couples (which I will not name because I don't want to spoil you surprises), to Lydia and Noel (it isn't a spoiler, every reader can see it from the beginning).
Let me give you some examples (I cut some fragments/names to avoid spoilers):
By the way, the ending, the last sentence of the book was... just... On one hand, I wanted to scream at Mrs. Thirkell because it was just like the title of the last chapter said: "The story without an end". But on the other hand, again, it was the perfect end to this tribute. Simply perfect...
PS1. Don't forget it was also, like always, a great satire of society and its prejudice.
PS2. Five stars are round up (in my opinion the tribute was done a bit at expense of the storytelling) because I think every fan of the genre (historical fiction, WWII times) should read it.
From the beginning, I felt sadness. That constant uncertainty about the future. These all characters I knew from previous books and these new... They all struggled and fight. Men on the fields and camps, women and men at homes, in the countrysides. Everyone had some duty. Taking care of refugees, feeding children from London, sewing socks... I had so vague idea how all those people lived then. It was so heartening how everyone wanted to contribute. I was almost overwhelmed with their eagerness.
"The fact is," said Noel, partly to reassure Mr. Needham, partly following his own thoughts, "everyone wants to be doing something different since the war began; except the people who are actually in the thick of it. I don't suppose either of us are particularly afraid of the idea of danger or discomfort, but we feel we are wasting our time. As a matter of fact I don't believe we are."
Who among her guests were to inherit this new world? Lydia, Delia, Octavia, the Archdeacon's daughter; Mr. Needham. (...) Four nice, ordinary girls and a young man of no very particular ability. That they would all behave well in any given circumstances Mrs. Crawley did not doubt, but what standard of life were they going to keep? Then she blamed herself for harsh judgment of a generation that had not yet been tried.
The title of this novel is perfect. I mean, through all pages sadness was in the air, but here and there cheerfulness broke in. Like to me, this cheerfulness was too small, too rare, but life in the British countryside looked like that then, I think.
It was one of very memorable novels. Not only because of the emotional level, but also because of many facts about the life of ordinary British people during the WWII.
Then, the love stories. They were so... ordinary and so... marvelous. Really, I don't know how more to describe them. From silly Rose and rational Lieutenant Fairweather, through some unexpected couples (which I will not name because I don't want to spoil you surprises), to Lydia and Noel (it isn't a spoiler, every reader can see it from the beginning).
Let me give you some examples (I cut some fragments/names to avoid spoilers):
"Listen," said (...). "Do you care for anyone? I don't mean that little sweep-that was only a mistake. I mean anyone real?"
(...) shook her head violently.
"That's all right," said (...). "Then you'd better get used to liking me. You are too silly to go about alone."
Their eyes met, asking questions that this was no time, no place to answer.
"Gosh!" she said "If I loved anyone I'd marry them at once."
Then to (...)'s intense surprise her face went bright pink and she looked at him as if imploring forgiveness.
"You couldn't think of me in that light, I suppose," said (...). "Because if you did I would be more than willing. Much more."
"Of course it might be a telegram to say you were dead," said (...), facing facts with her usual rumness. "But I'd go on loving you just the same."
By the way, the ending, the last sentence of the book was... just... On one hand, I wanted to scream at Mrs. Thirkell because it was just like the title of the last chapter said: "The story without an end". But on the other hand, again, it was the perfect end to this tribute. Simply perfect...
PS1. Don't forget it was also, like always, a great satire of society and its prejudice.
PS2. Five stars are round up (in my opinion the tribute was done a bit at expense of the storytelling) because I think every fan of the genre (historical fiction, WWII times) should read it.
August 26, 2021
I enjoyed this Angela Thirkell very much more than some of her other books. This was mostly thanks to my copy of Angela Thirkell’s World: A Complete Guide to The People and Places of Barsetshire. By Barbara Burrell. Since this concludes (I think) the saga of the difficult Rose Birkett, I wish I had read the book before this, Summer Half, first though.
It also sees the marriage of “swashbuckling” Lydia Keith to the great and good Noel Merton whose unlikely romance has been brewing through several books.
And, besides Lydia, another favorite, her great friend, clever Geraldine Birkett, gets matched up as well.
In between getting the various couples sorted out, we meet old friends and new friends as we share life in the English Countryside during the beginning of WWII. Most of the interesting and amusing developments and the new friends (and enemies) in this novel are due to the evacuations of children and a school from London to Barsetshire. Fair warning: If you are a communist, a refugee, or from an underprivileged urban background, you might be offended by some of the passages in this book.
Angela Thirkell isn’t as accessible as, say, D.E. Stevenson. I really had to concentrate and sometimes, re-read, to fully grasp the meaning of some of the language and subtle humor and satire. And also just to bask. But it is well worth the effort. I will continue to visit Barsetshire from time to time and already know the next three I will read or listen to.
But Oh, that ending! So glad I had my trusty ATW: ACGTTPAPOB to set my mind at rest.
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....
‘Rose is a very good girl, but I don’t think you quite understand what you’re undertaking. I’m afraid my wife and I have spoilt her rather.’ ‘Take it from me, sir, you have,’ said the Lieutenant. ‘But this is where the Navy puts its foot down. Do you mind if I smoke, sir?’… ‘You know I’m awfully fond of Rose,’ said Lieutenant Fairweather, sitting down again, ‘and you needn’t be anxious about her, sir.’ ‘No, I don’t think I am,’ said the Headmaster. ‘Nor about me, sir, if it comes to that,’ said the Lieutenant, looking his future father-in-law straight in the face with an immovable countenance.
It also sees the marriage of “swashbuckling” Lydia Keith to the great and good Noel Merton whose unlikely romance has been brewing through several books.
‘Gosh!’ she said. ‘If I loved anyone I’d marry them at once.’ Then to Noel’s intense surprise, her face went bright pink and she looked at him as if imploring forgiveness. ‘You couldn’t think of me in that light, I suppose,’ said Noel. ‘Because if you did I would be more than willing. Much more.’ For the first time since he had known his Lydia her gaze dropped before his. … ‘Of course I will,’ said Lydia…We couldn’t get married to-day, could we?’
