This book tells the story of 20 year old Flora, living in the near future, who finds herself a bit lost in life after he parents die. She's not too upset over the deaths, but more worried about how to make a living. She decides she should live with relatives for the time being, and freeload off whoever will take her. She's taken in by the Starkadders, who live on Cold Comforts Farm in Sussex. They are more than happy to take her in, to right the mysterious wrongs that they caused her father. Flora takes it upon herself to "tidy up" the dysfunctional family on the farm, and to help the individuals fulfil their destiny, after living under the control of the elusive Aunt Ada Doom.
Written as a parody of "Rural Novels", it has outlasted the genre it was meant to imitate. This book has survived the decades and stood the test of time, and is frequently on those Books to read before you die or best British novels lists. And the reason cited is always the humour. There's a good reason for this - this book is funny. It has the perfect sarcastic, subtle humour that us Brits are so proud of and of course, renowned for. It doesn't have the wacky gimmicks that lots of comedy books have, or simple jokes based around stupid characters. The jokes here are subtle - blink and you'll miss them.
It's not just humour here either. Gibbons was a natural at her craft. The story is expertly written, and leaves the reader hanging on for more, raising questions within the first 20 pages that will stay in your mind right up until the last 10. What did they do to her father? What was his link to the farm? I used the word natural to describe Gibbons, and not master, because this was the first book she wrote. This book was a hit, made her famous, and she spent the rest of her life trying to move the focus away from it, and on to her other 21 books. She referred to it as "That book" - refusing to say it's name. She shied away from life in the public eye and literary circles, even while continuing to write and publish. It was said she didn't move in literary circles, didn't know literary squares and didn't love in literary triangles. Her other works have faded into obscurity and were out of print for a long time; it is purely Cold Comforts Farm that has given her her legacy and place in the literature history books.
It was written in 1932, which will cause a lot of people to think it's too old, or that it must be outdated or straight up boring. But it really isn't. Stella Gibbons has managed to write something that reads like it could have been written in the 80's or 90's - I guess that's still pretty old, but nowhere near the 86 years that this book has survived. There's no outdated pop culture references or words that we would now think of as slurs - it all feels like fairly modern language and the characters all have fairly modern problems. Maybe calling films "the talkies" is a bit old school, but we can let one outdated phrase slide right?
The story is a really cosy one. The book just radiates good feelings, and should warm the heart of even the coldest miser. It's just comfortable. It's like being wrapped up in a blanket in front of a fire in an old English farmhouse. It feels like Stella is an old, good humoured relative, who you just couldn't get enough of as a kid.
I would recommend this to anyone and everyone who loves reading. Genuinely a funny, warm and touching story that deserves to be read and read time and time again.
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