The Brandons, Angela Thirkell
The Brandons, Angela Thirkell
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The Brandons
A Virago Modern Classic

Author: Angela Thirkell

Narrator: Jilly Bond

Unabridged: 10 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/03/2016

Synopsis

Lavinia Brandon is quite the loveliest widow in Barsetshire, blessed with beauty and grace, as well as two handsome grown-up children, Delia and Francis. So thinks their cousin Hilary Grant when he comes to stay and - like many before him - promptly falls for his fragrant hostess. Meanwhile, the Brandons' ill-tempered dowager aunt is stirring up controversy over her legacy, and Lavinia's attention is further occupied by the challenges of making a match between the vicar and gifted village helpmeet Miss Morris, and elegantly deterring her love-struck suitors. Angela Thirkell's 1930s comedy is bright, witty and winning.

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.

About Jilly Bond

JILLY BOND has recorded over 300 audiobooks and won four Audiofile Earphones Awards. She also regularly appears on stage, and has appeared at the National Theatre in "Island", at the Birmingham Repertory in "Jump!", Manchester Lowry in "Transmissions", the English Theatre of Hamburg in "Othello" and "Mrs Warren's Profession" and on the Edinburgh and London Fringes, including at the Finborough as human-rights lawyer Fethiye Cetin in "I Wish to Die Singing" which won the Best Play UK Studio Theatre Awards. She has recorded over 100 radio plays for the BBC, as well as playing Bridget in "The Archers", and TV work has includedDr Greene in "Doctors", Dr Jannatie in "Judge John Deed" and roles in "Comedy Nation", "People Like Us", "My Hero" & "Alastair McGowan's Big Impression".

Reviews

Goodreads review by Melindam

Rounding my rating up to 4,5 stars upon rereading/re-listening to this delightfully breezy and ironic book, especially after recently reading Book 2 (Wild Strawberries) in the Barsetshire series which I found lacklustre and altogether weak. I have only read 5 books from the series in a haphazard ord......more

Goodreads review by QNPoohBear

This story focuses on Mrs. Brandon, a lovely widow with two young adult children living at her late husband's home, Stories, in the village of Pomfret Madigral. Mrs. Brandon is so lovely and kind to everyone, including her husband's tyrannical Aunt Amelia. Aunt Amelia aka "Sissy" is the last of the......more

Quotes

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

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

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