And, besides Lydia, another favorite, her great friend, clever Geraldine Birkett, gets matched up as well.
‘I don’t think it would be a bad plan if Geraldine and I got married. I just thought I’d break it to you.’ As his future parents-in-law appeared to be struck all of a heap, he continued, standing over them with a pleasant impression of self-reliance and kindness, ‘She needs someone to look after her…The Birketts were so taken aback by this totally unexpected development that they were bereft of speech, till Mrs. Birkett recovered herself enough to ask weakly if Geraldine knew. ‘She knows all right,’ said Captain Fairweather. ‘I gave her the idea and it’ll soak in all right….
“I’m sure Geraldine will be very happy with you and I can really think of nothing nicer.’ ‘Well, it surprised me as much as it surprised you,’ said Captain Fairweather with great candour... Anyway I’ve known her since I was a kid—and she was a pretty ghastly kid herself,’ said the gallant Captain meditatively, ‘so we ought to make a do of it.”
In between getting the various couples sorted out, we meet old friends and new friends as we share life in the English Countryside during the beginning of WWII. Most of the interesting and amusing developments and the new friends (and enemies) in this novel are due to the evacuations of children and a school from London to Barsetshire. Fair warning: If you are a communist, a refugee, or from an underprivileged urban background, you might be offended by some of the passages in this book.
Angela Thirkell isn’t as accessible as, say, D.E. Stevenson. I really had to concentrate and sometimes, re-read, to fully grasp the meaning of some of the language and subtle humor and satire. And also just to bask. But it is well worth the effort. I will continue to visit Barsetshire from time to time and already know the next three I will read or listen to.
But Oh, that ending! So glad I had my trusty ATW: ACGTTPAPOB to set my mind at rest.
https://rebekahsreadingsandwatchings....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2017
Rose Birkett is getting married at last! Her parents are so relieved yet worried Rose will return to them a widow if anything happens (World War II has just begun). Geraldine has taken to nursing with gusto, along with her friend Delia Brandon. Lydia Keith is busy caring for her ill mother and running the estate for her father. She manages to find war work helping with the communal lunch kitchen for the evacuee children. Her sister Kate is busy with her family and the men who are home wish they were at the front. The Dean has to deal with the headmaster of a boys' school from London's East End who has decided anti-church views. Everyone adjusts to their new lives largely with equal aplomb but Noel Merton is keeping his eye on Lydia and feels she's been worn down with her cares. He suddenly sees her for the adult she has become and though mourns the loss of his spunky friend, he has strange feelings he can't quite name. Lydia too feels worn out already and needs a friend to help her through. She hopes she can rely on Noel as long as he is home but then he's whisked away to who knows where with an uncertain future. Will things ever be the same again?
I quite liked parts of this book. I like the charming Barsetshire society Angela Thirkell created. It was hard to read about WWII before it started, wondering and fearing what might happen to the characters as I have come to know and care about them in a few short books. The story starts off charmingly enough and rather funny. Rose Birkett is finally getting married! She still lacks any sort of brains or common sense and it made me a little uncomfortable to read about her being bossed around by her husband but she needs a tight rein to keep her from doing something incredibly stupid. There's another romance brewing later in the book that echoes this disturbing pattern and that one I didn't like. I did really like the central romance. It's quaint, quiet and old-fashioned but it seemed right for the time and situation. I liked both the people involved too.
Some of the secondary characters were a hoot. Mr. and Mrs. Bissell, anti-Capitalists ("Capittleist") were kind of funny, once I figured out what they were talking about. Especially amusing are Miss Hampton and Miss Bent, amusing spinsters who live together in a Boston Marriage. Miss Hampton, with her ghoulish interest in vice, is the stronger of the two characters and rather funny. I also loved Admiral and Mrs. Phelps who look at everyone through the lens of the navy and never shut up about their adventures. The Gissells, Austrian ex-pats were also funny in a ghastly sort of way. She is so awful and snobby but Thirkell had a talent for subtly mocking that sort of person, much like Jane Austen did. I was especially amused by the ardent Eastern European couple from the fictional country of MixoLydia. He was especially funny "No, No never!" I liked the way she badgered the English gentry into buying her hideous embroidery. Again, these are the types of characters that make writers like Jane Austen and Angela Thirkell so popular even today.
What I didn't like about the book is that it is so obviously dated. I didn't really understand a lot of what was going on, especially with the schools. I always forget how church and school were intertwined there and it's hard for me to grasp as an American who attended public schools. There were also a lot of vague historical references and one needs to know or look up the history of World War II. I would have been even more lost had I not read/seen Home Fires and some other British TV shows. The one thing that really really annoyed me was the typically snobby 1930s attitudes. Here we have class issues and a strange, brief bit about a child who is "mentally defective." There's also a brief reference to someone's head shape, a nod to eugenics. The social snobbery bothered me a little bit but not as much as the offhand comments. They make the book less enjoyable for a modern reader when the story would otherwise be very charming.
The ending was a bit open-ended so now I'll have to read on to see what happens to the characters. I want to go back and read some of the other books in the Barsetshire series too.
I quite liked parts of this book. I like the charming Barsetshire society Angela Thirkell created. It was hard to read about WWII before it started, wondering and fearing what might happen to the characters as I have come to know and care about them in a few short books. The story starts off charmingly enough and rather funny. Rose Birkett is finally getting married! She still lacks any sort of brains or common sense and it made me a little uncomfortable to read about her being bossed around by her husband but she needs a tight rein to keep her from doing something incredibly stupid. There's another romance brewing later in the book that echoes this disturbing pattern and that one I didn't like. I did really like the central romance. It's quaint, quiet and old-fashioned but it seemed right for the time and situation. I liked both the people involved too.
