Anglophile at Heart

My previous reports on two books from the Barsetshire collection by Angela Thirkell were mixed: loved Wild Strawberries, was bored by Peace Breaks Out. The Old Bank House tipped the scale in the direction of a favorite author. I want to say that the writing is cheerful, spirited, with witty dialogue and dialects. It's the equivalent of a wonderfully soft teddy bear on a chilly, windy day (sort of like the last few days in Reading, PA.) It's also full of wonderful words. I'm looking up word definitions in a fiction book! How odd is that? Mostly the strange words are British-isms, but there are also many, many literary allusions and references to products and historical events. Knowing that I'm going to devour these nebulous references and play wiki-detective, I started searching Amazon and half.com. What a surprise! I'm lucky that the trio of books were on the shelf at SMU because prices per book were rather shocking for old novels, but not unsurprising for out of OOPs. Finding several for between $.75 and $1, I scarfed them up for future enjoyment and possible resale. Also check out the Angela Thirkell Society page http://www.angelathirkell.org/index.htm for book synopses, the cast of characters and a shopping guide to make certain you won't miss a single volume!