Happy Returns

By Angela Thirkell

Book Overview

"Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness, and] dislike of fuss. . . . Light, witty, easygoing books." --The New Yorker

As 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 worries that marriage is not in the cards for him due to an insufficient fortune, while another man does manage to get engaged--but frets that his betrothed doesn't truly love him. The widow Lady Lufton misses her husband--as well as the money she's lost to taxes. And an aspiring scholar falls madly in love, but must choose between Oxford and the object of his affections . . .

" This] characteristically witty, nostalgic . . . novel in the beloved Barsetshire series describes the lingering effects of WWII on the fictional village that Thirkell adapted from its Victorian inventor and chronicler, Anthony Trollope." --Publishers Weekly

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 150409283X
• ISBN13: 9781504092838
• Release Date: January 2025
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
• Length: 364 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Happy Returns

In the many-volume Bartshetshire saga, Angela Thirkel takes us into a way of life which has disappeared from the earth. As World War II approaches, exists and slowly leaves center stage, the county copes and attempts to retain the best of the old days. It sends its children off to war and welcomes them back, changed.The motto of Bartshetshire might well be "We Presist" as elders, by steadfast example, communicate their standards of duty and breeding to the children irristably forced into a new world.I'm sure that these novels are escapism, pure and simple; but, like the tales of Elfland, one is the better for one's journey.