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I loved this cover.
Just charming. I didn't love much else about this book.
I think I was expecting too much from this early work. Very few authors are immediately brilliant. But for me there were a lot of characters at the start, a lot of not much happening in the middle & a predictable ending that wrapped things up a bit too tidily.
I don't think Alexander McCall Smith's introduction of my edition added much to my understanding. However, Wikipedia's biography of Mrs Thirkell is fascinating ...more
Just charming. I didn't love much else about this book.I think I was expecting too much from this early work. Very few authors are immediately brilliant. But for me there were a lot of characters at the start, a lot of not much happening in the middle & a predictable ending that wrapped things up a bit too tidily.
I don't think Alexander McCall Smith's introduction of my edition added much to my understanding. However, Wikipedia's biography of Mrs Thirkell is fascinating ...more
A wonderful comedy.
A language and humor of Thirkell is simply splendid. It is a great example of an intelligent comedy.
Marvellous characters which reader meets in one period of their life. There is a little romance but for me the novel is built of two things:
1. perfectly chosen and described characters
2. parts with child's point of view.
I ...more
Like most healthy men he thought that any illness was death.
So he dismissed her from his mind, where indeed she had never held any very prominent place
A language and humor of Thirkell is simply splendid. It is a great example of an intelligent comedy.
Marvellous characters which reader meets in one period of their life. There is a little romance but for me the novel is built of two things:
1. perfectly chosen and described characters
2. parts with child's point of view.
I ...more
This was a nice, comforting read on a chilly Sunday afternoon. Our protagonist, the widowed Mrs Morland is the authoress of high quality, un-literary, fiction. She is successful at what she does, to the extent of putting her four sons through boarding school, and keeping a mansion flat in London and a cottage in High Rising (I don't think Barsetshire is mentioned in the book). I suspect Angela Thirkell identified herself with her protagonist. The plot involves various village upsets, some romanc
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What a great introduction to a different cast of Barsetshire characters, about a century after Anthony Trollope's Victorian creation. Light, easy reading, with lots of chuckles along the way. Looking forward to reading Pomfret Towers, the next book in the Thirkell series. Thanks for the recommendation Carolien.
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I thought it was delightful! We live in such grim times that it's wonderful to find something frothy and fun to distract one.
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Jan 21, 2018
Qamar M'Hiri
marked it as to-read
Apr 25, 2018
Barbara
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May 03, 2018
Leslie
marked it as to-read
Oct 29, 2018
Hillary
marked it as to-read
Dec 25, 2020
Brittan Weaver
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Sep 18, 2021
Caroline
marked it as to-read
Jul 05, 2022
Imogen Reeves
marked it as to-read
Feb 01, 2025
Ash says Free Palestine
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