Private Enterprise

Last night I finished reading Angela Thirkell's novel, Private Enterprise http://www.amazon.com/Private-Enterprise-Angela-Thirkell-Barsetshire/dp/155921189X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346343739&sr=8-1&keywords=private+enterprise+angela+thirkell.  Like her other novels, it is set in the fictional county of Barsetshire (yes, the Barsetshire imagined first by Anthony Trollope!) and takes place just a few years after the end of WWII.  Her characters are likeable and realistic and her humor is gentle and consistent.

In this novel, the county is still suffering the privations of war, particularly food rationing.  Everyone is excited and interested when a young war widow, Mrs. Arbuthnot, and her sister-in-law, Miss Arbuthnot, move into the area.  Marriages are imagined (and eventually made) and the topic of conversation moves easily from the lack of decent food to the doings of the new county citizens.

It's not a sensational book, but a calming read and lovely for those who have read all of Trollope's novels and wish there were more.