Marling Hall - Tapa dura

World War II is bringing an end to so many things, but the Marlings of Marling Hall carry on as best they can in the face of rationing and changed living conditions. Into their world erupt Geoffrey Harvey and his sister Frances, bombed out of their London home. Bohemian and sophisticated, they rent a local house and it is not long before they begin to have an effect on their neighbors. Geoffrey begins to court Lettice, the Marlings' widowed daughter, but he finds he has rivals for her affections in her cousin David Lindsey and Captain Barclay. Observing everything and quietly keeping events on an even keel is Miss Bunting.

Angela Thirkell, granddaughter of pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, was born in London in 1890. Related to Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, cousin to Rudyard Kipling, mother of Colin Maclnnes and Graham Mclnnes, Thirkell was one of the most famous comic novelists of her day. She died in 1961 just before her seventy-first birthday.