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 →

Cold Comfort Farm (1932) by Stella Gibbons

Book Review by Jane V. Stella Gibbons trained as a journalist but thought of herself as a poet. She wrote many other novels but Cold Comfort Farm was her first and by far the most successful. She can in fact ‘do’ any style including the overblown stuff favoured by writers like Ethel M. Dell. Stella … Continue reading →

Love Among the Ruins (1948) by Angela Thirkell

Book Review by George S: Love Among the Ruins is a depiction of upper-class and upper-middle class families in rural England a couple of years after the second world war (or as Angela Thirkell puts it, ‘the War to end War for the Second Time.’) Thirkell sympathetically shows us English people: ‘who had taken six … Continue reading →

Helen of Four Gates (1917) by Ethel Carnie Holdsworth

Ethel Carnie Holdsworth’s previous novel, Miss Nobody (1913), had not been a commercial success, and that may be one of the reasons why her new publisher, Herbert Jenkins, chose to issue this one anonymously as by ‘An Ex Mill Girl’. Some reviewers found the pseudonym confusing; it suggested that they would be reading an account … Continue reading →

The Sailor’s Holiday by Eric Linklater (1937)

Another damning review of Eric Linklater! Oh dear! Review by Sophie H: The Sailor’s Holiday is made up of a series of short vignettes relating the adventures of sailor Henry Tippus during his time on shore between sea voyages. Throughout the novel Henry finds himself involved in a variety of surreal encounters, from being arrested … Continue reading →

The Village by Marghanita Laski (1952)

Review by Val H: Oh how I enjoyed The Village (1952) by Marghanita Laski! On the surface, it is a simple, even dull love story, but this is merely a cover for a witty and fluent examination of class in England immediately after World War II. In places the novel has dated, but to anyone … Continue reading →

Yonder by E. H. Young (1912)

Review by Jane V: Alexander is a country boy living in a remote place with his mother, a strong, capable character, and his father, a weak failure of a man whose heredity has made him so. Theresa is a lively, highly imaginative girl who lives in a port town with her father who is a … Continue reading →