Best Selling Books by Stella GIBBONS

Cold Comfort Farm is a comic novel by English author Stella Gibbons, published in 1932. It parodies the romanticised, sometimes doom-laden accounts of rural life popular at the time, by writers such as Mary Webb. Following the death of her parents, the book and ''s heroine, Flora Poste, finds she is possessed "of every art and grace save that of earning her own living". She decides to take advantage of the fact that "no limits are set, either by society or one and ''s own conscience, to the amount one may impose on one and ''s relatives", and settles on visiting her distant relatives at the isolated Cold Comfort Farm in the fictional village of Howling in Sussex. The inhabitants of the farm – Aunt Ada Doom, the Starkadders, and their extended family and workers – feel obliged to take her in to atone for an unspecified wrong once done to her father.

Available for the first time since its original publication more than fifty years ago, Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm is a charming collection whose hilarious title story features Christmas dinner with the Starkadders before Flora''s arrival. With Adam playing Santa while draped in Mrs. Starkadders''s shawls, the family shares their traditional "Christmas pudding"-a mélange containing random objects of doom foretelling the coming year: a coffin nail for death, a bad sixpence for financial ruin, and a menthol cone to indicate that the lucky recipient will go "blind wi'' headache." These lively tales will delight anyone who loves Stella Gibbons and her signature wit.

A sly and satirical fairytale by the author of Cold Comfort Farm Unavailable for decades, Stella Gibbons''s Nightingale Wood is a delightfully modern romance ripe for rediscovery by the many fans of Cold Comfort Farm. Poor, lovely Viola has been left penniless and alone after her late husband''s demise, and is forced to live with his family in their joyu00adless home. Its occupants are nearly insufferable: Mr. Withers is a tyrannical old miser; Mrs. Withers dismisses her as a common shop girl; and Viola''s sisters-in-law, Madge and Tina, are too preoccupied with their own troubles to give her much thought. Only the prospect of the upcoming charity ball can lift her spirits-especially as Victor Spring, the local prince charming, will be there. But Victor''s intentions towards the young widow are, in short, not quite honorable.

"My American" follows the lives and loves of Amy Lee and Robert Vorst: from a chance childhood meeting to the comic, tragic and romantic trysts that follow. A baker''s daughter, Amy has dreams of becoming a writer, whilst Robert is destined to be a doctor. Later, embarking on a lecture tour, Amy is reminded of ''her American'' and endeavours to find him amidst Depression-era America.

In St Alberics, Hertfordshire, stands a newly built family home: Sunglades. Its seven rooms house Kenneth and Constance Fielding, middle-aged bachelor and spinster, along with Kenneth''s old flame, an industrious Balkan exile, a young economist and the Fieldings'' raffish father. Together they attempt to create a rural idyll.

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY LYNNE TRUSS ''Stella Gibbons is the Jane Austen of the twentieth century'' The Times Set in wartime London, Westwood tells the story of Margaret Steggles, a plain bookish girl whose mother has told her that she is not the type that attracts men. Her schoolfriend Hilda has a sunny temperament and keeps her service boys ''ever so cheery''. When Margaret finds a ration book on Hampstead Heath the pompous writer Gerard Challis enters both their lives. Margaret slavishly adores Challis and his artistic circle; Challis idolises Hilda for her hair and her eyes and Hilda finds Gerard''s romantic overtures a bit of a bind. This is a delightfully comic and wistful tale of love and longing.

English schoolteacher returns lost ration book, and develops a bad case of hero worship for an aging playwright.

Dans l''Angleterre du début du XX e siècle, les aventures désopilantes de Flora Poste, jeune orpheline déterminée à transformer les vies chaotiques des excentriques cousins qui l''hébergent dans leur ferme décrépite, au fin fond du Sussex. Œuvre culte au Royaume-Uni dès sa parution en 1932, La Ferme de cousine Judith dresse l''irrésistible portrait des travers et petites médiocrités de la middle-class, avec un charme et une ironie so british qui rappellent Jane Austen. Alors qu''elle a toujours vécu dans l''opulence de la bonne société londonienne, Flora Poste se retrouve à tout juste vingt ans à la fois orpheline et pauvre. Contre l''avis de son amie Mrs Smiling qui la pousse à trouver un emploi, Flora choisit ce que lui dicte la raison : abuser de la générosité de cousins éloignés. Et c''est ainsi que Flora fait la connaissance des Starkadders : cousine Judith, constamment déprimée par une faute secrète ; son mari Amos, médiocre fermier qui enflamme les foules en les menaçant de la damnation éternelle ; leurs trois enfants, le très lascif Seth, instrument de perdition pour toutes les jeunes filles de la région, l''ambitieux Reuben, bien décidé à reprendre la ferme et la jeune Elfine, qui passe ses journées en jupon dans les bois à réciter des poèmes ; et puis, celle qui mène la ferme à la baguette lors même qu''elle n''a pas quitté sa chambre depuis vingt ans, la terrifiante tante Ada Doom. Face à ce sommet de chaos et d''hystérie, armée de son seul bon sens et de son livre de chevet, Les Pensées de l''abbé Fausse-Maigre, Flora va entreprendre de transformer la vie des Starkadders, pour leur bien et surtout pour le sien...