Some of the secondary characters were a hoot. Mr. and Mrs. Bissell, anti-Capitalists ("Capittleist") were kind of funny, once I figured out what they were talking about. Especially amusing are Miss Hampton and Miss Bent, amusing spinsters who live together in a Boston Marriage. Miss Hampton, with her ghoulish interest in vice, is the stronger of the two characters and rather funny. I also loved Admiral and Mrs. Phelps who look at everyone through the lens of the navy and never shut up about their adventures. The Gissells, Austrian ex-pats were also funny in a ghastly sort of way. She is so awful and snobby but Thirkell had a talent for subtly mocking that sort of person, much like Jane Austen did. I was especially amused by the ardent Eastern European couple from the fictional country of MixoLydia. He was especially funny "No, No never!" I liked the way she badgered the English gentry into buying her hideous embroidery. Again, these are the types of characters that make writers like Jane Austen and Angela Thirkell so popular even today.
What I didn't like about the book is that it is so obviously dated. I didn't really understand a lot of what was going on, especially with the schools. I always forget how church and school were intertwined there and it's hard for me to grasp as an American who attended public schools. There were also a lot of vague historical references and one needs to know or look up the history of World War II. I would have been even more lost had I not read/seen Home Fires and some other British TV shows. The one thing that really really annoyed me was the typically snobby 1930s attitudes. Here we have class issues and a strange, brief bit about a child who is "mentally defective." There's also a brief reference to someone's head shape, a nod to eugenics. The social snobbery bothered me a little bit but not as much as the offhand comments. They make the book less enjoyable for a modern reader when the story would otherwise be very charming.
The ending was a bit open-ended so now I'll have to read on to see what happens to the characters. I want to go back and read some of the other books in the Barsetshire series too.
November 23, 2025
Five idiosyncratic stars.
The book's epigraph is "I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in" (someone named Mr. Edwards, to Dr. Johnson). What could be better?
The book narrates what ostensibly happens in a little English town over the first year of World War II. It's as if Jan Karon and P. G. Wodehouse had a baby who went straight into the NICU. I read Thirkell for her merrily precise prose of social irony, as carefully observed as Alice Thomas Ellis's but less savage, well in the Austen tradition (I prefer Thirkell to Pym). Thirkell's great set pieces are often a bunch of people talking past each other, and the narrator with her eyes asparkle at the fun. It is not obvious that this prose style, two of whose great strengths are lightness and charm, will cope adequately with the onset of war, and yet, the book, published in 1940, ends as if it knows very well what it's about. A lightness of touch deepened by the affection and seriousness of the one touching.
One perhaps oughtn't read a bunch of Thirkell at once, because they are a bit saccharine and consequently dangerous for the mental teeth. It is also however difficult to read her books far apart; at least, I have trouble keeping the characters in the town straight. Oh well. Sentence by sentence, no matter who she's talking about or whether I recognise their names and attributes, they're worth reading.
The book's epigraph is "I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in" (someone named Mr. Edwards, to Dr. Johnson). What could be better?
The book narrates what ostensibly happens in a little English town over the first year of World War II. It's as if Jan Karon and P. G. Wodehouse had a baby who went straight into the NICU. I read Thirkell for her merrily precise prose of social irony, as carefully observed as Alice Thomas Ellis's but less savage, well in the Austen tradition (I prefer Thirkell to Pym). Thirkell's great set pieces are often a bunch of people talking past each other, and the narrator with her eyes asparkle at the fun. It is not obvious that this prose style, two of whose great strengths are lightness and charm, will cope adequately with the onset of war, and yet, the book, published in 1940, ends as if it knows very well what it's about. A lightness of touch deepened by the affection and seriousness of the one touching.
One perhaps oughtn't read a bunch of Thirkell at once, because they are a bit saccharine and consequently dangerous for the mental teeth. It is also however difficult to read her books far apart; at least, I have trouble keeping the characters in the town straight. Oh well. Sentence by sentence, no matter who she's talking about or whether I recognise their names and attributes, they're worth reading.
July 16, 2023
Cheerful and entertaining. Nothing serious.
September 12, 2020
Another enjoyable outing with Angela Thirkell as war looms in 1939 and her characters face the fears and uncertainties of that time by rolling up their collective sleeves and getting on with things. There are many light Thirkell touches and comments to keep things from getting as grim as they must have felt at the time. I particularly enjoyed this section about the school chapel:
"... nothing could disguise its complete hideousness. It had been built about seventy years previously by the same architect who had built Lord Pomfret's seat, Pomfret Towers, and though the architect, hampered by the restrictions of space, had not been able to carry out his Neo-Gothic wishes to full effect, he had managed to combine inconvenience and darkness in a manner hitherto unparalleled in any of his work."
Delightful reading for a pandemic.
"... nothing could disguise its complete hideousness. It had been built about seventy years previously by the same architect who had built Lord Pomfret's seat, Pomfret Towers, and though the architect, hampered by the restrictions of space, had not been able to carry out his Neo-Gothic wishes to full effect, he had managed to combine inconvenience and darkness in a manner hitherto unparalleled in any of his work."
Delightful reading for a pandemic.
June 19, 2009
All of Barsetshire, not to mention Rose Birkett's parents, breathe a sigh of relief when Rose is safely married to a Lieutenant who knows how to manage her. She has barely arrived safely in South America when World War II breaks out. Barsetshire is inundated with evacuees from London.
The young women, many left without their men, dedicate themselves to the new hospital. The mature women are busy keeping their community afloat. It would be exhausting except that so many people care so much about their neighbors.
After much jostling and juggling, the right couples end up together, except that there's a war on. The quite unwarranted cliffhanger sent me on a frantic hunt through the other books to see who was around in later years.
The young women, many left without their men, dedicate themselves to the new hospital. The mature women are busy keeping their community afloat. It would be exhausting except that so many people care so much about their neighbors.
