The Diary of a Provincial Lady

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First few paragraphs set the tone for a delightful, light, witty flight into this provincial world. Shall she, says Lady B., ring for my car? Refrain from replying that no amount of ringing will bring my car to the door all by itself, and say instead that I walked. Lady B. exclaims that this is Impossible, and that I am Too Marvellous, Altogether. Take my leave before she can add that I am such a Perfect Countrywoman, which I feel is coming next. Get home—still chilled to the bone owing to enforced detention at Hard Court—and tell Robert what I think of Lady B. ... " I adore this book. The Provincial Lady is basically Bridget Jones, and I will eat my proverbial hat if Helen Fielding isn't intimately familiar with her - on first name terms, even. Query: Does motherhood lead to cynicism? This contrary to every convention of art, literature, or morality, but cannot altogether escape conviction that answer may be in the affirmative.)

Faster! Faster! (1936) - Claudia Winstoe, a dynamo of energy, runs London Universal Services and her home with equal tyranny. Pushing herself too hard, she dies in a collision, and the family and business get on fine without her. I don’t think The Provincial Lady’s name was mentioned in the novel, or if it was it went over my head. Start directly after lunch, Robert and Mary's husband appearing in a highly unnatural state of shiny smartness with a top-hat apiece. Effect of this splendour greatly mitigated, when they don the top-hats, by screams of unaffected amusement from both children. We drive off, leaving them leaning against Mademoiselle, apparently helpless with mirth.

E M Delafield

May 13th. — Regrettable but undeniable ray of amusement lightens general murk on hearing report that Cousin Maud Blekinsop possesses a baby Austin, and has been running it all around the parish with old Mrs. B., shawls and all, beside her. Cousin Maude, adds Robert thoughtfully, is not his idea of a good driver. He says no more, but I at once have dramatic visions of Mrs. B. flying over the nearest hedge, shawls waving in every direction, while Cousin Maud and the baby Austin charge a steamroller in a narrow lane. Am sorry to record that this leads to hearty laughter on my part, after which I feel better than for weeks past." The War Workers (1918) - the travails of working in a Supply Depot under the tyrannical control of Charmain Vivian, who meets her match in a newly arrived clergyman's daughter Grace Jones.

The Glass Wall (1932) - A play about religious vocation, clearly somewhat autobiographical, and with many parts for women. If you’re interested in my thoughts on other books from 1930, you can find the relevant posts via the following links: Ladies and Gentlemen in Victorian Fiction (1937) - published by Leonard & Virginia Woolf. Delafield was a great fan of Charlotte Mary Yonge. My overall impression of this provincial lady is of someone I would have liked to have met and been friends with although, she was writing in the 1930s and was probably above my class and income. She is very relatable, because of all the cringe worthy, embarrassing things that seem to happen to her all the time. Delafield's son Lionel died in late 1940, some suggest by his own hand, something from which she never recovered. Three years later, after collapsing while giving a lecture in Oxford, Delafield died on 2 December 1943 after a progressive decline which first necessitated a colostomy and visits to a neurologist. She was buried under her favourite yew tree in Kentisbeare churchyard, near her son. Her mother survived her and died in October 1945. Her daughter, Rosamund Dashwood, emigrated to Canada.

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If the question suggests a qualified answer, there is no doubt that the art of diary writing is alive and well and very, very funny in Devonshire in the 1920s. At least in the hands of E. M. Delafield. Though poles apart in many ways, Bridget Jones's Diary could not have existed without her sometimes arch, often lofty, but deeply English upper middle class forbear. Late and Soon (1943) - dedicated to Kate O'Brien. Valentine Arbell is the widowed chatelaine of a large country house in WW2. Her loose daughter Primrose is having an affair with Valentine's former admirer Rory, but Rory rekindles his passion for Valentine and they marry. Curious and rather depressing, to see how frequently the pursuit of Good Works leads to apparently unavoidable duplicity.