Tag: Angela Thirkell

Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #25 Never Too Late + #24 Enter Sir Robert Wrap-Up

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I only had one person with me for the last book, so I was hoping we had more participation for Enter Sir Robert, which Thirkell ended with a little inside joke, so I steamed on ahead and hoped that somebody would join me and two of my stalwarts did. For the last five books, I’m in uncharted territory, for I haven’t read any of them. In any case, my thanks to any who are still keeping up or making comments. They are

The next book is Never Too Late, and I’ll be posting my review on Friday, June 30. I hope someone will join me in finding out who is not too late and for what.

And here’s our emblem.

Review 2181: #ThirkellBar! Enter Sir Robert

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Enter Sir Robert is the last of the Thirkell Barsetshire books that I read before, so I’ll let my previous review stand as a good plot synopsis and use this post to point out things I noticed this time around.

The ending of this novel made me laugh out loud. I don’t want to give anything away, but I’ll just say that Sir Robert Graham has been referred to in most of the books of the series but has not once appeared. In this novel, he is retiring, and his wife, Lady Agnes, arranges for him to become a church warden and talks about the things he is planning to do. And finally he appears.

Edith, Lady Agnes’s youngest daughter, is the focus of this novel, and although there is no overt romance in this one, because at 17 she’s a bit too young, she meets two delightful young men in their 30’s. (I thought the novel said she was 18, but as she is still 18 for at least the next two books, I’m assuming she is 17 now.) George Halliday is in the difficult situation of running his father’s farm when he knows that his father, who is going downhill in health, would rather run it himself. John Cross is a bank manager leasing a house from the Hallidays.

Toward the beginning of the novel there is an unpleasant little diatribe against foreigners, particularly immigrants, that will strike some chords familiar today, but that’s just a small part of the novel.

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Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #24 Enter Sir Robert + #23 What Did It Mean? Wrap-Up

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For the first time in the series, at the beginning of What Did It Mean?, I felt that the novel may not live up to the rest of the series. Eventually, though, it seemed to get back into the groove except for its obsession with a silly prophecy (hence the title), and I enjoyed it almost as much. My thanks to those who are still striving to keep up:

The next book is Enter Sir Robert, which is a reread for me, although so long ago that I can hardly remember it. It’s the last reread, though, so the rest of the series will be new to me. I’ll be reviewing it on Wednesday, May 31. I hope some people will join me!

And here’s out little emblem.

Review 2165: #ThirkellBar! What Did It Mean?

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The focus of What Did It Mean? is on Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. The novel deals principally with Lydia Merton, who has been asked to chair the committee for the Northbridge coronation pageant. This gives Thirkell the opportunity to poke fun at village committee meetings, during which very little seems to get done.

Lydia also gets acquainted with the Earl and Lady Pomfret and takes an interest in their oldest son, Lord Mellings, who at 16 is too tall for his strength, sensitive, and shy. Lydia arranges for him to meet the actress Jessica Dean and her husband Aubrey Clover, the playwright, and they enlist him in a part for their short play for the coronation, which promises to do much for his confidence.

For a while when reading this book, I thought Thirkell was starting to phone it in or that she needed a better editor. For example, there is a scene in which Lydia telephones to the Clovers to ask them to participate in the pageant. Then immediately following that, she takes Lord Mellings to the Deans to ask the Clovers the same question. Similarly, she reminds us several times of the little romance that took place between Noel Merton and Mrs. Arbuthnot when Lydia became so sick. There are also too many meetings described and no apparent romance until quite late in the novel.

However, the novel picked up as it went on, and the romance, once it emerged, was understated and touching. I finally ended up liking this one almost as well as the others.

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Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #23 What Did It Mean? + #22 Jutland Cottage Wrap-Up

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I am finding the series just as interesting as we get closer to the end because I like finding out what happens to the characters. Thanks to all the people that persist in either trying to read along or at least comment along. I know some people have had troubles locating the post-war novels. Participators and commenters for Jutland Cottage were

The next book, with only seven to go counting it, is What Did It Mean? I will be posting my review on Friday, April 28. I hope some of you can participate.

And here’s our badge, which I don’t think anyone is using anyway. Oh well.

Review 2149: #ThirkellBar! Jutland Cottage

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Jutland Cottage, published in 1953, begins with John and Mary Leslie, whom we have seen little of since Wild Strawberries. However, the purpose of this first chapter is to describe the death of George VI, or rather the characters’ reactions to it.

Then we go to Greshamsbury, where Father Fewling, now a canon, is the new rector and is moving into the rectory. Canon Fewling becomes aware of the plight of the Phelps’s. Admiral Phelps is ill and his wife not much better, both cared for by their daughter Margot, who is 40. Since they mix little in society, no one knows them, but it is Rose Fairweather who realizes that Margot needs help. She has been doing all the work around the house, including gardening and caring for chickens, and her parents are too ill to be left alone. She is tired, stressed, poorly dressed, with no amusements. She is also worried that if her father dies first, the navy pension will be too small for her mother to live on. As it is, they are very poor.

Rose makes a plan with her friends and neighbors to stop by to visit the Phelps’s frequently and to at least once a week get Margot out of the house while someone is visiting her parents. Rose goes further by giving Margot a length of tweed and taking her shopping. A great deal of attention is spent on her undergarments, particularly her “belt,” which is apparently a corset or girdle. (Thank goodness we don’t wear those anymore.) And she gets her hair cut.

