Book bargains: Angela Thirkell

[callmemadam]

The Book People have three of Angela Thirkell’s novels for £4.99. Tempting as these pretty covers are, I certainly don’t need the new editions as I already have all her Barsetshire novels. A good opportunity for someone wanting to give Thirkell a go, as you’re unlikely to find her books in a library these days. The blurb says that the books are perfect for lovers of Stella Gibbons, Dodie Smith and Barbara Pym. Pah! Thirkell was a better writer than any of those authors.

Comments

Angela Thirkell

[(Anonymous)]

Pah indeed - I agree with you about Thirkell. I think she's better than the others, with the possible exception of "Cold Comfort Farm". I have bought this new paperback of Pomfret Towers in order to bully my friends into reading it; it used to be too precious an object to lend out. She does get a bit too upset about the class barriers disappearing after the war, though. The wit gets too bitter in the later books.

(Deborah Meyler)

Re: Angela Thirkell

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I do love Cold Comfort Farm but none of Gibbons' other novels come close to that brilliance.

Thirkell's attitude to 'Them' is ridiculous, I agree and many of her acid comments hard to take. But she remained very popular! Her very last books are awful. She seems to have given up, knowing her faithful readers wouldn't mind. So you get muddling of characters' pasts and even 'What X are I cannot be bothered to think'.

Good luck with converting your friends!