Close Quarters (Angela Thirkell Barsetshire Series)

"When in doubt the answer's always tea," sister Chiffinch sagely remarks in this penultimate novel in the Angela Thirkell series, and what reader would disagree with her? For like everything else in Thirkell's world, even the summer is very British: "short, brutish, and nasty: also very cold and damp," and a spot of tea is just the thing to set things right.

Mrs. Donald Macfadyen, formerly Margot Phelps, whose personal transformation was the subject of JUTLAND COTTAGE. Though she is thrice-bereaved in a few short months, uprooted from her home and shuttled from one family to another, she nevertheless embraces a new promise of happiness before the last chapter reaches its end. It is without saying that Thirkell's legion of devoted readers will be delighted to join her.