I've read sixteen of Thirkell's books. I love them, but I love them so much that it's taken me years to read this many. They're the kind of book I save for a rainy day. It's raining today, so maybe I should start another one immediately.
It is probably best to read her Barsetshire Chronicles books in order. I've tried my best, but when I started reading them back in the 1990s, they were difficult to find. Now many of them have been reprinted. There is a character progression in the books and her characters grow up.
Tony Moreland, son of a best-selling author of potboilers (a lovely character herself), was an inquisitive, self-assured child who was obsessed with trains in prior books. In Growing Up, he's an officer in the military. Lydia Merton, her married name, found love in a previous book and happiness in her marriage in this one. She has gone from a loud tom-boy sort to a more tempered young woman. Her brother is in the military, though, and she worries about him.
Leslie Waring often doesn't hear from her brother and she is anxious for his safety. Sir Harry and Lady Waring, Leslie's aunt and uncle, have lost their son at war. Leslie is staying with them after suffering a breakdown from overwork at her important war job. It's a hard time for most people and everyone seems to suffer in one way or another. Leslie falls in love and the course of love is not smooth.
But not everything is grim. There's much mild day to day humor. There's romance all around. Selina, the ditzy maid, is pursued by several men and is constantly dissolving into tears of sadness or joy. And, this being a Thirkell book, everyone ends up with the proper partner and the home they desire.
It's a comforting, light read. Thirkell was an interesting woman. She was Scottish, her father was the Oxford professor of poetry in the early 1900s and her mother was the daughter of the painter Edward Burne-Jones. Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin were her cousins once removed. It must have been an interesting household.
I had a coworker a couple years ago who loved Thirkell and kept trying to convince me to read her but I never made the time. I keep intending to and one day I really will since her books sound like fun.
ReplyDeleteI volunteered at the Marshfield, MA, public library in the 1990s and one of the librarians had a British mother. For one of our library sales, she donated about a dozen of her mother's Thirkells and I scooped them up. They're funny and comforting stories.
DeleteI love these books and like you I've been reading them just as I managed to track them down. I intend to go back and read them all in order at some point. Don't forget that J.M. Barrie of Peter Pan fame was her godfather - not a bad start in life!
ReplyDeleteI imagine you've mentioned that Barrie was Thirkell's godfather, but I forgot about that. Even more exciting family gatherings. Can you imagine the conversations?!
DeleteI know, Barrie never really grew up himself so he was great fun for kids I think, but Thirkell was probably quite a difficult adult, a huge snob anyway, but I do love her books!
ReplyDeleteI love her books, too. Sometimes it's best not to know anything about the author.
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