In THE DUKE'S DAUGHTER, ordinary country pleasures provide the happenstance for the hopes and hesitations of young love. Family names familiar from earlier installments of Barsetshire series- Marling and Adams, Winter and Waring, Belton and Dale- populate the pages of this engaging novel, as enamored men and women find their way into each other's hearts, culminating in one day in which three engagements are announced! To the traditional concerns of the gentry is added a fierce displeasure with intrusions of the post-war government (the office of "Red Tape and Sealing Wax"), yet this new-found preoccupation does nothing to deter the onset of a happy ending for all concerned.

The Duke's daughter

Thirkell, Angela Mackail

Pyramid Books

Happy returns [unknown_binding] Thirkell, Angela Mackail [Jan 01, 1973]

Happy returns

Summer Half

The denouement of Philip Winter's ill-begotten engagement to the feather-brained Rose Birkett is enacted in full view of Southbridge School's extended family during a holiday break. Evidence of Rose's empty head is plain to see when, at tea, "through sheer want of personality," she brings conversation to her own level and insists that Hamlet and Shakespeare are both names of plays, and most probably the same one. Everyone, including her own parents, is rooting for Philip's escape. What they couldn't have hoped for was that Rose, overwhelmed by the sheer dullness of being engaged, would break it off herself.

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Isis Large Print Books

The Demon in the House

A sweeter demon doesn't exist than Tony Morland - a 12-year-old with a gift for disconcerting remarks and getting what he wants from his mother. Boys will be boys, and little Morland is no exception, boasting, bragging, breaking windows, messing about in boats and demanding breakfast in bed, all very much to the despair of his mother, Laura. Tony is desperate for a bicycle and although Laura is certain he'll come home in a coffin after one of his rides, Tony is determined to make her concede.

Contemporary

World War II is bringing an end to so many things, but the Marlings of Marling Hall carry on as best they can in the face of rationing and changed living conditions. Into their world erupt Geoffrey Harvey and his sister Frances, bombed out of their London home. Bohemian and sophisticated, they rent a local house and it is not long before they begin to have an effect on their neighbors. Geoffrey begins to court Lettice, the Marlings' widowed daughter, but he finds he has rivals for her affections in her cousin David Lindsey and Captain Barclay. Observing everything and quietly keeping events on an even keel is Miss Bunting.

Marlng Hall

Genre Fiction

Cheerfulness Breaks in: Library Edition

Blackstone Pub

Before Lunch

Classics

It is 1939 and the peaceful Barsetshire village of the Brandons and their neighbours is due for dramatic change - a London school is to be evacuated to Barsetshire.  The village rallies round to supply huge numbers of cockney children with rabbit stew and the local characters are seen in their true colours.  There are problems of black-outs, staffing a military hospital, stretching food supplies and - with the arrival of some extraordinary refugees - attempting to keep peace in the rural heartland. Despite everything, life - and love - continue in their own sweet way...

Cheerfulness Breaks In

The irresistible Brandons, their friends, and their servants are full of youthful nonsense and middle-aged folly. People will fall in love with the wrong person, and all are determined to misunderstand each other.
Like Barbara Pym, E. F. Benson, and Jane Austen herself, Angela Thirkell has created a small world of her own in the English countryside. Calf love, village affairs, and literary effort are her nominal subjects; but her real interest is people, at their imperfect best.

The Brandons: Library Edition

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thirkell, Angela Mackail. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Thirkell, Angela Mackail

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thirkell, Angela Mackail. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Duke's daughter

Happy returns

Summer Half

The Demon in the House

The Demon in the House

Marlng Hall

Cheerfulness Breaks in: Library Edition

Before Lunch

Cheerfulness Breaks In

The Brandons: Library Edition