'Am much annoyed with everybody.'
Written in diary form, The Provincial Lady is a witty, semi-autobiographical novel packed with sharp and humorous observations about upper-middle-class society.
Set in the English countryside in the 1930s, The Provincial Lady introduces us to a protagonist with a sharp eye, but even sharper wit. Through various diary entries, she records the quiet chaos of her everyday life, as well as her attempts to keep her footing in the genteel yet absurd world of upper-middle-class domesticity. Featuring a loyal (if aloof) husband, two reasonably behaving children, a cook who consistently threatens to quit and a garden that refuses to grow what it ought to, The Provincial Lady evokes a hilarious yet exhausting balancing act of budgets, egos and expectations which resonates and amuses in equal measure. This audiobook is brilliantly read by Lucy Scott.
E. M. Delafield (1890 – 1943), otherwise known as Edmée Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, was an English novelist, essayist and playwright. A prolific writer, she is perhaps most famous for her largely autobiographical fictional journal, The Diary of a Provincial Lady. Today, she is considered a master of anti-sentimental comedy.