While all this kindness is going on, Margot gains confidence and eventually draws the attention of some of the older bachelors.

In the meantime, Swan, who you may remember was in love with Grace Grantly until he realized her heart lay elsewhere, has found someone else to care for. But one of the things I like about Thirkell is her subtle romances, which are so downplayed that it’s often not clear who might end up with whom.

I don’t care what people say about Thirkell’s post-war novels, I am finding them just as interesting as ever, perhaps because I’ve come to know so many characters and want to know what happens to them.

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Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #22 Jutland Cottage + #21 Happy Returns Wrap-Up!

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Rereading Happy Returns in the context of the rest of the Barsetshire series proved to be much more rewarding than reading it as a one-off as I did years ago. My thanks to the people who are sticking with the project and made comments or read along with this book:

  • Liz Dexter of Adventures in Reading
  • Penelope Gough
  • Gypsi

The next book is Jutland Cottage, and I will be posting my review on Friday, March 31! I hope some of you can read along with me. Including Jutland Cottage, there are only eight more books to go in the series!

And here’s our badge.

Review 2129: #ThirkellBar! Happy Returns

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Cover for Happy Returns

When I originally reviewed Happy Returns, I remarked that I thought it would be easier to keep track of its many characters if you had read the series from the beginning. That certainly proved to be the case when I revisited the novel this time. I provided an adequate summary in my original review, so I’ll use this post to write about my observations second time around.

I didn’t mention that much of the point of view of this novel is from Eric Swan, whom we met way back when he was a school friend of Tony Morland’s and used to infuriate Philip Winter, then his schoolmaster, by looking at him through his glasses. (I believe this was in Summer Half.) Swan is now working for Philip, and at thirty, has not found the woman for him. However, he is immediately struck by Grace Grantly.

Much of the novel concerns whether the engagement of Clarissa Graham and Charles Belton will actually end in marriage, but I was also interested in the growing friendship between the older Lady Lufton and her very nice tenant, Mr. Macfayden. Lady Lufton was exceedingly irritating in the preceding book because of her helplessness after her husband’s death, but in this one a few choice words from a friend make her pull herself together. This takes some of the pressure off the burdened young Lord Lufton, her son. He has been attracted to Clarissa, but another instance of rudeness toward Charles breaks the spell. Unfortunately, he also notices Grace Grantly.

I enjoyed this novel in its context within the series much more than I did as a stand-alone. I knew most of the characters already, although I sometimes wish I had drawn up tables for each character when I read the first book and continued with it as I went on.

I haven’t commented on this before, but I also enjoy the references to Trollope’s Palliser and Barsetshire series. I have probably missed some, but I am noticing them more often because lately I’ve been reading the Palliser series.

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Reading Thirkell’s Barsetshire Series in Order: #21 Happy Returns + #20 The Duke’s Daughter Wrap-Up

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Cover for Happy Returns

Since I know that at least one person who had been reading along was no longer able to find reasonably priced copies of the books, I got a lot more comments on the last book than I expected. I hope that happy situation continues. Anyway, my thanks to the following people who participated in discussing The Duke’s Daughter:

  • Liz Dexter
  • Penelope Gough

The next book is Happy Returns, which I read all the way back in 2015 and don’t remember at all (except that someone is running for parliament). It’ll be interesting to me to see whether I view that book differently now that I am more familiar with the characters. I will be reviewing that book on Tuesday, February 28! Hope you will join me.

And here’s our little emblem.

Review 2111: #ThirkellBar! The Duke’s Daughter

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This entry in the Barsetshire series opens with characters’ realization that Lucy Adams is carrying a child, but then it jumps forward. Around about the same time, Tom Grantly meets the dreadful Geoffrey Harvey and begins to have doubts about his farm work. He has been happy working on Martin Leslie’s farm with Emmy Graham, but he doesn’t think there’s a career in it. So, he takes a job working for Harvey in the Red Tape and Sealing Wax Department. However, Harvey is known for making his underlings’ lives miserable, and within a year, Tom is ready to quit but doesn’t know how to explain to his father that he wants to change his career yet again.

Commander Cecil Waring has returned to the Priory to take up residence in his part of the house after taking in some shrapnel that the Navy doctors couldn’t find. It is floating around in his body and will either emerge or kill him. In the other part of the house, Philip White and his wife Leslie, Cecil’s sister, are having such success with their prep school that they are looking around for a bigger building.

Cecil meets Lady Cora Palliser, the Duke of Omnium’s daughter, and is much struck by her. However, he thinks she’s paying too much attention to Tom.

The new Lord Lufton makes everyone’s acquaintance. He is young, shy, and overwhelmed by his new responsibilities. He is also very kind and is at first attracted by Clarissa Graham until he sees her behaving rudely to Charles Belton.

Fans of the series may be pleased to find that this novel features the reappearance of almost every character who has ever appeared, with the added attraction of no less than four betrothals. Mrs. Morland, the author of a popular series of novels, always says they are all alike. Perhaps the Barsetshire novels are, too, but their charm is in finding out what happens to characters we know and in meeting new ones.

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