After much jostling and juggling, the right couples end up together, except that there's a war on. The quite unwarranted cliffhanger sent me on a frantic hunt through the other books to see who was around in later years.
May 8, 2013
HILARIOUS in the beginning, nice in the end, a little wander-y in the middle. The whole description of Rose Birkett's wedding was worth a lot. I also loved the relationship between Noel Merton and Lydia Keith and am glad that, as with so many characters in Angela Thirkell's books, I have reappearances of characters to look forward to.
So much so, in fact, that I have now bought an encyclopedia of all of Angela Thirkell's characters with their status in each book they appear in. It has become essential. Because when you have like a bazillion characters and you keep having them pop up in small or large ways, it is sure easy to lose track.
So much so, in fact, that I have now bought an encyclopedia of all of Angela Thirkell's characters with their status in each book they appear in. It has become essential. Because when you have like a bazillion characters and you keep having them pop up in small or large ways, it is sure easy to lose track.
October 8, 2017
Okay, I think I need bullet points to sort this one out.
• Part of this book rates about four stars, and the rest two stars or less, so I guess I'll have to compromise on three.
• The better parts of the book are those involving our old friends from Summer Half: the Keiths, the Birketts, Noel Merton, Philip Winter, etc., plus Laura Morland. They behave a little more naturally, their doings are more lifelike and more interesting. The storyline involving Lydia Keith is by far the most compelling part of the book, and the way her character has developed into maturity, while still remaining recognizably Lydia, is very natural and satisfying.
• There are dozens of little cameo mentions bringing us up to date on characters from all Thirkell's earlier books, though not the one I would have most relished, which would have been to hear that Julian Rivers of Pomfret Towers was sitting up to his neck in mud in a trench somewhere in France.
• On the flip side, the slew of new characters introduced are far more caricatured and zany, and a lot of the humor surrounding them is pretty tasteless—plus when you throw them together with some of the more eccentric characters from previous books, the effect is downright chaotic.
• I think it's pretty plain that Laura Morland is Thirkell's humorous parody of herself, the way Ariadne Oliver was Agatha Christie's. Laura's personality is almost a representation of the best and worst of Thirkell's writing—her instinctive, rambling way of expressing herself that comes across as scatterbrained, with occasional moments of hitting on something genuinely perceptive or touching. But the running gag about Laura's books all being the same because that's what her public loves wears a little thin when put into practice with Thirkell's own favorite plot elements. Too many naïve young men smitten with vague, charming older women; too many contented widows with no regrets for their dull or unsatisfactory husbands; too many forceful, oblivious young females fascinated with gory medical details. And once you get further into the series and all these characters start being rounded up together in the same scenes, then it's really overload!
• The Trollopian references are more lavish than usual in this installment—I got a kick out of the reference to Lady Dumbello's marriage in Framley Parsonage, and the catering establishment of Tozer and Scatcherd (though I thought the race of Scatcherd had become extinct?).
• That last page—! If you want cliffhangers, that's one gut-wrenchingly good piece of work. I think I know what happens afterwards since I know a bit about future books in the series, but still. That last page is something else.
Basically, if you could extract the chapters dealing directly with the Summer Half characters and their wartime experiences and reactions, with Lydia's storyline as the heart of it, this could have been one fine book. I wish Thirkell had chosen to do just that. As it is, if you're fond of those characters and want to see what happens to them, it requires slogging through some noisy pages involving other, far less likeable people along the way.
• Part of this book rates about four stars, and the rest two stars or less, so I guess I'll have to compromise on three.
• The better parts of the book are those involving our old friends from Summer Half: the Keiths, the Birketts, Noel Merton, Philip Winter, etc., plus Laura Morland. They behave a little more naturally, their doings are more lifelike and more interesting. The storyline involving Lydia Keith is by far the most compelling part of the book, and the way her character has developed into maturity, while still remaining recognizably Lydia, is very natural and satisfying.
• There are dozens of little cameo mentions bringing us up to date on characters from all Thirkell's earlier books, though not the one I would have most relished, which would have been to hear that Julian Rivers of Pomfret Towers was sitting up to his neck in mud in a trench somewhere in France.
• On the flip side, the slew of new characters introduced are far more caricatured and zany, and a lot of the humor surrounding them is pretty tasteless—plus when you throw them together with some of the more eccentric characters from previous books, the effect is downright chaotic.
• I think it's pretty plain that Laura Morland is Thirkell's humorous parody of herself, the way Ariadne Oliver was Agatha Christie's. Laura's personality is almost a representation of the best and worst of Thirkell's writing—her instinctive, rambling way of expressing herself that comes across as scatterbrained, with occasional moments of hitting on something genuinely perceptive or touching. But the running gag about Laura's books all being the same because that's what her public loves wears a little thin when put into practice with Thirkell's own favorite plot elements. Too many naïve young men smitten with vague, charming older women; too many contented widows with no regrets for their dull or unsatisfactory husbands; too many forceful, oblivious young females fascinated with gory medical details. And once you get further into the series and all these characters start being rounded up together in the same scenes, then it's really overload!
• The Trollopian references are more lavish than usual in this installment—I got a kick out of the reference to Lady Dumbello's marriage in Framley Parsonage, and the catering establishment of Tozer and Scatcherd (though I thought the race of Scatcherd had become extinct?).
• That last page—! If you want cliffhangers, that's one gut-wrenchingly good piece of work. I think I know what happens afterwards since I know a bit about future books in the series, but still. That last page is something else.
Basically, if you could extract the chapters dealing directly with the Summer Half characters and their wartime experiences and reactions, with Lydia's storyline as the heart of it, this could have been one fine book. I wish Thirkell had chosen to do just that. As it is, if you're fond of those characters and want to see what happens to them, it requires slogging through some noisy pages involving other, far less likeable people along the way.
