Bøker av Stella Gibbons

'Don't show proper feelin', does it, not turnin' up for 'is dad's funeral?'Siblings Sophia, Harry and Francis have lost both their parents in the last six months. Attending the funeral for their estranged father, they wonder what will become of them now that the last connection to their difficult childhood has been severed. What have they inherited - financially and emotionally - to guide them to adulthood, and build a new home together? Enbury Heath is a semi-autobiographical account of the years which Gibbons and her brothers spent living in a cottage in Hampstead Heath: a wonderfully astute, bittersweet novel about family, grief, money, and the pleasures of London.

James's gesture with the key was cautious because he was not always sure of who or what he would find in the hall when he got in. It might be someone in tears, or someone asleep while they filled up time waiting to catch a train, or someone drunk.James Muir has reason to be cautious about entering his own home. His wife Daisy just can't resist solving everyone else's problems. There's Delia Huxtable, a young unwed mother, and her daughter Evelyn ('my illegit'), Molly Raymond, who falls far too easily in love, Tibbs, an Eastern European refugee, and Daisy's old school friend Don ('The Hulk') and his family, for whom Daisy commandeers her neighbour Mrs Cavendish's top floor. All watched over, reluctantly, by Daisy's father, a retired Army man, her elderly cousins Ella and Marcia (the latter a Dame thanks to her World War I service), and the long-suffering James-not to mention her young son James Too ('That white thing? I thought it was a parcel. She drags that child around too much.')But when Mrs Cavendish decides to enslave Don's wife to replace her lost servants and Molly turns her affections on James, Daisy is forced to re-think her priorities. First published in 1959 and reprinted here for the first time, A Pink Front Door is one of Stella Gibbons' most delightful and perceptive social comedies. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.'As usual Stella Gibbons tells a good story, combining a sharp eye for absurdities with pity for poor humans' Birmingham Post

...for the first time in her life, she was living as she had always unknowingly wanted to live: in freedom and solitude, with an animal for close companion. Her new life had acted upon her like a strong and delicious drug.Ivy Gover, a curmudgeonly middle-aged charwoman with some slightly witchy talents, inherits a rural cottage in Buckinghamshire and takes up residence near the tiny village of Little Warby. Having settled in with a rescued dog and a pet pigeon, she manages, despite her anti-social instincts, to have surprising effects on her new neighbours, including Angela Mordaunt, a spinster still mourning her dead beau, Coral and Pearl Cartaret, ditzy sisters who have just opened a tea shop, the local vicar, and wealthy Lord Gowerville, whose devotion she earns by healing his beloved dog. But her biggest challenge will likely be the 12-year-old runaway who shows up at her door...Blending vivid characters and a deep knowledge of human nature, this is also a funny and poignant tale of the challenges and freedoms of old age and solitude. The Woods in Winter was first published in 1970 and was the last novel Stella Gibbons wrote for publication. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.'Stella Gibbons sees people as they really are but she observes them so lovingly as well as acutely that one loves them too' Elizabeth Goudge

I suppose I was lonelier than I knew.It's the 1960s, and Maude Barrington, now in her seventies, has kept life firmly at bay since the deaths of her three brothers in World War I. But when an unexpected visitor convinces Maude to visit old friends in France (and an old nemesis, who persistently calls her "e;the snow-woman"e;), she is brought face to face with the long-suppressed emotions, sorrows, and misunderstandings of the past. Upon her return to London, she finds her frozen life invaded by a young mother and her son (born on great aunt Dorothea's sofa, no less) who have been more or less adopted by her long-time maid Millie. And Maude finds the snow of years of bitterness beginning to melt away.In The Snow-Woman, first published in 1969 and out of print for decades, Stella Gibbons has created one of her most complex and poignant, yet still very funny, tales-of aging, coming to terms, and rediscovering life. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.'Stella Gibbons sees people as they really are but she observes them so lovingly as well as acutely that one loves them too' Elizabeth Goudge

Terence danced, alas, only fairly well. She tried to hide the fact from herself.Una Beaumont, nineteen years old and desperate to leave the small Cornish town of Tregulla to try her luck on the London stage, finds her hopes dashed by her mother's sudden death and its financial implications. She broods about, working with her father on their small flower farm, but her boredom melts with the arrival of a womanizing artist, Terrence Willows, and his charming sister Emmeline (who spends her time 'footling about'). On hand to witness the resulting sparks are Una's childhood friend Barnabas, his brother Hugo, recovering from a car crash, their military father, who loathes tourists, and an array of other colourful locals. Soon, Terrence's dancing ability is the least of the facts Una is hiding from herself...First published in 1962 and out of print for decades, The Weather at Tregulla is a funny, touching tale of ill-advised young love against the glorious backdrop of the Cornish coast. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.'The characters are wonderfully well drawn, with a clear-eyed unsentimental sympathy of which Miss Gibbons has the secret' Sphere

Nevertheless, within three weeks from that very day she was seated in the train; leaving London, leaving her life in England with every detail arranged and every foreseeable mishap foreseen and guarded against-and pinned on her coat was a bunch of gentians given to her in loving farewell by her husband-and she was on her way to the Alps.Worn down by postwar London life, forty-something Lucy Cottrell finds herself accepting a surprise invitation to spend the summer at a Swiss chalet, accompanied by the very practical and undemonstrative Freda Blandish, whom she barely knows. The two are charged with inventorying the contents of the chalet, but distractions soon abound, first from Freda's slightly woebegone daughter Astra and her hoity-toity friend Kay, then from Lucy's godson Bertram and his friend Peter. Utta, the housekeeper, determined to prevent any changes to the chalet she loves, and a challenging paying guest add complications, as do clashing personalities, misunderstandings, and budding romance-not to mention a bit of Alpine climbing.Packed with good humour, lush scenery, and irresistible charm, The Swiss Summer, first published in 1951, is one of Stella Gibbons' most delightful novels. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women's historian Elizabeth Crawford.'For holiday reading it would be hard to find anything better.' Guardian

