Summer Half, Angela Thirkell
Summer Half, Angela Thirkell
List: $23.99 | Sale: $16.79
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Summer Half
A Virago Modern Classic

Author: Angela Thirkell

Narrator: Penelope Freeman

Unabridged: 7 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/16/2015

Synopsis

To his parents' dismay, Colin Keith - out of the noble but misplaced sense of duty peculiar to high-minded young university graduates - chooses to quit his training for the Bar and take a teaching job at Southbridge School. Little does Colin imagine that he will count among his pupils the demon in human form known as Tony Morland; or that the master's ravishing, feather-brained daughter Rose will, with her flights of fancy and many admirers, spread chaos throughout school and village. Humorous, high-spirited and cleverly observed, Summer Half is a comic delight.

About Angela Thirkell

Angela Thirkell (1890-1961) was the eldest daughter of John William Mackail, a Scottish classical scholar and civil servant, and Margaret Burne-Jones. Her relatives included the pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, Rudyard Kipling and Stanley Baldwin, and her grandfather was J. M. Barrie. She was educated in London and Paris, and began publishing articles and stories in the 1920s. In 1931 she brought out her first book, a memoir entitled Three Houses, and in 1933 her comic novel High Rising - set in the fictional county of Barsetshire, borrowed from Trollope - met with great success. She went on to write nearly thirty Barsetshire novels, as well as several further works of fiction and non-fiction. She was twice married and had four children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Elinor on March 12, 2019

This book provides a comprehensive impression of English gentry life between wars -- with its descriptions of boarding schools, steam trains, country homes, punting on rivers, picnics, tennis, clothes, cooks and housekeepers -- all woven together with a cast of interesting characters who engage in m......more

Goodreads review by Mela on November 07, 2022

Marvelous, as Rose would have said ;-) How I missed all those people. Most of all: Lydia and Tony - I adore them. And Thirkell's wit - simply wonderful. The adventures of Hacker with the chameleon... (let's say it again) marvelous ;-) You’d love the cook. She’s a perfect angel, and doesn’t mind drow......more

Goodreads review by Abigail on July 11, 2021

Summer Half marks the moment when Angela Thirkell really hits her stride in her chosen lane of fiction. She writes lighthearted charmers of novels, with tons of gentle social comedy and a dash of romance. Her previous novels in the series had their moments, but this one kept me going from beginning......more

Quotes

Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself

What sings out is the ebullience and charm of her characters, deliciously sparkling dialogue, a romping plot, her wit and gentle satire, and the escapist satisfaction of neatly tied-up happy endings bookoxygen.com

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