May 27, 2022
Not very p.c. but extremely funny -- as funny as an English writer can be in 1940, anyway. War is declared, and Barsetshire sees many of its young men don khaki and go off to parts unknown. This is all very frustrating to men who can't or don't enlist, and worrisome for the families of those who do. But with typical British fortitude, they bear up and volunteer as nurses, air-raid wardens, knitters, etc. They also have to deal with the influx of Eastern European refugees and London evacuees.
Angela Thirkell skewers them all, selectively. She mostly has it in for the rude and inconsiderate, whether they are county people, Mixo-Lydians, or Londoners -- including the Barsetshire High School headmistress Miss Pettinger, the socialist London headmaster Mr. Bissell and his communist colleague Mr. Hopkins, and the film-making Mr. and Mrs. Gissing with their effeminate son, widely suspected to be fascists in disguise. Barsetshire regulars, like the Birketts, Mrs. Morland, Mrs. Brandon, Lydia Keith, and Noel Merton, make the grade. And polite society doesn't just consist of county people and heterosexuals. Mrs. Bissell turns out to be articulate, practical, and compassionate. So does her Southbridge neighbor, the hard-drinking, gentlemanly Miss Hampton, whose novels always get banned and whose ill-attired housemate Miss Bent shares her taste in cocktails and her strong intellectual interest in vice.
The novel ends with Dunkirk and a heart-breaking cliff-hanger. I guess that's just how life was in England, during the early months of the war.
Angela Thirkell skewers them all, selectively. She mostly has it in for the rude and inconsiderate, whether they are county people, Mixo-Lydians, or Londoners -- including the Barsetshire High School headmistress Miss Pettinger, the socialist London headmaster Mr. Bissell and his communist colleague Mr. Hopkins, and the film-making Mr. and Mrs. Gissing with their effeminate son, widely suspected to be fascists in disguise. Barsetshire regulars, like the Birketts, Mrs. Morland, Mrs. Brandon, Lydia Keith, and Noel Merton, make the grade. And polite society doesn't just consist of county people and heterosexuals. Mrs. Bissell turns out to be articulate, practical, and compassionate. So does her Southbridge neighbor, the hard-drinking, gentlemanly Miss Hampton, whose novels always get banned and whose ill-attired housemate Miss Bent shares her taste in cocktails and her strong intellectual interest in vice.
The novel ends with Dunkirk and a heart-breaking cliff-hanger. I guess that's just how life was in England, during the early months of the war.
April 2, 2008
I went on a tear about a decade ago and read a dozen or so Angela Thirkell novels, one after another, something I can barely imagine having the time or single-mindedness to do these days. In retrospect, this is my favorite of the the bunch, probably because of its wartime setting. I've always been fascinated by the home front experience in Britain during WWII, the rationing, black-out regulations, children's relocation programs, and other civic programs that were the stuff of everyday life. Aside from that, one of the perennial characters in the series, a young woman, takes center stage and proves to be an engaging (and unexpected) heroine.
October 4, 2018
I am crazy about Thirkell’s books. This story about the war years was perhaps one of my favorites.
March 15, 2025
Thirkell writes light domestic stories about a small group of neighbors in rural England during the first part of the 1900s. But her books have a realistic edge that firmly plants them in their time and place. In this case it's just at the start of WWII. The Birkett's scatty daughter, Rose, is being married, and pretty much every conversation at the wedding includes, "If there's any trouble...", or "If something happens, not that I think it will...". There's a tension in the air as each person tries to pretend they're not worried about the future but inside they're wondering what will come and how it will affect them and their friends.
Once war comes, young men start joining up, and everyone left behind has to deal with the fact that they feel excluded - somehow they aren't doing enough, while their sons, brother, and lovers are doing everything. Through this, cheerfulness does indeed break in regularly, because Thirkell always sees the humor and brightness in commonly decent people and events. Published in 1940, it's amazing to realize that Thirkell had no idea how the war would turn out, so she gave us the honest reactions of people at the time.
I adore this book, but it's not a good place to begin the series, as it's crammed with people you've met in earlier books, and Thirkell doesn't stop the action to give the reader everyone's backstory. Thanks goodness! I recommend beginning at the first of the series, and reading most of them in order, if possible. Then a book like this, which has no plot or sense of rising action, can delight you by letting you see into the lives of folks you've grown fond of, and understand how they are facing the difficult times ahead. 5+ very happy stars.
Which book is this?
Once war comes, young men start joining up, and everyone left behind has to deal with the fact that they feel excluded - somehow they aren't doing enough, while their sons, brother, and lovers are doing everything. Through this, cheerfulness does indeed break in regularly, because Thirkell always sees the humor and brightness in commonly decent people and events. Published in 1940, it's amazing to realize that Thirkell had no idea how the war would turn out, so she gave us the honest reactions of people at the time.
I adore this book, but it's not a good place to begin the series, as it's crammed with people you've met in earlier books, and Thirkell doesn't stop the action to give the reader everyone's backstory. Thanks goodness! I recommend beginning at the first of the series, and reading most of them in order, if possible. Then a book like this, which has no plot or sense of rising action, can delight you by letting you see into the lives of folks you've grown fond of, and understand how they are facing the difficult times ahead. 5+ very happy stars.
Which book is this?
November 4, 2025
4.25 stars. The most interesting one in the series so far, revisiting many characters now known to the readers. Most especially Lydia Keith, the most fascinating character Angela Thirkell ever created.
The entire beginning of the book is about the engagement and marriage of the flighty Rose, and is an absolute scream. Thirkell surely never wrote anything else as funny.
Noted for having come out in 1940, the first year of WWII, mostly taking place during the ‘phony war’.
I also was moved by the beautiful descriptions in ‘A Brief Winter Interlude’. It’s a really really lovely piece of writing.
The entire beginning of the book is about the engagement and marriage of the flighty Rose, and is an absolute scream. Thirkell surely never wrote anything else as funny.
Noted for having come out in 1940, the first year of WWII, mostly taking place during the ‘phony war’.
