Gibbons, Stella

(British, 1902–89)

Stella Gibbons was born and educated in London and is best known for her novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932). It is a delicious parody of those novels of rural life that take themselves too seriously, and is best enjoyed by those tired of D. H. Lawrence, Mary Webb, and Thomas Hardy. The common- sense heroine of Cold Comfort Farm is Flora Poste, who visits her brooding, moody country cousins, the Starkadders. Their names—Seth, Ezra, Urk, Caraway, and Aunt Ada Doom—speak for themselves. The novel provides high comedy and memorable satire.

Mary Webb (Precious Bane), Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey).

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