Before Lunch, (1939) by Angela Thirkell

Book Review by Hilary Temple Written in 1938 and unclouded by any rumours of war, this novel is surprisingly filmic compared with Thirkell’s previous and subsequent Barsetshire titles. In the opening chapter we watch an irritable middle-aged man looking out of his bedroom window. We are not told who he is until a horse-drawn farm … Continue reading →

Adèle and Co., (1931), and Blind Corner (1927), by Dornford Yates

Book Review by Chris Hopkins Adèle and Co. is told in the first person by Boy, part of a close-knit group, made up of Daphne, his sister who is married to their cousin Berry Pleydell, Jonathan Mansel, whose sister Jill is married to Piers, the Duke of Padua, and Adele an American married to Boy. … Continue reading →

Portrait of a Village (1937) by Francis Brett Young, with Woodcuts by Joan Hassall

Book Review by Chris Hopkins. Frances Brett Young in his ‘Author’s Note’ starts by referring to a novel he published three years earlier: Some years ago, when I published a book called This Little World, I was assured, by a multitude of correspondents, that they knew not only the village of which I had written … Continue reading →

WAAF into Wife (1943) by Barbara Stanton

Book Review by Chris Hopkins. I was very pleased to discover this Mills & Boon novel about five years ago when I first started to explore fiction about British Servicewomen in the Second World War. I have just finished it for the second time and have to confess that I enjoyed it at both readings. … Continue reading →

The Gold Bat (1904), The Head of Kay’s (1905) and The White Feather (1907) by P.G. Wodehouse

Book review by Chris Hopkins. Each of these early Wodehouse school-story novellas was first published by A&C Black, and all are now available separately in various editions. However, Penguin did readers a great service when it re-published the three together in 1986 as The Gold Bat and Other School Stories. I first read these stories … Continue reading →

The Headmistress (1944) by Angela Thirkell

Book Review by Hilary Temple Anyone who has read Thirkell’s early Barsetshire novels will probably remember with what horrified enthusiasm she throws herself into the portrayal of schoolboys. In Summer Half we have Tony Morland and his Southbridge School friends whose conversation is a distillation of Thirkell’s own three sons’ egotism, manipulativeness and essential lovability. … Continue reading →

I’m a Stranger Here Myself (1943) by Anthony Thorne

Book Review by Chris Hopkins. Anthony Thorne was a novelist before the war with two successful novels to his name: Delay in the Sun, 1935, and Fruit in Season, 1938 (both re-published by Penguin). After joining the wartime navy, he was selected as a ‘C.W.’ – a ‘Commissioned Warrant’ – a status given to an … Continue reading →

William Does His Bit (1941) and Weatherley Parade (1943) by Richmal Crompton.

Book Review by Chris Hopkins. I know we were meant to be reading a Richmal Crompton book for adult readers, but I couldn’t resist the treat of reading a Just William at the same time, so am going to justify this (to myself anyway) by saying that I wanted to compare a Just William and … Continue reading →

‘The Murder of Madame Mollard’ (1930) by Winifred Holtby

Book Review by Chris Hopkins. This short feminist dystopia by Winifred Holtby is, as far as I can see, completely forgotten about, but well-worth recovering. It dates from 1930 and was then published in 1937 (after Holtby’s early death in 1935) in a collection called Pavements at Anderby (Collins, London, 1937). This volume, edited by her … Continue reading →

August Folly (1936) by Angela Thirkell

Book review by Hilary Temple. As the Penguin blurb to August Folly said (1949): ‘The village of Worsted is one of those English rural communities where life is as full of interest as it is devoid of sensation.’ Sensation in this instance must mean sensationalism, as feelings run high and in some cases irrationally. The … Continue reading →