The Diary of a Provincial Lady

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This was indeed very funny from a British point of view – I wonder how Americans and Canadians respond to it! For the Diary, which chronicles the day-to-day life of a wife and mother living in the country, is above all fun, in fact it is one of the funniest books ever written. Cox is better known as the great mystery novelist Anthony Berkeley, author of “ The Poisoned Chocolates Case” (1929) and, under the name Francis Iles, of that psychological suspense masterpiece “ Before the Fact” (1932), filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as “ Suspicion” (with a softened ending). Interesting subject for debate at Women’s Institute, perhaps: That Imagination is incompatible with Inherited Wealth. She was the elder daughter of Count Henry Philip Ducarel de la Pasture, of Llandogo Priory, Monmouthshire, and Elizabeth Lydia Rosabelle, daughter of Edward William Bonham, who as Mrs Henry de la Pasture was also a well-known novelist.

Query here becomes unavoidable: Does not a misplaced optimism exist, common to all mankind, leading on to false conviction that social engagements, if dated sufficiently far ahead, will never really materialize? It may seem strange to readers today, battling with overdrafts and mortgage payments, that someone who employed a fleet of servants, went on trips to London and abroad, frequently bought new clothes and entertained endlessly, if unwillingly, should worry themselves sick about money.This book is one of my 'comfort reads' - the sort of book you go back to when you are unwell, perhaps, or anxious. EM Delafield was a minor novelist who bulked up her husband’s salary as a land agent by writing articles for – and perhaps this is the first clue that she was a more complex figure than her literary alter ego suggested – the feminist, socialist and progressive periodical Time and Tide. The original, London, and America are probably the best, although if you're insatiable for more Provinicial Lady (like me) it's great to have the Wartime and Russia diaries to dip into too. On the other, as Kate O'Brien wrote in an excellent introduction, "there was the gentle, home-loving, Devon-loving dreamer, who loved to look back on childhood and old photographs, who prayed and meditated much on the hereafter and on her own wrongdoing, who loved her family, her house and her village and her WI committee, who was forever helping lame dogs over stiles, forever doing kindnesses, forever concerned with this or that one's happiness". Meanwhile, husband Robert is unphased by most things, remaining remarkably silent and unmoved by all manner of minor upsets and household crises.

I think this is one of those books where the form is a perfect match for the content and style, everything working together in harmony to create a memorable read. Satire can be a very effective tool when employed effectively, but that’s probably easier said than done.She’s had a book published, has a literary agent, and rents a flat in London, where she is introduced to modern ideas of feminism and self-expression.

The Way Things Are (1927) - Laura - a character notably similar to Delafield - literary, is stuck in country with her dull husband Alfred (of whom she is "very fond"), has a semi-affair with an admirer, Duke Ayland. Moderate tanning to pages with pencil inscriptions to front endpaper and there is cracks to guttering with exposed netting.

This volume contains not only The Diary of a Provincial Lady but three sequels as well: The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America, and The Provincial Lady in Wartime. I was hoping that Jonathan Coe’s Middle England might prove to be a razor-sharp critique on the current state-of-the-nation, but the reviews I’ve seen so far have been rather mixed or disappointing. Should like to make whimsical and charming reference to these and try to fancy myself as 'Elizabeth of the German Garden', but am interrupted by Cook, saying that the Fish is here, but he's only bought cod and haddock, and the haddock doesn't smell any too fresh, so what about cod?

I can remember how frustrated my mother was when the Managing Director’s wife would expect her to drop everything to entertain the wife of someone visiting the factory. Though poles apart in many ways, Bridget Jones's Diary could not have existed without her sometimes arch, often lofty, but deeply English upper middle class forbear.The conversation with Lady B only gets worse when she asks our heroine whether she knows that the only reliable bulbs come from Holland? Moreover, our protagonist frequently has to resort to bluffing her way through conversations with various acquaintances in an effort to save face, never having read quite the right books, seen the latest plays, or attended the de rigueur exhibitions of the day. Give her briefly to understand that Robert is in reality a compound of Don Juan, the Marquis de Sade, and Dr. So there we were: a dying old lady, an ardent American feminist and a scruffy Putney journalist, with nothing in common on the surface, yet all identifying totally with EM Delafield's gentle, disaster-prone, yet curiously dry-witted heroine.