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Before Lunch

Virago Modern Classics (Book 366)

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What to expect

Jack Middleton likes to imagine himself a country squire. At weekends he retires to Laverings Estate with his wife, Catherine. He may be pompous, and they may seem ill-matched, but the couple are devoted to each other.

When Jack's widowed sister, Lilian, and her two stepchildren arrive to spend the summer in the neighbouring house, he dreads the intrusion to his idyll: Daphne, capable and ambitious, is too lively for his taste, whereas her brother Denis, a composer, he finds a crashing bore. But their wit and good sense charm the residents of Barchester, and they win over Lord Bond with an impromptu Gilbert and Sullivan evening. Even Jack begins to thaw.

Before long, Daphne and Lord Bond's son become attracted to each other, but each believes the other is attached to someone else. Can disaster be averted before she marries the wrong man?

First published in 1939, Before Lunch is a sparkling comedy from Angela Thirkell's much-loved classic series.

Critics Review

You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own
New York Times
The novels are a delight, with touches of E. F. Benson, E. M. Delafield and P. G. Wodehouse
Independent on Sunday
Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself
Author Angela Thirkell
Narrator Elaine Claxton
Series Virago Modern Classics
Duration 9 hours and 59 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9781405568418
Format Audiobook
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Genre Classic fiction, Family life fiction, Generational sagas, Humorous fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

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