Cherry Hellin'sworth is fulfilling her Community Service stint by working at a Village Hall as the Functions Manager. But she's not terribly good at it. On one evening she manages to to hire out the hall to the Village Drama Society, the Cricket team, a Singing Telegram and a Country and Western group called the'southern Fried Chickens.13 women, 13 men

Flora Poste, orphaned at twenty, decides to go and live with her relatives at Cold Comfort Farm. Once there she discovers they exist in a state of chaos and feels it is up to her to bring order.

It might take the rest of her life to find out. While Stella Gibbons was celebrated for her beloved bestseller Cold Comfort Farm, the manuscript for Pure Juliet lay unseen and forgotten until it was brought to light by her family in 2014, and is published here for the first time in Vintage Classics.

Wilfred Davis, quiet, retired, respectable widower, is sitting and sobbing on a park bench. He has lost his daughter and any sense of purpose. A mysterious stranger passes him a handkerchief, and strikes up a conversation that leads to friendship and an unconventional new home for Wilfred.

Adam Lambsbreath dresses up as Father Christmas in two of Judith's red shawls. There are unsuitable presents, unpleasant insertions into the pudding and some good Starkadder table talk over. Aunt Ada Doom orders Amos to carve the turkey, adding: "Ay, would it were a vulture, 'twere more fitting".

Thrown out of her long-established office job, Miss Christine Smith takes up a new role as housekeeper for a group of middle-aged artists. Written in the 1960s, surrounded by social and political transitions, the novel focuses on change, or the lack thereof.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LYNNE TRUSS'Stella Gibbons is the Jane Austen of the twentieth century' The TimesSet in wartime London, Westwood tells the story of Margaret Steggles, a plain bookish girl whose mother has told her that she is not the type that attracts men.

Gladys and Annie Barnes are impoverished sisters who have seen better times. They live in a modest cottage in the backstreets of Highate with Mr Fisher, a mild but eccentric old man living secretively in the attic above them. Their quiet lives are thrown into confusion when a new landlord takes over, a dreaded and unscrupulous 'rackman'.

Robert Poste's child is back at Cold Comfort Farm. Flora finds the farm transformed into a twee haven filled with Toby jugs and peasant pottery, and rooms labelled 'Quiete Retreate' and 'Greate laundrie'.

Set on the eve of World War II in a resort on the east coast of England, The Rich House follows the love affairs of six young people and their intertwined adorations. These three tip the balance, and relationships shift, but even war cannot halt the passions of the young.

On the dunes west of Bruges, two-year-old Ydette is found wrapped in a blanket and taken back to live in a small grocer's shop. Opposite the shop live the wealthy van Roeslaere family and their son, Adriaan, a spoilt boy, plagued by ugliness.

When Nell Sely moves from sleepy Dorset to Hampstead she leaves behind a childhood of dull teas and oppressive rules for the freedom of the big city. In this city of seductive, shifting morals, smoke-filled jazz-clubs and glamorous espresso bars, Nell must master her new found independence and learn to strike her own course.

The Club in central London holds the quarters of Queen Victoria's finest regiment: the First Bloods. Inside the mighty building, with its two exquisite glass towers, the First Bloods and their regimental servants tussle over a portion of recreational ground.

** AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME **'Stella Gibbons's gift is very special' Daily ExpressAmy, a neglected motherless child in 1920s London meets Robert, a wealthy American boy.

Uprooted from war-torn London, Alda Lucie-Brown and her three daughters start a new life at Pine Cottage in rural Sussex. Unsuited to a quiet life, Alda attempts to orchestrate - with varying degrees of success - the love affairs of her neighbours.

It is run by the unlikely partnership of balmy Miss Padsoe and young, cockney Miss Baker - divided by class and age, they are determined to dislike each other. Through their tale and the interwoven tribulations of two young lovers, Gibbons's sparkling novel explores the heart of friendship and what unites us.

Brother and sister, Constance and Kenneth Fielding live in calm respectability, just out of reach of London and the Blitz. But when a series of uninvited guests converge upon them - from a Balkan exile to Ken's old flame and the siblings' own raffish father - the household struggles to preserve its precious peace.

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World''Brilliant ... very probably the funniest book ever written' Sunday TimesWhen sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly-named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last twenty years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves to take each of the family in hand. A hilarious and ruthless parody of rural melodramas and purple prose, Cold Comfort Farm is one of the best-loved comic novels of all time.'Screamingly funny and wildly subversive' Marian Keyes, GuardianThe Penguin Classics edition of Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm is introduced by Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves.If you enjoyed Cold Comfort Farm you might like George and Weedon Grossmith's Diary of a Nobody, also available in Penguin Classics.

Life is not quite a fairytale for poor Viola. Left penniless, the young widow is forced to live with her late husband's family in a joyless old house. There's Mr Wither, a tyrannical old miser, Mrs Wither, who thinks Viola is just a common shop girl, and two unlovely sisters-in-law, one of whom is in love with the chauffeur. Only the prospect of the charity ball can raise Viola's spirits - especially as Victor Spring, the local prince charming, will be there. But Victor's intentions towards our Cinderella are, in short, not quite honourable . . .