Tag: Angela Thirkell

Pomfret Towers

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Thirkell, Angela. Pomfret Towers. Virago Press, 2013.

Reason read: Angela Thirkell was born in the month of January.

Taking place in Anthony Trollope’s fictional Barsetshire, Pomfret Towers is Thirkell’s sixth book in her series. First and foremost, it is not a book with an adventurous plot. Not a whole lot happens at Pomfret Towers. The entire book is based on human relationships and their interactions with each other.
Lord Pomfret is considered rude, but for the sake of status no one will turn down an invitation to dine at the Towers with him. They put aside their pride and self worth to grovel at the feet of an annoying man. He likes to invite the townsmen (without their wives) to dine with him. Considering Pomfret does not have chain stores or even cinemas, what else does the community have to do?
Teenager Alice Barton with no small trepidation accepts an invitation to a weekend-long party at the famed Pomfret Towers. Her nervousness over Lord Pomfret’s invitation borders on a deep psychological phobia. Even though Alice would be accompanied by her brother, Guy, Alice has always been a timid girl and dreads going to this party. She simply cannot picture herself laughing and carrying on with the other guests no matter who they were in society. Meanwhile her mother thinks a social event of this magnitude might do her daughter some good. Lord Pomfret has quite the weekend was planned: Friday – guests arrive in time for playing games.
Saturday – the men go shooting while the women go to see a castle. At night there is dancing, which Alice is surprisingly good at.
Sunday – guests can attend church, enjoy a luncheon and look at horses.
When Alice develops a crush on the one man everyone else thinks is horrible she finds her voice to defend her love. This is a pivotal moment for the young girl. [As an aside, I found Alice to be annoying for the following descriptions of her: delicate, uneducated, timid, semi-invalid, miserable, terrified, unhappy, despairing, hopeless, frightened, dreading, horrified, cowardice, mortified, shy, fearful, humble, meek, anxious, nervous, cautious, scared, alarmed, bewildered, and oblivious.]
A secondary plot in Pomfret Towers is about Mrs. Rivers negotiating her advance on her next book. She claims she found someone else who will give her two hundred pounds.
Pomfret end with the hint of a relationship moving in the right direction. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Author fact: Thirkell also wrote What did It All Mean (#23 in the Barsetshire series). This is the only other Thirkell I am reading for the Challenge. A second author fact: I consulted the Angela Thirkell Society of North America website to make sure I was reading the Barsetshire books in order.

Book trivia: The New York Times called Pomfret Towers a “gay and sparkling social comedy.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).

January with the King’s Men

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January started with my first official appointment to a chiropractor. I mentioned elsewhere that he wasn’t really confident he could put me back together, but that’s there and not here. Not being able to run has given me more time to read…much more than I realized. You can get a lot done with an extra 4-5 hours a week! With that being said, here are the books:

Fiction:

  • Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright. This story stayed with me for a really long time.
  • Tea From an Empty Cup by Pat Cadigan. I think I was most disappointed by this one because I saw the ending a mile away.
  • On the Beach by Nevil Shute. I listened to this on audio and I still can’t stop thinking about it.
  • Black Alibi by Cornell Woolrich. I read this one in a day.
  • Wake Up, Darlin’ Corey by M.K. Wren. Another really short book.
  • What Did It Mean? by Angela Thirkell. I gave up on this one after 120 pages. Boring!

Nonfiction:

  • Partisans: Marriage, Politics, and Betrayal Among the New York Intellectuals by David Laskin.
  • War Child by Emmanuel Jal. Probably the most raw and captivating story of the month. Read in a weekend.
  • Traveller’s Prelude by Freya Stark
  • Practicing History by Barbara Tuchman. No one does history like Barbara. (AB/print)
  • Last Cheater’s Waltz by Ellen Meloy. She has a wicked sense of humor.

Series continuations:

  • Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle by Dorothy Gilman. The last Pollifax mystery I will read.  Read in a day.

Early Reviews:

  • Brain Food: the Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Health by Lisa Mosconi. This took me a really long time to read. You may have seen it on other lists. There was just a lot to it.

 

What Did It Mean?

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Thirkell, Angela. What did It Mean? . New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1954.

Reason read: Thirkell was born on January 30th and interestingly enough, died on January 29th seventy one years later. Read What Did It Mean? in her honor.

From the onset, I didn’t think I would care for What Did It Mean?. Before the reader gets ten pages in he or she is introduced to a myriad of characters with no clue as to their importance to the plot. I had to start a list and was constantly wondering if I needed to remember these people later on. The plot itself centers around the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Everyone is frantically planning complicated festivities through various committees. Of course, every member has ulterior motives and the main objective is often forgotten in the frenzy. With there being so many different characters, it is a study in society as much as it is about a specific locale, Barsetshire. I couldn’t help it but I found myself getting bored.

The only line I liked, “The Women’s Institutes and the Townswomen’s Guild became as sisters, though always reserving the right of a sister to dislike a sister wholeheartedly (p 7).

Author fact: Thirkell also wrote Pomfret Towers: a Novel which is on my Challenge list. Sigh.
Author gossip: According to Thirkell’s Wikipedia page, Thirkell left her second husband in Australia under the guise of going on holiday to England when, in reality, she was leaving for good. To be fair, Thirkell’s first husband insisted on naming their first child after a former lover.

Book trivia: What Did It Mean is one of almost 30 books in the Barsetshire Chronicles (yes, Anthony Trollope’s fictional Barsetshire).

Nancy said: Nancy had a lot to say about Thirkell’s writing in general, but nothing specific about What Did It Mean? Probably the most interesting comment Pearl had about Thirkell is the “appallingly nasty things” Thirkell had her characters utter.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Barsetshire and Beyond” (p 15).