I also was moved by the beautiful descriptions in ‘A Brief Winter Interlude’. It’s a really really lovely piece of writing.
October 8, 2020
I liked this, yet not as much as some of the others - I can't put my finger on why. There is a large collection of characters as always with some larger than life as always. Once again, reading about how people just got on with it during the war was inspiring. But I can't imagine why Thirkell wrote the ending this way. I only hope that there is some mention of Lydia in another novel.
I would recommend it, but only for those who have read her before.
I would recommend it, but only for those who have read her before.
September 5, 2021
3.5🌟
This book didn't gel quite as well as most of the other Angela Thirkell books I have read but that is probably down to a completely disjointed reading pattern with no time to properly concentrate and get into the story. It is classic AT though and it was a 3🌟 read for me until the end. That ending bumped it up a notch for me. Poignant.
This book didn't gel quite as well as most of the other Angela Thirkell books I have read but that is probably down to a completely disjointed reading pattern with no time to properly concentrate and get into the story. It is classic AT though and it was a 3🌟 read for me until the end. That ending bumped it up a notch for me. Poignant.
September 7, 2025
I have no idea how to rate this. There are parts that I truly enjoyed, especially the story of Lydia and Noel. However, there are so many characters and so much reference made to the, at the time, current political situation that it was often hard for me to follow.
October 12, 2022
I really wish I had read this series in order.
This one ends on a cliffhanger - - and I've read the next volume, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what happens next and so had to cheat and look it up.
All in all very entertaining - come to think of it, I've recently read loads of books and seen TV shows (Foyle's War, warmly recommended) set in WW II on the British home front. This one was published in 1940, so no one knew how long it would last or what horrors were in store. Which was better for morale, I expect.
This one ends on a cliffhanger - - and I've read the next volume, but for the life of me I couldn't remember what happens next and so had to cheat and look it up.
All in all very entertaining - come to think of it, I've recently read loads of books and seen TV shows (Foyle's War, warmly recommended) set in WW II on the British home front. This one was published in 1940, so no one knew how long it would last or what horrors were in store. Which was better for morale, I expect.
December 14, 2015
This one took me a little longer to read - partly because I was busy and partly because it is not quite as riveting as some of the others (especially since I've already read it 3 or 4 times!) But it is vintage Thirkell, getting into World War II and Dunkirk. This is the only one (that I remember) which ends with a cliffhanger! Now to go on to the next one to see if she resolves it right away. This is another Carroll & Graf edition (paperback) as was the previous and the next. I seem to have about half and half Carroll/Graf and Moyer Bell editions. The Carroll/Graf ones have less errors (typos, etc.) but the Moyer Bell ones are very well made for paperbacks.
December 15, 2014
This was rather delightful: just what I needed at that moment. Possibly the implication of the last few paras was a bit of a cheap effect, since I've read a subsequent volume. But anyway, on the whole from the period before gratuitous woezing about the iron heel of the government, etc, set in.
July 12, 2025
Cheerfulness Breaks In is set right before and at the beginning of World War II - the title is an alternative to the more obvious "War Breaks Out". And it is pretty cheerful and really funny in places. The "horrors of war" as portrayed in this book are largely limited to dealing with children and school teachers evacuated to Barsetshire. The interactions of lower-class radical London teachers with the county people are fodder for comedy.
The fact that it was published in 1940 makes it much different from historical fiction about that time - this is the real thing. Nobody knew how long the war would last and how it would turn out. Though a teenager who wants to lie about his age and enlist is assured that there would probably still be a war when he was old enough.
This is a reread for me after umpteen years and I approached it differently this time, finding that some things which didn't bother me before DID bother me. The idea that what a silly young woman needs is a firm, loving husband to take her in hand is one of them. I also didn't like the way most people responded to a "dreadful idiot child", though the woman who loved and cared for her was highly praised and respected for it. (Most people thought she should be in a "home".)
But it's still absorbing and there's a lot to laugh at, in a good way. And we meet remarkable - and very ordinary - characters and watch them grow.
This is 9th in a long series and it helps if you've read the others recently enough to remember the characters, though some are new, and it's not absolutely necessary. (I had forgotten a lot of them.) I always enjoy Mrs Morland, who is obviously the author's alter ego and the charming Mrs Brandon who occasionally startles people with her outbursts of truthfulness. When a clergyman, speaking among friends of the present sufferings of war, reminds them that "We are all in God's hands," Mrs Brandon cries, "I know! And that is just what is so perfectly dreadful!"
I don't think I've read any author who does dinner party scenes like Angela Thirkell - we're told what each pair said to each other and it's always interesting and fits their personalities.
I don't know how to classify these books - are they romances? There's almost always at least one romance, usually several, but that's not mostly what they are. It's more like they're portraits of a community at a particular time and comedies of manners. They're not great literature - Thirkell was aware of this and disliked it, but Mrs Morland is more philosophical about it. The work enables her to support herself and her sons and her books do nobody any harm.
One odd touch is the "Mixo-Lydian" refugees. Thirkell obviously wanted to portray some obnoxious refugees - many of her English characters found them hard to live with - but she didn't want to insult any particular nation. So she made one up, adapting the name of the Mixolydian mode in music (a weird scale, not quite like our major or minor scale). I think the surname of the couple we meet is hilarious - it's "Brownscu" on the theory that there are Romanians names "Jonescu" so why not?
I believe this book is unique among Thirkell's in ending on a cliffhanger. I did not remember that - I think last time I must have read the next one in the series immediately afterwards.
The fact that it was published in 1940 makes it much different from historical fiction about that time - this is the real thing. Nobody knew how long the war would last and how it would turn out. Though a teenager who wants to lie about his age and enlist is assured that there would probably still be a war when he was old enough.
This is a reread for me after umpteen years and I approached it differently this time, finding that some things which didn't bother me before DID bother me. The idea that what a silly young woman needs is a firm, loving husband to take her in hand is one of them. I also didn't like the way most people responded to a "dreadful idiot child", though the woman who loved and cared for her was highly praised and respected for it. (Most people thought she should be in a "home".)
