Stella Gibbons

Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons' hilarious comic novel of rural life, is new to Penguin Modern Classics. 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;...

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, an eccentric group of relatives suffering from a wide variety of ailments. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense...

Enbury Heath is Gibbons' semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about three siblings living in a Hampstead Heath cottage. 'Don't show proper feelin', does it, not turnin' up for 'is dad's funeral?' Siblings Sophia, Harry, and Francis have lost both their parents in the last six months. Attending the funeral for their estranged father, they wonder what will become of them now that...

A Christmas treat from a treasured comic writer Indulge in a feel-good collection of stories from the author of Cold Comfort Farm. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH The title story tells of a typical Christmas at the farm before the coming of Flora Poste. It is a parody of the worst sort of family Christmas—Adam Lambsbreath dresses up...

A hilarious and merciless parody of rural melodramas and one of the best-loved comic novels of all time. We are not like other folk, maybe, but there have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm... Sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste has been expensively educated to do everything but earn a living. When she is orphaned at twenty, she decides her only...

'Gibbons was an acute and witty observer, and her dissection of the British class system is spot-on' - Mail on Sunday Thrown out of her long-established office job, Miss Christine Smith takes up a new role as housekeeper for a group of middle-aged artists. Charmed by a previous mystical experience, her spirituality is nurtured further by the tenants, who seem...

The atmosphere of the cheap cafes...is subtly caught. Packed tight with wit and understanding, it lights the London Scene - Scotsman When Nell Sely moves from sleepy Dorset to Hampstead she leaves behind a childhood of dull teas and oppressive rules for the freedom of the big city. Naive and only nineteen, she becomes embroiled with the wayward John Gaunt...

Stella Gibbons's gift is very special – Daily Express As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime Amy, a neglected motherless child in 1920s London, meets Robert, a wealthy American boy. It's an encounter she will never forget. My American follows the lives and loves of Amy Lee and Robert Vorst – from a chance childhood meeting to the...