The Headmistress

Angela Thirkell's gentle wit and her keen eye for the foibles, apparel, and surroundings of the English bourgeoisie is never more apparent than in this blithe story of the plucky heroine of the title. Miss Sparling is handsome, efficient, and immensely competent, and while Thirkell was hardly a latent feminist, the men in this book are mostly dependent husbands, worthless fops, or ironic and detached observers. Thirkell's work feeds our nostalgia for an idealized English countryside that is no more and, perhaps, never was.