Well-loved by a legion of devoted readers, Angela Thirkell's modern Barsetshire chronicles are terrific comedies of manners, sparkling in a way both sophisticated and sweet. Her ample sense of humor is obvious in the place names here of Winter Overcotes, Shearing Junction, Worsted, Lambton, Fleece, Skeynes, and Eiderdown. This gay atmosphere is set against the gloom of WWII with great effect.

Growing Up is a story of ladies and gentlemen--and their irrepressible children--keeping the war at bay in and about the country town. The estate of Beliers Priory in East Baretshire is the home of Sir Harry and Lady Waring. They open their home to convalescing soldiers. With their niece, young friends and a housemaid romance abounds both upstairs and downstairs as these children "grow up" in spite of their circumstances.

Her fictional stretch of English countryside, Barsetshire, is spirited with infatuations, endearments, cross-purposes--in other words, with good people going about the business of life, irresistibly entertaining in their determination to misunderstand each other.