Stella Gibbons

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.

"Musta Masenduse talu" on 1933. aastal Femina Vie Heureuse auhinna võitnud riuklikult vaimukas portree Briti maaelust 1930. aastatel. Flora Poste, värskelt orvuks jäänud kõrgseltskonda kuuluv näitsik, kolib Musta Masenduse talus elavate mornide ja süngete sugulaste juurde ning langeb silmapilk ägedate emotsioonide, meeleheite ja salasepitsuste võrku, millest välja rabeledes suudab Flora ühtlasi talus asjad sobivalt ümber korraldada. Kui mõistlik ja elutark Flora Poste üheksateistkümneaastaselt orvuks jääb, otsustab neiu, et talle on jäänud vaid üks valik: sadada kaela Sussexi pärapõrgus elavatele sugulastele. Igati asjakohast nime - Musta Masenduse talu - kandvas paigas kohtub ta hukatusele määratud Starkadderitega: kirjeldamatu pahelisuse tõttu hääletute süümepiinade käes vappuv nõbu Judith; kõigile jutlustades põrgutuld kaela sajatav Amos; nende pojad: meelas Seth ja meelt ära heitev Reuben; looduslaps Elfine ja kõvasti metsa poole vana tädi Ada Doom, kes on viimased kakskümmend aastat oma magamistoas püsinud. Aga õnneks meeldib Florale üle kõige teiste inimeste elu korraldada. Kaine mõistuse ja tugeva tahtega relvastatult käärib ta käised üles, olles otsustanud kõik pereliikmed järgemööda käsile võtta. Ja tõepoolest, nagu kangelannale kohane, õnnestub tal kõik, mis ta ette võtab, tundugu see pealegi täiesti ebatõenäoline. "Musta Masenduse talu", maaelu kirjeldavaid melodraamasid ja üleilustatud proosat halastamatult pilav, teravmeelne paroodia, on üks kõigi aegade armastatumaid koomilisi romaane. Raamat on sobiv kõigile P. G. Wodehouse'i Woosteri ja Jeevesi austajatele ja J. K. Jerome'i loomingust lugupidajatele! Kirjanik, keda kadestas Virginia Woolf. Raamat, mille autoriks peeti varjunime all kirjutavat Evelyn Waugh'd. 20. sajandi Jane Austen - 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.

When a well-educated young socialite in 1930s England is left orphaned and unable to support herself at age twenty-two, she moves in with her eccentric relatives on their farm.

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.

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.

Indulge in a feel-good collection of stories from the author of Cold Comfort Farm WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITHThe title story tells of a typical Christmas at the farm before the coming of Flora Poste.

Available for the first time since its original publication more than fifty years ago, Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is a charming collection whose hilarious title story features Christmas dinner with the Starkadders before Flora's arrival. With Adam playing Santa while draped in Mrs. Starkadders's shawls, the family shares their traditional "Christmas pudding"-a m lange containing random objects of doom foretelling the coming year: a coffin nail for death, a bad sixpence for financial ruin, and a menthol cone to indicate that the lucky recipient will go "blind wi' headache." These lively tales will delight anyone who loves Stella Gibbons and her signature wit.

The Tower Guesthouse lies nestled between the beech woods of Buckinghamshire. 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.

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. Her unwilling subjects include an Italian POW, a Communist field-hand, a battery-chicken farmer and her intelligent friend Jean.

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 â?? from a Balkan exile to Kenâ??s old flame and the siblingsâ?? own raffish father â?? the household struggles to preserve its precious peace.