Choices - Fiction
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
 | Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons One of Stella Gibbons’ jobs on the Evening Standard was to précis “the story so far” for the serialisations of Mary Webb’s “Golden Arrow”, set in the Shropshire countryside. Stella began to wonder how the grim, outlandish characters of Webb's suffocating rural milieu might fare if confronted by a brisk, smart, sensible young lady from London. This was the spark for Cold Comfort Farm. Her own melodramatic family added further fuel. Sacked by the Evening Standard in 1930, she moved to the Lady magazine and finally found time to write her parody of the rural novel, with sideways swipes at D H Lawrence. Published on 8 September 1932, priced at 7s. 6d. (37½p), it was an immediate success. 10 copies |
