mollie, what is it about Angela Thirkell you find so entertaining? I had read on this site and elsewhere (with US connections) about how funny etc she was and tried some of her books . . . and it took ages for the library to find any copies . . . but they seemed terribly 'dated' to me. Even in the time when she was writing English people hadn't lived like that for about 40-50 years. We are not surrounded by butlers, footmen and under-housemaids and most of us never where. The only part I found amusing was in one story where a young lady 'house guest' is worried that half-a-crown is not a big enough tip to leave the ladies maid and she imagines the girl throwing it on the floor and grinding it under her heel!
I could understand if all her characters were Dukes, Earls and Viscounts but they are not. She seems to have set her stories among 'ordinary' people (well middle-class 'ordinary') who inhabit an Edwardian time warp.
So please tell me why they appeal to Americans more than 'English' people . . .and I know Cece enjoys her work . . .what am I missing?

Well, Veer,
It is just a case of different strokes for different folks. If you have tried Thirkell and don't care for her, she is just not "your cup of tea!" Ha. First I read Coronation Summer and thought it was weak and boring. Now I am reading Before Lunch and it is sweet, light and humorous. I like the writing style, the descriptions and characterizations. The actions and thoughts of the characters could exist in any time period!
Oh, and I wouldn't want to read about royalty. Of course, I identify with regular people who cook, entertain friends, know and deal with some unpleasant people and "get on" with day-to-day living. High times, low times.
You must be young. Shockingly, age has crept up on me, but Before Lunch doesn't seem that "dated." They do use telephones and drive cars. The main difference is that I don't have any help in the house/kitchen.
I can only speak for myself as one anglophile, but ever since I started reading English literature (the first was Wuthering Heights)as a girl, I have been totally enthralled with (most) anything English. I love love history, and boy, do you guys have it! English people I have known have laughed about many Americans going ga ga over "old things." U.S. history is not very old as you know.
The English countryside I have visited is so pastoral and even dream-like and the great majority of English people I've met are charming.
Reading Pym, Hardy, Thirkell and others is calming and takes me to another time and place. I have heard that some of your countrymen are interested in things American...maybe it is just a case of liking something different from what you know.
I haven't been in this forum long. Who are your favorite authors and books?
Mollie

Mollie, thanks for getting back and I find it quite charming that you think I must be young but honesty makes me admit to being fairly long-in-the-tooth and, though slightly less old than cars and phones, when I was born Churchill was PM, Roosevelt US Pres. and Hitler still causing trouble world-wide.
OK maybe I'm being rather hard on Thirkell, Pym et al and I can understand why Americans enjoy reading about the English countryside, our 'quaint' tea-drinking customs and our presumed charming manners .. . although that requires a great leap of faith these days . . .!
Yes, we certainly have plenty of history. The physical sort, buildings, monuments, landscapes are, at last, being recognised for what they are and our 'Planners' are less keen on pulling things down just because they are 'old'.
The other sort of history . . .studying the past, appreciating our heritage is another matter. Many young people have little understanding of what or who 'made' this country, for good or ill, what it is today, a fault that should surely be laid at the door of the politicians/educators; often the same thing these days.

I suppose I do the same when I read books by US authors.
I have always enjoyed the work of Anne Tyler and although I know some of her female characters can be rather 'samey' I find I look beyond the story-line and am taking in the scenes of everyday US/Baltimore life. The minutiae "Isn't dinner eaten early in the US" "American teenagers are very much like British kids". That sort of thing.
I remember my late Mother reading Tom Sawyer to us as children and loving that 'small town' feeling (and didn't it dominate Hollywood movies with the picket fences and white-spired churches), then not long ago on TV I saw the old Mississippi river town of, I think, Cairo and was so disappointed to see it gradually collapsing in on itself and wondering if the US shouldn't be doing more to save its history before it is too late.
Sorry everyone, if this sounds very pompous and long-winded. ;-)

okay-I'm home for 11 hours and 45 minutes between trips, but gotta answer veer's question.
I love Thirkell for the same reason I love Miss Read. They are "slice of life" books. They ARE dated. And they do describe a society that didn't ever quite exist-but I wish it had. I think that's the real charm for me-it's England as I have always wanted it to be-and know that I wouldn't find it if I came to visit. So I stay home and live there in Thirkell's books. I'm one of the minor nobility, Mollie. Old title, no money.
They ARE about small matters-making do during the war, walking past the post office for days waiting for an important letter to come, dinner parties, courtships and misunderstandings. Whenever she mentions how restful it is NOT to have someone coming in to do the housework after all, I smile in sympathy-although I would not like to do away with the service that comes in once a fortnight to do the heavy cleaning, it is a flurry when they are coming and I feel like I'm in the way in my own home while they are here!
She is much gentler than Pym-there's no bite in her characterizations-all the humor is kind. Even the characters that would be figures of fun-Margot, for instance, are treated with respect and love by Thirkell in her writing and the other characters in the story. I find her restful and pleasant to read.
Vee-try thinking of it as science fiction or fantasy. Parellel society, slightly unbelievable characters, secret powers, (a witch who turned herself into a rabbit, not to mention-how else do the old family retainers control their "masters" with sighs, huffs and scoldings? And how DOES Rose Fairchild bewitch her husband, an otherwise sensible man?) and nearly human characters (the children and teenagers.) hehehe!
off to repack. I'm TIRED!

Gosh, Cece, and I thought my trips were close together.

I like "old title, no money." That would be me, too.