On the dunes west of Bruges, two-year-old Ydette is found wrapped in a blanket and taken back to live in a small grocer''s shop. Opposite the shop live the wealthy van Roeslaere family and their son, Adriaan, a spoilt boy, plagued by ugliness. With overtones of Beauty and the Beast, their romance matures as they grow up together and learn what should truly be valued in life.

Creepy. Peculiar. Fairy. Goblin. Liar. Weirdo. Crank. Genius. No one knows what to make of Juliet Slater, not even her mother. And clothes, boys, school, friends, the changing seasons and what other people think - none of these things seem to matter to Juliet. She spends hours in her room with incomprehensible mathematical text books, her mind voyaging in strange seas of thought, alone. Is she a genius? It might take the rest of her life to find out. While Stella Gibbons was celebrated for her beloved bestseller Cold Comfort Farm, the manuscript for Pure Juliet lay unseen and forgotten until it was brought to light by her family in 2014, and is published here for the first time in Vintage Classics. A tale that travels from an eco-millionaire''s British country idyll to an Arabian Nights-style fantasy of the Middle East, this is a treat for fans of this witty, curious and always surprising author.

Grâce à son écriture subtilement ironique et à ses histoires à rebondissements, Stella Gibbons nous transporte au cœur d''une Angleterre respectablement excentrique. L''esprit pétillant de Stella Gibbons parcourt ces quinze nouvelles, profondes sous leur apparente légèreté. Qu''il s''agisse de Pompey, de Mr Pavey ou de Miss Garfield, tous les personnages sont confrontés à la morale victorienne corsetée. Vont-ils oser la transgresser et échapper à leur vie si convenable ? Avec générosité et fantaisie, Stella Gibbons dénonce les clichés d''une société ankylosée par les conventions et les qu''en-dira-t-on. Ces condensés d''humour british, tout en retenue élégante, sont un enchantement. Ils nous transportent dans un monde délicieusement suranné qui vacille.

«Per carità, non perdetevi ‘La Fattoria delle Magre Consolazioni’. Si ride di gusto a ogni pagina e si capiscono molte cose sulle donne, gli uomini, e la letteratura. È scritto con eccentrica grazia e sguardo senza pietà per nessuno.» Il Sole 24 Ore - Laura Lepri «Una delle storie più divertenti della letteratura anglosassone.» L''Espresso - Mario Fortunato Una raffinata educazione serve a poco se ci si ritrova orfane, a vent’anni, senza un soldo e incapaci di guadagnarsi da vivere. È così che Flora va a vivere nel Sussex, presso alcuni lontani parenti che hanno una fattoria dal nome davvero poco attraente: la Fattoria delle Magre Consolazioni. In più, i parenti sono parecchio eccentrici, la fattoria è in rovina e la matriarca – che ha smarrito la ragione dopo aver visto “qualcosa di orribile nella legnaia” settant’anni prima – domina sulla famiglia intera. Novella Alice nel Paese delle (non) Meraviglie, Flora non si lascia intimidire da quella follia diffusa e, armata di buonsenso e determinazione, cerca di raddrizzare fattoria e famiglia... Trascinante e sorprendente, La Fattoria delle Magre consolazioni è stato definito dal Sunday Times “il libro più divertente che sia mai stato scritto”.

Gladys and Annie Barnes are sisters living in near poverty in a cottage in Highgate. When they discover that a new landlord is about to take over and install his ill wife in the cottage next door, the sisters are in fear of being thrown out of their home. What does happen involves the sisters, their friends and neighbors, and the landlord and his wife and daughter in something much more frightening and bizarre.