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County Chronicle

By Angela Thirkell
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Brief Description
'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times The county of Barsetshire is aflutter with preparations. With the wedding of Lucy Marling and Sam Adams fast approaching, and Lucy's brother Oliver... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Originally published in 1948, County Chronicle is a clever and quintessentially British classic in Angela Thirkell's beloved Barsetshire series. Now available as a Virago Modern Classic.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times

The county of Barsetshire is aflutter with preparations. With the wedding of Lucy Marling and Sam Adams fast approaching, and Lucy's brother Oliver brooding over his ill-fated tendre for glamorous Jessica Dean, Mrs Marling calls for reinforcements. Help arrives in the form of charming writer Isabel Dale, still mourning the loss of her fiancé on D-Day - and in need of her own fresh start.

Meanwhile, social barriers are crumbling at Omnium Castle, where theatrical rehearsals are bringing together the newly married Brandons and the impoverished Duke's children, Lady Cora and Lord Silverbridge. The stage is set for a season of new alliances, old friends, and second chances.

A sparkling and deeply affectionate portrait of post-war England, County Chronicle follows The Old Bank House in Angela Thirkell's beloved Barsetshire series.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349018676

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 April 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 28.0mm

Width: 126.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 301g

Pages: 384

Collections

Angela Thirkell Fiction General Fiction Humour Literary Fiction

About the Author

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.

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  • High Rising
    Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son Tony set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbour George Knox has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village. Can clever, practical Laura...
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  • Jutland Cottage
    ‘Charming, very funny indeed’ ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH Change is in the air in Barsetshire. The country may have a new queen, but Greshambury has a new rector, Canon Fewling, and a returned prodigal daughter: the beautiful, frivolous Rose Fairweather. But for lonely Margot Phelps, caring for her elderly parents in Jutland Cottage, the future holds little promise - until a...
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  • Love Among the Ruins
    'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times It's the summer of 1947, and peacetime has brought new challenges to Barsetshire. Beliers Priory, once a military hospital during the War, has now become a flourishing preparatory school for boys run by Leslie and Philip Winter....
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  • The Old Bank House
    'Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself' - Alexander McCall Smith The Old Bank House is set in an ancient landscape surrounding Edgewood Rectory, where the Grantly family navigates the post-war world. The Rector and Mrs Grantly are bewildered by the new challenges confronting their eldest children: Eleanor, who...
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