Sharp and sweet

     "She had kept her brain exercised by reading heavyish books, which might not always be truly wise but at least were not those meringues of the intellect ...- novels."
     You could do worse than indulge in some literary iles flottantes by reading Stella Gibbons' 1938 novel Nightingale Wood. Young, penniless widow Viola comes to live with her dour in-laws in their dull house and despairs of having a life, but then she meets Victor Spring, rich, handsome, fast and engaged. Will our Cinderella ever get her Prince Charming? Well, her sister-in-law Tina (she of the 'heavyish books') falls for the wonderfully named Saxon, the family chauffeur, which stirs things up no end at home, and after dramatic events featuring characters who range from the 'slumocky' to the smart - class is an important theme and one played out with the right degree of emphasis - Viola's fate is finally settled.
     Without quite the eccentric perfection of Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons' first novel, and one that would be very hard to better) it is warm, funny, and full of delightfully knowing authorial comment on the action. With the modernity of its time, and marked by a degree of realism about its central characters' faults which shifts it out of the pure fairy tale category, it's bright and stylish and a lot of fun.