|
A witty portrait of rural England in the early
twentieth century, the Penguin Classics edition of
Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm is introduced
by Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots and
Leaves.
When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste
is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is
to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the
aptly-named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed
Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for
unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation;
their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of
nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has
kept to her bedroom for the last twenty years. But Flora
loves nothing better than to organise other people.
Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves
to take each of the family in hand. A hilarious and
ruthless parody of rural melodramas and purple prose,
Cold Comfort Farm is one of the best-loved comic
novels of all time.
This new Penguin Classics edition
includes an introduction by Lynne Truss discussing
Stella Gibbons's unconventional life and career and her
joyously satirical voice.
Stella Gibbons (1932-89)
novelist, poet and short-story writer, was educated at
North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at
University College, London. She then worked for ten
years on various papers, including the Evening
Standard and published several books of poetry and
short stories.
If you enjoyed Cold Comfort
Farm you might like George and Weedon Grossmith's
Diary of a Nobody, also available in Penguin
Classics.
'Brilliant ... very probably the funniest
book ever written'
Julie Burchill, Sunday
Times
'Literary
bliss'
Guardian
|
|
