In between reading history books and biographies it's a treat to read some lighthearted but well-written stories. Sadly, it is not easy to find lighthearted and good writing in the same book. It is lovely to find that combination and even lovlier when it is fun and quirky and British to boot!
Cold Comfort Farm is a familiar story to me given that I've seen the movie a gazillion times. And suprisingly the book and the movie closely match (as opposed to Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day which was way off, the book so much better).
Flora Poste, our heroine, is an orphan at age 20 with little money. She moves in with the grimmest bunch of relatives to save money and fix their lives. This is the classic "before and after" makeover.
There are a lot of comical lines, "there'll be no butter in hell", with characters named "Ada Doom" and cows named "Pointless and Aimless". Years ago, after my sisters and I saw the movie, we were forever saying, "I saw something nasty in the woodshed".
I picked up my copy at the library but am now tempted to buy it off Abe Books. It's a good one to have in my own library.
I finished it while at the beach and I loved it. As usual it is even better than the movie which is one of my favorites!
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