It has been far too long since I read any Angela Thirkell but I do have a number of her books left to review from my 2011 reading and will start with one my favourites: Pomfret Towers. When shy Alice Barton is invited to spend the weekend at Pomfret Towers for a house party, she is terrified at the prospect of being in an unfamiliar home among countless strangers. Thankfully, her brother Guy and her close friends Sally and Roddy Wicklow, an energetic, outdoorsy brother and sister who are quite protective of the timid Alice, are also attending. And once she arrives at Pomfret Towers, she finds herself not only surviving (something that, as far as she was concerned, was much in doubt) but falling in love for the first time.
But, like any innocent young lady in a novel, Alice falls in love with the most odious person at the house party: Julian Rivers, a selfish, arrogant young artist, who generously allows Alice to follow him about in worshipful silence and listen to his tiresome pontifications. Awful, yes, and infuriating for those present who truly love and care for Alice, but endlessly amusing for the reader. Matches are being made everywhere at Pomfret Towers as Thirkell gleefully pairs off the young guests. Straight-talking Sally Wicklow is introduced to Lord Pomfret’s soft-spoken heir, Gillie Foster, who is instantly attracted by her vivacity, and Alice’s brother Guy becomes briefly and enthusiastically entangled with the charming Phoebe Rivers. And, of course, in the end Alice finds herself with just the right man.
But, thankfully, there is more to this novel than the amusing romances of the young. The house party is the perfect excuse for Thirkell to drop in vastly amusing minor characters or simply entertaining asides from people who are never heard from again, presumably spending the rest of the novel tucked away in a sitting room while the action follows the young folk outdoors. For example, there is Lady Wimple, whose illogical but delightful linking of Rome and the practice of reading aloud charmed me:
Lady Wimple said that she and her husband had read aloud to each other every evening when not otherwise engaged, for nearly fifty years. They had formed the habit, she said, while on their honeymoon in Rome, and had never let it drop, though she understood that Rome was much altered now.
And then there is Mr Johns the publisher, an experienced house party guest with the perfect exit strategy:
It was Mr Johns’s practice, whenever he went away to see a strange house, to have a telegram sent to him every day from his office, containing the words ‘Return if possible urgent.’ This telegram he tore up if he was enjoying himself, but if he was bored he was able to exhibit it mournfully to his host and ask if he would be sent to the station in time for the best afternoon train.
I love when Thirkell writes about authors. I love her books with Mrs Morland, brave mother to Tony, with her disparaging remarks about her wildly popular novels, and Barsetshire seems to be teeming with all sorts of other authors, two of whom show up in Pomfret Towers. Mrs Barton, mother to Alice and Guy, is certainly the more appealing of the authors here. Other characters speak of her dense works with respect, though few seem to have read (or at least understood) her “learned historical novels about the more obscure bastards of Popes and cardinals, with a wealth of documentation that overawed reviewers.” She is incredibly fascinated by her subject and easily distracted by it; she comes across as a delightfully absentminded parent:
… she only had to go into her sitting-room and take up a paper or a book, to be at once engulfed in the ocean of the past, reliving with intensity the lives of people about whom little was known and whose very existence was dubious. When the tide ebbed, leaving her stranded upon the shores of everyday life, she would emerge in a dazed condition to preside at her own table, or take a fitful interest in her neighbours. He own son and daughter she treated rather as amusing guests who happened to be making a prolonged stay…
Mrs Rivers, on the other hand, provokes far less affection from her readers, her friends, her family and, especially, her publisher Mr Johns (to whom she is known as “the Baedeker Bitch” for the wealth of local detail she includes in her exotic novels). But everyone seems to have read at least one of her novels, and one is all you really need to have read since they all sound hilariously similar. One centers on “a middle-aged woman who goes on a cruise to Norway and has a terrific comeback with a young professor”, another has “a woman who had a husband and family but she thought they didn’t understand her, so she went with a travelling party to North Africa and had a very motherly affair with a young Moor” and a third features a woman who “goes off to Danzig and goes off the deep end a bit with a man in the diplomatic.” It’s embarrassing stuff for her children but a source of constant delight and pride to Mrs Rivers.
But Mrs Rivers’ real crime is having brought Julian Rivers into the world. Her daughter Phoebe is lovely, an immediate ally of Alice’s, but her son Julian is a miserable excuse for a human being (more so than most awful young men). Mrs Rivers is uppity and grasping, needing to always be the center of attention, and quite desperate to pull off a match between Phoebe Rivers and Gillie Foster, though the two friends have no romantic interest in one another. Mrs Rivers is tiresome, but not malevolent. Julian, on the other hand, actively does his best to be irredeemably obnoxious. There are countless instances of his selfishness but even love-struck Alice cannot ignore his awfulness when he insults and brings his mother to tears in public.
Thirkell has as much to say about the parent-child relationship as she does about any of the romantic entanglements in this novel. There is the Rivers family, of course, and there are also Lord and Lady Pomfret, still mourning their dead son many years after his death even as they embrace Gillie as the heir. Roddy and Sally Wicklow are such competent, forceful young folk that their parents are barely necessary and never actively appear but are still mentioned with affection for having the good sense not to even attempt to actively parent their grown children:
Mr and Mrs Wicklow knew their place. Sally had a delightful sitting-room of her own looking on the street, so that she could shout out to her friends about dogs or horses as they went by, and the use of the old stables at the back for her dogs and their puppies. Roddy always dropped into his sister’s room if he was back by tea-time, and his father and mother never came unless invited. But the young Wicklows were well disposed towards their parents and made no objection to partaking of breakfast, lunch and dinner with them when not more amusingly engaged, or to spending the evening in the drawing-room if Sally’s wireless was out of order.
