This illustrated volume of The Classic Collection of Angela Thirkell brings together a selection of the author’s early and varied works, showcasing her developing style of witty social observation and character-driven storytelling. The collection includes Three Houses, Trooper to the Southern Cross, O These Men, These Men!, and Coronation Summer, each reflecting different aspects of Thirkell’s literary range and thematic interests. Across these works, Thirkell explores themes of English do...

From a starry-eyed teenager to an elderly clergyman, it seems no one is immune to romance in the county of Barsetshire . . .In the long-running and beloved series that brings Anthony Trollope's Barsetshire into the mid-twentieth century and offers "a fresh, original, witty interpretation of England's social history," the quirky inhabitants and well-bred families of the county find themselves navigating the delights and uncertainties of love ( The New York Times

In 1930s England, a beleaguered mother frets over her twelve-year-old's "skirmishes with the grown-up world and his schoolmasters . . . amusingly told" ( Kirkus Reviews).Laura Morland loves her son, Tony, unconditionally . . . even when he's talking everyone's ear off, accidentally breaking a window, shelling peas in the bathtub, or desperately trying to convince her to buy him a bicycle—the thought of which terrifies her. And of course Laura cherishes thei...

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York TimesThe county of Barsetshire is aflutter with preparations. With the wedding of Lucy Marling and Sam Adams fast approaching, and Lucy's brother Oliver brooding over his ill-fated tendre for glamorous Jessica Dean, Mrs Marling calls for reinforcements. Help arrives in the form of charming writer Isabel Dale, still mourning the loss...

'Charming, very funny indeed' ALEXANDER McCALL SMITHChange is in the air in Barsetshire. The country may have a new queen, but Greshambury has a new rector, Canon Fewling, and a returned prodigal daughter: the beautiful, frivolous Rose Fairweather. But for lonely Margot Phelps, caring for her elderly parents in Jutland Cottage, the future holds little promise - until a group of benevolent neighbours, led by Rose, decide to take her under their wing. With a new twee...

As Elizabeth II's coronation draws near, the gentry of Barsetshire engage in preparations, committee meetings, and "their perennially amusing antics" ( The New York Times).A new queen is about to be crowned, and the prominent families of Barsetshire intend to make a good impression amid the festivities. Fortunately, the highly capable Lydia Merton takes the helm of the local committee planning for the big event. All she needs to do is keep ...

Amid food shortages and grumbling, Barsetshire is unsettled by the arrival of a pretty war widow in this "delicately humorous [and] entertaining" novel ( The New York Times).World War II may be over, but its effects linger in the English countryside as the local ladies trade ration coupons for a paltry selection of provisions. It's feeling like a bleak summer—but it won't be a boring one, now that flirtatious young widow Peggy Arbuthnot and her sister-in-la...

"Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness,[and] dislike of fuss. . . . Light, witty, easygoing books." — The New YorkerAs 1951 draws to a close, Christmas approaches—but the conservative upper class of Barsetshire have already received the gift they really wanted: Winston Churchill's re-election as prime minister. Nevertheless, their individual struggles carry on. A member of the House of Lords wor...

A picturesque community in postwar England comes together when it counts in this witty, moving novel in the "beloved" Barsetshire series ( Publishers Weekly).Edith Graham is still single when she returns from America to visit Mrs. Morland, and there's no shortage of interested men—until three suitors find each other such good company that they start socializing together and ignoring her. Meanwhile, Mrs. Morland has received a marriage proposal herself and n...

Barsetshire gathers to celebrate a milestone birthday at the Old Bank House in this conclusion to the much-loved, long-running series.A home is saved from destruction, a budding romance takes steps toward the altar, a doctor experiences the return of a former love—and the fine people of Barsetshire make plans for a festive extravaganza to mark Mrs. Morland's seventieth birthday . . . "Triumphantly completed" by Angela Thirkell's close friend C. A. Lejeune after Thir...

A "charming troupe" of Barsetshire inhabitants celebrate a spate of marriages—while one young woman bemoans her prospects—in this novel of 1950s English life ( The New York Times).The locals are all talking about the upcoming wedding of the vicar of Hatch End to the much-loved Miss Merriman—in fact, the couple's friends and neighbors seem even more excited than the bride- and groom-to-be. But that's to be expected when a couple of a certain age tie the knot...

A widow goes house-hunting in Barsetshire in this witty, moving novel by an author of "graceful stories of upper-class English life" ( The New York Times).One rainy summer, amid the social and cultural changes of postwar England, Mrs. Macfadyen wrestles with the loss of her beloved husband after just five years of happiness. Life has left her uprooted—but where can she replant herself? The hunt for a new house (preferably not too close to her mother's) will...