This book, written in the form of a journal, charts the day to day life of a 1930's wife and mother, not only juggling husband, children and her temperamental cook, but also trying to keep up with the many social obligations she finds herself faced with, whilst remaining cool, calm and collected. There isn't really a story, it is just the fictional 'diary' of an upper-middle class woman, in Devon. She is the author, really, as it does reflect elements of Delafield's life. She wrote several novels, lots of short stories and three volumes of the 'Provincial Lady' - this one, plus 2 follow-ups, taking in WW2 and her time spent in the USA, all reflective of the real life of the author. Keeping up-to-date with the latest fashions, particularly in millinery, represents another major headache for the Provincial Lady. Like many British women through the ages, our protagonist will head off to the shops in search of something new when her spirits are low. However, finding the right hat to flatter the face isn’t quite as easy as it may sound, especially if one’s hair is as wild and unruly as the Provincial Lady’s proves to be…

Spend exhausting day …chasing mythical parlour-maids. Meet Lady B., who says the servant difficulty, in reality, is non-existent. She has no trouble. It is a question of knowing how to treat them. Firmness, she says, but at the same time one must be human. Am I human, she asks. Do I understand that they want occasional diversion, just as I do myself? I lose my head and reply No, that it is my custom to keep my servants chained up in the cellar when their work is done. This flight of satire rather spoilt by Lady B, laughing heartily, and saying that I am always so amusing.” Write grateful letter to Rose, at the same time explaining difficulty of broadening my outlook by further time spent away from home, just at present."Make distressing discovery that there is no way of obtaining breakfast until train halts at Avignon. Break this information later to American young gentleman, who falls into deep distress and says that he does not know the French for grapefruit. Neither do I, but am able to inform him decisively that he will not require it. I re-read, for the nth time, E.M. Delafield's dry, caustic Diary of a Provincial Lady, and howled with laughter India Knight Cannot many of our moral lapses from Truth be frequently charged upon the tactless persistence of others? January 22 nd. – Robert startles me at breakfast by asking if my cold – which he has hitherto ignored – is better. I reply that it has gone. Then why, he asks, do I look like that? Refrain from asking like what, as I know only too well. Feel that life is wholly unendurable, and decide madly to get a new hat. I read a Goodreads friend’s review of this book, and it sounded quite good, and so I put it on my TBR list and I read it today and I liked it quite a bit. 😊

The Pelicans (1918) - centres round an agonising account of conversion to the Roman Catholic Church and a death in a convent.There was that moment early on in the Pandemic when everyone stopped and looked around them. The cars, the planes, … The Provincial lady in Russia is probably my least favourite of all the novels, because it’s dark and depressing and Delafield showcases the problems with Communism and her frustration with them. It’s also the only book not written in a diary format but in three short essays of her time in Moscow, Leningrad and Odessa. A lot of well directed sarcasm in this one. It's a witty and amusing peep into how one woman copes with keeping up appearances, despite having a husband who is much more interested in his newspaper than her social dilemmas, as well a A nice read. I wonder if I should read any of her three sequels to this novel: The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America, and The Provincial Lady in Wartime. Any comments where I should or shouldn’t, if you have read any of these, would be welcome. Delafield was born in Steyning, Sussex. She was the elder daughter of Count Henry Philip Ducarel de la Pasture, of Llandogo Priory, Monmouthshire, and Elizabeth Lydia Rosabelle, daughter of Edward William Bonham, who as Mrs Henry de la Pasture was also a well-known novelist. The pen name Delafield was a thin disguise suggested by her sister Yoe. After Count Henry died, her mother married Sir Hugh Clifford GCMG, who governed the colonies of the Gold Coast (1912–19), Nigeria (1919–25), Ceylon (1925–27) and the Malay States.

Think of several rather tart and witty rejoinders to this, but unfortunately not until Lady B.'s Bentley has taken her away." Book 4, in Wartime, was as tedious to read as it was to live. This is set in the lead up to the war, when everyone was called on to volunteer but there was nothing for them to do. Everyone is asking everyone else ‘do you have some work for me’. Our Provincial Lady ended up working part time in a canteen for ambulance drivers, etc until something more suited to her talents came along. Book 3, In America as a successful author, was interesting enough but didn’t have the humourous details of the earlier two.This is a charming, humorous and at times poignant novel of a largely domestic life in a bygone age. In spite of its firm footing in the late 1920s/early ‘30s, Delafield’s book still holds some relevance to the modern world, especially in terms of the emotions and dilemmas portrayed. In some respects, it may well have paved the way for later diaries capturing the lives of more contemporary women and characters, books like Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996) and Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life (2013). Start directly after lunch, Robert and Mary's husband appearing in a highly unnatural state of shiny smartness with a top-hat apiece. Effect of this splendour greatly mitigated, when they don the top-hats, by screams of unaffected amusement from both children. We drive off, leaving them leaning against Mademoiselle, apparently helpless with mirth. December 9th.—Rose staying here two days before going on to London. Says All American houses are Always Warm, which annoys Robert. He says in return that All American houses are Grossly Overheated and Entirely Airless. Impossible not to feel that this would carry more weight if Robert had ever been to America. Rose also very insistent about efficiency of American Telephone Service, and inclined to ask for glasses of cold water at breakfast time—which Robert does not approve of. Includes translations of the phrases in French plus many illustrations! (Timeless Wisdom Collection Book 1160)

My take on this is that writing the Diary definitely wasn't a waste of time for the author (as it is still read almost a hundred years later), but it has been rather on a waste of time side for me. Interestingly, the Provincial Lady has some literary ambitions of her own, a point that is brought out here and then developed further in the subsequent books in the PL series. Thanks, Karen. Yes, I really like the way de Beauvoir shifts the point of view around to give us both…A fictional diary from the 1920s, almost entirely taking place in the Devonshire countryside, is lively, amusing and most enjoyable. It might have been boring, but most certainly isn't and although life is very different today, some of the problems encountered chime with our own. In fact, shortly afterwards, my own copy was returned from America. In an accompanying letter, the women's lib lady announced that she had abandoned Normie and the children and run off with another woman. But she added a PS: "I absolutely adored the Provincial Lady, so like me, and isn't her MCP of a husband just like Normie!" The latter Delafield is the one guyed in Provincial Lady, but it needed the satirical eye of her other self to do the guying and to chronicle so exactly the follies and idiosyncrasies of an entire neighbourhood. The success of the books lies in the fact that both sides of her character were stretched to the full. Don’t think this book is dated. I find it simple to relate to both the events and the characters. Do you have a taciturn husband who replies to questions with a minimum of words? Have your children camped out, only to return in the middle of the night? Have you not wondered why high praise is heaped on some books? An anglophone will today, fifty years after the book was first published, still smile at what French people say. Remember? I mentioned above a live-in tutor—this woman is French. Hikikomori, condition in which a person is socially avoidant to the point of staying isolated at home for at least six months …