Northbridge Rectory

I enjoyed this novel written by Angela Thirkell in 1941. In spite of its grim war background, the book is lighthearted, humorous and full of the entertaining idiosyncracies of the villagers who are doing their utmost to contribute to the war effort.

The Rector's wife, Verena Villars, is the main character and a thoroughly likeable woman.

"I wish I could be rude," she said plaintively to Miss Pemberton. "It doesn't seem fair for everyone else to do the rudeness and us to do the putting up with it."

"You could be rude," said Miss Pemberton, "extraordinarily rude. But those people wouldn't know you were rude, they would only think you were being ordinary. And you would feel so horrid afterwards that it wouldn't be worth it. There is no way of communicating with them, none at all."