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This Anglophilic fairy tale features plucky Viola Withers, forced to live with in-laws following her husband‘s untimely demise. Essex country house exile is dreadful: stingy Mr. Withers and snooty Mrs. Withers take polite turns driving our widowed bride to the brink of despair. She weeps into pillows, dabs at red-rimmed eyes, and stumbles through enchanted woodland property— straight into the arms of Part-Time Prince Charming Cad Victor Spring!

Contemporary-circa-1938 Cinderella retelling, set in interwar Britain. I adored it, although Cold Comfort Farm is still my favorite of Gibbons' works. Loads of sly feminist and class commentary.

Mild warnings for word triggers in comments.

My god I love old-timey swearing. ❤

Me, first thoughts: I wonder if there's a special word to mean very strong pointed satire.

Me, second thoughts: I think that's just called 'satire.'

I should perhaps note that despite my fondness for quoting her, Hetty is a secondary character in this novel, at best

Being in the bookshop an extra two minutes? Quelle horreur!

I'm feeling very sympathetic to you, Hetty.

Laughed out loud at this paragraph. Stella Gibbons was amazing at describing her characters; somehow both generous and merciless.

Love this cover. Loving this book.

I read this whilst my iPad was broken. This is a charming retelling of Cinderella but with a bit of a twist. This isn‘t quite as good as her most famous book cold comfort farm but the telltale wit is here. All of these characters have flaws and are played with but it just ends up being such a riot. I liked and laughed at all the characters, every single one. #vmc

4⭐️ The writing style took some getting used to. The characters just a hoot. Each has annoying quirks that Gibbons overcomes with either redeemable traits or like able tendencies. Young, silly, & not terribly clever, widow Viola must navigate her way in a world dominated by men and her FIL. Her SIL finds herself in love w the chauffeur. The drunk squatting Hermit makes trouble for all. Witty, sad, w just enough humor to soften harshness of life.

When you buy a used book and the previous owner's bookmark is not even at the 60-page mark... 🤔

I'm back from my trip to DC and came back to tons of book mail! My #botm and #mylitbox came, and another book I'd ordered (the tagged one). I decided to get the two BOTM selections I had already read and loved.

"Mrs Wither came in, but he took no notice of her because he had seen her before."

Biggest page 1 burn in all of literature.