This illustrated first volume of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire Chronicles: Complete Collection brings together some of her earliest and most beloved novels set in the fictional English county of Barsetshire. Blending gentle satire, social observation, and romantic comedy, Thirkell builds a vivid literary world that mirrors the rhythms of interwar English country life. The collection includes Wild Strawberries, High Rising, Northbridge Rectory, August Folly, Pomfret Towers, and additional r...

This illustrated third volume of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire Chronicles: Complete Collection continues the author’s richly comic and observant portrayal of life in the fictional English county of Barsetshire. Through her signature blend of wit, social satire, and romantic entanglement, Thirkell further develops her interconnected world of families, schools, clergy, and country estates. The collection includes Happy Returns, Jutland Cottage, A Double Affair, Close Quarters, Love at All Ag...

This illustrated second volume of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire Chronicles: Complete Collection continues the author’s warmly satirical portrait of English provincial life in the fictional county of Barsetshire. Known for her witty dialogue and gentle social commentary, Thirkell expands her interconnected world of clergy, school staff, landed families, and small-town eccentrics. The collection brings together Marling Hall, Growing Up, The Headmistress, Miss Bunting, Private Enterprise, and...

The headmaster’s wife twisted herself round in her chair to talk to Mrs. Morland, who was sitting in the row just behind her.‘I can’t make out,’ she said reflectively, ‘why all the big boys seem to be at the bottom of preparatory schools and the small ones at the top. All those lower boys who got prizes were quite large, average children, but when we get to the upper forms they all look about seven, and undersized at that. Look at the head of the Remove for instance—he is just comin...

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...

Set in a picturesque English village, August Folly follows a summer filled with social mishaps, romance, and a lively amateur theater production. A young man, returning home after university, finds himself reluctantly drawn into the rehearsals, where the eccentric cast—including an imposing matriarch and a group of mischievous locals—stirs up personal and romantic tensions. With her signature wit and keen eye for human nature, Angela Thirkell crafts a lighthearted and affectionate comedy o...

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York TimesIt's the summer of 1947, and peacetime has brought new challenges to Barsetshire. Beliers Priory, once a military hospital during the War, has now become a flourishing preparatory school for boys run by Leslie and Philip Winter.When Charles Belton is hired as the new school master, six young people are thrown together in a web o...

In "August Folly," Angela Thirkell crafts a delightful and witty exploration of life, love, and the complexities of social interactions within a rural English setting. The novel's structure, characterized by sharp dialogue and richly drawn character sketches, captures the charm of the English countryside while deftly navigating themes of romance and societal expectations. Set against the backdrop of a summer fête, the narrative unfolds through the eyes of the quirky and endearing resident...

'Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself' - Alexander McCall SmithEdgewood Rectory may be set in an ancient landscape, but the Grantly family are very much of their time. Caught up in the uncertain world that has emerged since the outbreak of peace, the Rector and Mrs Grantly are bewildered by the challenges facing their eldest children: Eleanor, longing for more excitement than ca...

'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...

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...

The sudden collapse into complete senility of that licensed old impostor, Mr Bradford, had made it possible for the new headmaster to make some changes in the staff and replace him by a young man, not long down from the University, and Colin Keith was the man. Mr Birkett, who had previously been headmaster of the preparatory school at Southbridge, had been offered the headmastership of the senior school only a year earlier. He was barely a middle-aged man himself, and his interviews with t...