From the Bookshelf of Retro Reads…

Wild Strawberries (Barsetshire, #2)

Angela Thirkell

Start date: August 15, 2018

Finish date: September 14, 2018

Discussion: Buddy reads

Discussion leader: Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 34 topics — 989 comments total

Buddy reads

A City Of Bells - June 2021 read Spoilers thread!
By Carol She's S… , She's a mod, yeah, yeah, yeah! · 8 posts · 17 views

last updated Jun 17, 2021 12:49PM

A City Of Bells - June 2021 read No spoilers thread
By Carol She's S… , She's a mod, yeah, yeah, yeah! · 26 posts · 24 views

last updated Jun 14, 2021 12:18PM

showing 6 of 6 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Sep 05, 2014 Hana rated it really liked it

Shelves: old-fashioned, britain-ireland, 2016-reads

An amusing, mildly diverting portrait of a family and a village in the year just before World War II. The impossibly scatterbrained Lady Emily and her large extended family make for an entertaining weekend visit to the Great House, though I would find them all vastly annoying for much longer than that! A few adumbrations of the horrors to come give the story just enough of a hidden edge--one wonders what became of them all when the bombs began to fall on their idyllic world.

G: A clean read.

7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 13, 2011 Susan in NC rated it really liked it

Shelves: favorites

I love Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels and am reading them as I can find them, so was thrilled to see them being reprinted. I agree with other reviewers here that the rather slapdash editing and printing in some of the books is frustrating, but nothing can spoil the pleasure of another visit with Thirkell's wonderful characters for me.

Here we visit Rushwater House and meet the Leslie family which includes three of my new favorite characters: Lady Emily Leslie, her long-suffering husband He I love Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels and am reading them as I can find them, so was thrilled to see them being reprinted. I agree with other reviewers here that the rather slapdash editing and printing in some of the books is frustrating, but nothing can spoil the pleasure of another visit with Thirkell's wonderful characters for me.

Here we visit Rushwater House and meet the Leslie family which includes three of my new favorite characters: Lady Emily Leslie, her long-suffering husband Henry, and their daughter Agnes. She, like her mother Lady Emily, is totally enthralled with her children and their well-being, and extends this loving (yet hilariously obtuse and therefore maddening!) attention to all in their charge - house guests, friends, servants - you name it, no detail is too small, no hurt feeling too insignificant to escape discussion and dissection by these two well-meaning matrons. Mr. Leslie tries to avoid the entanglements and complications caused by his beloved wife's good intentions, but that's impossible, of course, and leads to some of the funniest dialogue.

There are other wonderful characters only Thirkell could create: sweet, innocent Mary Preston, visiting for the summer and becoming instantly invaluable to Lady Emily as she runs interference with the servants, smooths feathers and charms everyone with her calm good sense - sense that deserts her as she falls prey to Lady Emily's son David's facile charm and casual selfishness (of course the reader would cheerfully strangle him!) You know, of course, that Mary should be with elder brother John - mature, responsible, and a widower - but will Mary realize it? Will high-spirited grandson Martin's big birthday bash come off without a hitch? Will the snarky, snobbish and dreadfully odious Mr. Holt manage to worm yet another invitation out of Lady Emily? Thirkell may not have been quite the Jane Austen of her day, but for me she always creates a charming, funny, witty English Country-house world that is a pleasure to visit again and again - delightful! ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 08, 2017 Elinor rated it it was amazing

This is Angela Thirkell's third novel and here she really hits her stride. I found myself inwardly smiling on almost every page at the understated comic brilliance of the characters -- the interfering Lady Emily, the charming David Leslie, the brainless Lady Agnes (for some reason, she reminded me of Georgette on the Mary Tyler Moore show), and even the butler Gudgeon, whose great joy in life is to ring the dinner gong -- all are perfectly well drawn. I look forward to reading more of this proli ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 29, 2019 Andrea AKA Catsos Person rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-reads, library-dcpl, i-own-amzn, fiction-other

I got off to a “cranky” start with this book, but the tide turned.

If anyone wonders why I avoid contemporary fiction, I ask that they read this passage as the reason why:

“The question which now agitated Lady Emily was, should she call on Madame Boulle before Martin went for his first French lesson or after. None of her considerable social experience in the past appeared to be the slightest help to her in this matter. On the very day when the Boulle family were to come into the vicarage she was s ...more

1 like · Like · see review