And then there is Mrs Barton, who does occasionally emerge from her research and writing about the 15th and 16th Centuries long enough to worry about what will happen to her delicate, beloved Alice:
If, Mrs Barton reflected, they had lived in the period she knew so well, there would have been no difficulty. Mr Barton, bold, shrewd and unscrupulous, would have married his daughter to a suitable husband, of rather higher rank than their own. The husband, considering the large dowry which the Bartons could well afford to give their daughter, would not have boggled at her retiring ways, and by the time she had two or three children and as many brocaded and furred dresses as she wanted, her problems would be solved. But Mr Barton, good husband, father, and man of business as he was, would never dream of looking for a husband for Alice and would mention the considerable sum of money that he was prepared to settle on her in a deprecating way, if indeed he ever went as far as mentioning it at all. One couldn’t find husbands for girls now. They found their own. And if they were not fitted for the chase, it was difficult to know what to do.
From start to finish, Pomfret Towers was a delight. It is so wonderfully plotted, holding one’s interested evenly from the first page to the last without any of the unevenness that can come when Thirkell is handling a larger cast or less complimentary plots. It stands on its own, independent of the rest of the series, very well and would serve as a wonderful introduction to Thirkell. It really is the ideal country house novel, full of humour, entertaining characters, and plenty of satisfying romantic developments that play out over the course of a few short days.
I’ve heard many good things about Angela Thirkell but never read any of her novels. This sounds like a sheer delight so I must remedy that. Great review – thanks.
I have only wonderful things to say about Thirkell! I hope you find time to try her for yourself soon!
I always enjoy your reviews of Thirkell so much, you really get to the heart of her books and her charcters. I have to admit that I didn’t fully appreciate this one the first time I read it – and actually gave my copy away – which just meant that I had to track another one down a couple of years ago when I realized my mistake.
Thank you, Lisa. The idea of getting rid of a Thirkell novel -especially this one! – when they’re so difficult to obtain made me shudder but I’m very glad you came to see the error of your ways and we able to track another copy down!
quite pleased to see that Virago are going to reprint a couple of Thirkell titles – I hope they go on to do the lot because they’re all but impossible to find in the UK. This is a mouth watering review and I would like nothing better than to sit down with a copy now.
Isn’t that the most wonderful news? I can’t wait to see the cover designs for the Virago editions. I also hope they end up getting the rights to publish all the novels because they’re no less easier to find in Canada! I’m lucky that the university library here has a reasonable though not exhaustive collection of her work but I really want to be able to own my copies, especially of my favourite novels.
Still haven’t read Thirkell, but my library has one (1) of her titles that you’ve reviewed, Growing Up, so I’m adding it to my library list to check on. I have to be careful with your enthusiastic reviews…you tend to cause my TBR shelves to sag! (Yes, of course it’s all your fault, is has nothing to do with my lack of self-control when it comes to buying books… 😉 ).
I will happily claim responsibility for any sagging shelves, Susan! Growing Up is one of my favourites, in no small part because it features my favourite Thirkell character, Lydia (Keith) Merton. I hope you enjoy it!
I’ll have to add this one to my list. I’ve read the first few Barsetshire books and enjoyed them but it’s been too long since I’ve picked up any of her books.
It would be the perfect book to serve as a reintroduction to Thirkell, Danielle! Though any Thirkell is better than your currrent Thirkell-less state 😉
I’ve wanted to read Thirkell for a while now, thanks to you and Katrina (from Pining for the West). Katrina advised me not to buy any of her novels since they’re so hard to find and she’s not sure if I will like her or not. I need to see about using ILL this year to try one out because I really do think I will like her. Thanks for the great review!
I am always a believer in using the library first and then buying, which is exactly what I’ve done with Thirkell, so of course I can only echo Katrina’s advice. Good luck tracking some down! If nothing else, Virago will be publishing two of the early Barsetshire books (High Rising and Wild Strawberries) later this year so those at least will be readily available and reasonably affordable. Wild Strawberries was my first Thirkell last January and I think it’s an excellent introduction both to her style and Barsetshire.
ILL is the best !
Circle of Sisters is an interesting book about Angela’s grandmother and great aunts – the MacDonald sisters- who all either married someone famous or had a famous child (like Angela’s cousin, Rudyard Kipling.)
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Lovely review!
We linked to your splendid Post from our appreciation of lady novelists at teamgloria.com today 🙂
*wavingfromlosangeles*
[…] releases of Angela Thirkell’s Barsetshire books. Yes, they are publishing two next month (Pomfret Towers and Christmas at High Rising) but what I am most excited about right now are the three titles they […]
Thanks to you, I have now either read or listened to eight Thirkell books. Pomfret Towers is definitely one of my favorites. I was especially touched by Mr. Barton’s yearning to spend more time with his daughter, just as she was getting ready to fly the nest.
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[…] were a child, and for years I refused austerely to read her. But recently Wild Strawberries and Pomfret Towers have weakened me. I do think she’s good, though if we are roasting her I will add that […]