[.ca] High Rising (ISBN 1559213051)

From Amazon.com:
The unmarried Anne Todd, a wonderful secretary as well as a devoted bedside nurse to her decrepit mother, is an archetypal Thirkell heroine: plucky, determined, resourceful, but acutely aware that being safely married would be a better alternative. The current resurgence of interest of Thirkell, several of whose 40-odd novels of life in imaginary "Barsetshire" before World War II are being reissued, has awakened a nostalgia for the sharp glittering surfaces of her work. High Rising is Thirkell at her warm, easygoing best.

A light, high rising, amusing little English soufflé.:
It is good to see Angela Thirkell's light novels once more receiving attention, especially in the USA. "High Rising" is one of her first novels, dating from 1933. There were many English novelists in the 1930s who mined the traditionally English vein of gentle parody, graceful writing, mild absurdity, and class distinction. Much handsomer than most of them, and exhibiting the influence of Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope, Angela Thirkell peopled her novels with descendants of characters found in the latter's Barsetshire novels. If that gives an idea of the flavor and style that might be enjoyed in her books, I can add that this one chronicles the dizzy doings of Laura Morland, a novelists, who juggles the demands of four sons, her publisher, her secretary, her formidable maid Stoker, and a friend George Knox whom most think should be more than a friend to her. The custom of "coming to tea" sets them all interacting. Watch for the number of verbs Angela Thirkell can employ - from plunge, to insinuate - to describe how characters can enter a room.