But it's still absorbing and there's a lot to laugh at, in a good way. And we meet remarkable - and very ordinary - characters and watch them grow.
This is 9th in a long series and it helps if you've read the others recently enough to remember the characters, though some are new, and it's not absolutely necessary. (I had forgotten a lot of them.) I always enjoy Mrs Morland, who is obviously the author's alter ego and the charming Mrs Brandon who occasionally startles people with her outbursts of truthfulness. When a clergyman, speaking among friends of the present sufferings of war, reminds them that "We are all in God's hands," Mrs Brandon cries, "I know! And that is just what is so perfectly dreadful!"
I don't think I've read any author who does dinner party scenes like Angela Thirkell - we're told what each pair said to each other and it's always interesting and fits their personalities.
I don't know how to classify these books - are they romances? There's almost always at least one romance, usually several, but that's not mostly what they are. It's more like they're portraits of a community at a particular time and comedies of manners. They're not great literature - Thirkell was aware of this and disliked it, but Mrs Morland is more philosophical about it. The work enables her to support herself and her sons and her books do nobody any harm.
One odd touch is the "Mixo-Lydian" refugees. Thirkell obviously wanted to portray some obnoxious refugees - many of her English characters found them hard to live with - but she didn't want to insult any particular nation. So she made one up, adapting the name of the Mixolydian mode in music (a weird scale, not quite like our major or minor scale). I think the surname of the couple we meet is hilarious - it's "Brownscu" on the theory that there are Romanians names "Jonescu" so why not?
I believe this book is unique among Thirkell's in ending on a cliffhanger. I did not remember that - I think last time I must have read the next one in the series immediately afterwards.
March 12, 2023
3.5 stars
Thirkell always makes me laugh, but I have unfortunately forgotten most of the characters in the series, and couldn't keep up with who was married or marrying whom.
Thirkell always makes me laugh, but I have unfortunately forgotten most of the characters in the series, and couldn't keep up with who was married or marrying whom.
July 12, 2022
Cheerfulness Breaks In is set at the beginning of WW II, and it seemed more serious than Thirkell’s earlier works, if still funny and comic in places. (Although since I read this one in book form after listening to most of the others on Audible, the difference may just be that I’m less entertaining than a professional narrator!)
As young men join the military and young women take up war work, Thirkell happily couples up many among the younger generation from previous books, which was one of the sweeter aspects of the novel.
The book features a large cast of characters, most of whom will be familiar to readers of Thirkell’s earlier Barsetshire novels. The main storylines are continuations of characters we got to know in Summer Half, although we also re-visit or hear of individuals from Pomfret Towers and The Brandons, among others.
The book begins with the marriage of one of the couples who became engaged near the end of Summer Half (no spoilers here!), and one really does need the earlier book to fully appreciate the backstories of several characters (especially Lydia, Kate, Carter, Philip, Geraldine, Mr & Mrs Birkitt, and Rose).
For all the enjoyable bits, the book also has some cringey content. While this is not the first middlebrow WWII novel I’ve read that characterizes working-class children evacuated from London as foul-smelling, lice-ridden ingrates, the descriptions still feel harsh and more than a little classist.
Thirkell wrestles with social class elsewhere in the book as well, albeit more successfully. The characters (and author?) gradually come to appreciate the education and unflappable good sense of an evacuated urban teacher whom they had assumed would be narrow minded and uncultured due to her class. Ironically, this “unsophisticated” character and her husband become best buds with a fairly out lesbian couple next door, upending the country gentry’s original assumptions about her backwardness.
Summer Half is still my favorite in the series thus far, but I enjoyed those characters’ continuation in this book. As to the cringeworthy aspects: I suppose they give us an unselfconscious portrayal of the prejudices of the past.
As young men join the military and young women take up war work, Thirkell happily couples up many among the younger generation from previous books, which was one of the sweeter aspects of the novel.
The book features a large cast of characters, most of whom will be familiar to readers of Thirkell’s earlier Barsetshire novels. The main storylines are continuations of characters we got to know in Summer Half, although we also re-visit or hear of individuals from Pomfret Towers and The Brandons, among others.
The book begins with the marriage of one of the couples who became engaged near the end of Summer Half (no spoilers here!), and one really does need the earlier book to fully appreciate the backstories of several characters (especially Lydia, Kate, Carter, Philip, Geraldine, Mr & Mrs Birkitt, and Rose).
For all the enjoyable bits, the book also has some cringey content. While this is not the first middlebrow WWII novel I’ve read that characterizes working-class children evacuated from London as foul-smelling, lice-ridden ingrates, the descriptions still feel harsh and more than a little classist.
Thirkell wrestles with social class elsewhere in the book as well, albeit more successfully. The characters (and author?) gradually come to appreciate the education and unflappable good sense of an evacuated urban teacher whom they had assumed would be narrow minded and uncultured due to her class. Ironically, this “unsophisticated” character and her husband become best buds with a fairly out lesbian couple next door, upending the country gentry’s original assumptions about her backwardness.
Summer Half is still my favorite in the series thus far, but I enjoyed those characters’ continuation in this book. As to the cringeworthy aspects: I suppose they give us an unselfconscious portrayal of the prejudices of the past.
August 7, 2017
This is probably my favorite Angela Thirkell book. World War II has just broken out, and the gentry of Barsetshire is adapting as best they can. The men are either in uniform or trying to get into it. And the women try to manage their households with diminished staff, while also taking on the responsibilities of the men. Evacuees and refugees bring new challenges, but the good folks of Barsetshire are up to it!
This is the book in which Lydia Keith, one of my favorite heroines, grows from a "hoyden" into a young woman who shoulders the duties and responsibilities of the unmarried daughter of a country gentleman with energy and dedication. Nursing her increasingly ill mother, taking care of the estate, and doing her share for the evacuee children - this is a far cry from the Lydia of only a few years ago, who would gleefully tear her clothes while cleaning out the frog pond! It's a -very gentle -study in having to grow up fast, in having to shoulder responsibilities that one never expected. And similar transformations are taking place all over the village : Mrs. Brandon, that placid siren, is taking on a preschool (to the great joy of Nanny), Mrs. Phelps and her daughter organize a communal kitchen for the evacuees, and Miss Hampton and Miss Bent of Adelina cottage bring their robust support to various charity activities. Mr. Birkett and his staff have to deal with the evacuation of the Hozier's School and their teachers. Mr. Bissell, headmaster of said school, is ready to be resentful of the conservative politics and decadent lifestyle of his new colleagues.... but finds to his surprise that they are good people. Mrs. Bissell throws the ladies of Barsetshire for a loop - this eminently capable former teacher is the strangest mixture of fashionable psychobabble and a real practical kindness and understanding of children.
As the young men wait to be called up or to join their ship or whatever their war work might be, they accelerate their romantic pursuits. Lydia, Geraldine and Octavia all find their match, in more or less romantic conditions. Rose Birkett is triumphantly married off to to Fairweather junior, much to the relief of her parents - and the description of her antics up until a few hours before she walks down the aisle makes for some very funny reading.
All in all : a romanticized view of Gallant Brittanica gearing its loins for battle as the dark clouds of WWII gather. But an enjoyable read.
So
This is the book in which Lydia Keith, one of my favorite heroines, grows from a "hoyden" into a young woman who shoulders the duties and responsibilities of the unmarried daughter of a country gentleman with energy and dedication. Nursing her increasingly ill mother, taking care of the estate, and doing her share for the evacuee children - this is a far cry from the Lydia of only a few years ago, who would gleefully tear her clothes while cleaning out the frog pond! It's a -very gentle -study in having to grow up fast, in having to shoulder responsibilities that one never expected. And similar transformations are taking place all over the village : Mrs. Brandon, that placid siren, is taking on a preschool (to the great joy of Nanny), Mrs. Phelps and her daughter organize a communal kitchen for the evacuees, and Miss Hampton and Miss Bent of Adelina cottage bring their robust support to various charity activities. Mr. Birkett and his staff have to deal with the evacuation of the Hozier's School and their teachers. Mr. Bissell, headmaster of said school, is ready to be resentful of the conservative politics and decadent lifestyle of his new colleagues.... but finds to his surprise that they are good people. Mrs. Bissell throws the ladies of Barsetshire for a loop - this eminently capable former teacher is the strangest mixture of fashionable psychobabble and a real practical kindness and understanding of children.
As the young men wait to be called up or to join their ship or whatever their war work might be, they accelerate their romantic pursuits. Lydia, Geraldine and Octavia all find their match, in more or less romantic conditions. Rose Birkett is triumphantly married off to to Fairweather junior, much to the relief of her parents - and the description of her antics up until a few hours before she walks down the aisle makes for some very funny reading.
All in all : a romanticized view of Gallant Brittanica gearing its loins for battle as the dark clouds of WWII gather. But an enjoyable read.
So
October 21, 2018
This was my favourite of the Barsetshire books the first time I read through Thirkell's work, largely because I loved the focus on Lydia Keith. I still enjoyed that part of it, this time around, but I kept getting jarred out of my enjoyment by Thirkell's narrative voice, which is already beginning to take on the judgements that were so pervasive in her later years. I do not mind at all her characters disliking evacuee children and resenting refugees and so forth, but it leaves a bad taste for me when the narrative voice despises them with all of its authority. Passages abound in which Thirkell describes a pair of refugees as "being if possible even more disagreeable, selfish and ungrateful than any of their compatriots" or asserts that the parents of evacuee children, "seeing no reason why their children shouldn’t be lodged, fed, clothed, educated and amused at other people’s expense for ever, saw no reason to do anything more about them and hoped that the same fate would overtake the new baby whom most of them had had or were expecting." Perhaps they are meant to be funny, but I can't help wondering who is supposed to be amused at the idea that working class parents don't really love their children, or that people fleeing war and persecution have a duty to be grateful to those who provide them shelter. I hope these books have not lost all of their charm for me, but I am starting to think it possible.
One final note, about Lydia -- I had entirely mis-remembered the ending and was
One final note, about Lydia -- I had entirely mis-remembered the ending and was
June 18, 2019
Now it's time to take a Thirkell break. For two reasons: one, that ending just about killed me; two, because there were multiple times when I wanted to kill her. An increasing charm of the series has been catching up with earlier leads. Setting all the stories in the one county makes updates feel natural. But her focus on already introduced characters means she's got to matchmake among those who were formerly comic bits. Like real wartime weddings I suppose, people are paired off more by proximity and timing than any natural affection developed slowly over the novel. Of course, this also means that sad events will happen to characters I've become quite fond of, which is even sadder.
Now the other thing. At the first book one of my delights was the attention to the minor, mostly working-class characters. Thirkell hasn't devoted as much page time to the help since then. While she was clearly playing for laughs, it only seemed fair, because everyone came in for mockery. This book though has justified class prejudice by making it nearly universal among the gentry. The cottagers are salt of the earth, possibly only to make the evacuees look worse by comparison. But that's not all: there are refugees who awful. And other foreigners who are awful. Oh hell, she's made her available young women pretty awful too, and their suitors are even awfuller.
Now the other thing. At the first book one of my delights was the attention to the minor, mostly working-class characters. Thirkell hasn't devoted as much page time to the help since then. While she was clearly playing for laughs, it only seemed fair, because everyone came in for mockery. This book though has justified class prejudice by making it nearly universal among the gentry. The cottagers are salt of the earth, possibly only to make the evacuees look worse by comparison. But that's not all: there are refugees who awful. And other foreigners who are awful. Oh hell, she's made her available young women pretty awful too, and their suitors are even awfuller.
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