The Mingham Air by Fair, Elizabeth

Description: "The best thing one can say about the Priory is that it would have made a splendid ruin," she stated. "If only the Seamarks had left it alone …" Hester Clifford has come to Mingham to recover from pneumonia, at the invitation of her godmother, Cecily Hutton, an eccentric painter with a predilection for ruins. Hester determines to bring order to the Huttons' easygoing lives, not to mention those of the villagers-including elderly Mrs. Hyde-Ridley, attempting to enforce her Edwardian standards of behaviour, Mrs. Merlin, the Rector's wife, equally determined to share the joys of country dance with an unenthusiastic parish, and Thomas Seamark, a classic example of the wealthy, brooding widower. Amidst conflict, manipulation, matchmaking, and general hilarity, Hester clearly has her work cut out for her. Furrowed Middlebrow is delighted to make available, for the first time in over half a century, all six of Elizabeth Fair's irresistible comedies of domestic life. These new editions all feature an introduction by Elizabeth Crawford. "Miss Fair's understanding is deeper than Mrs. Thirkell's and her humour is untouched by snobbishness; she is much nearer to Trollope, grand master in these matters."--Stevie Smith "Miss Fair makes writing look very easy, and that is the measure of her creative ability."--Compton Mackenzie Elizabeth Mary Fair was born in 1908 and brought up in Haigh, a small village in Lancashire, England. There her father was the land agent for Haigh Hall, then occupied by the Earl of Crawford and Balcorres, and there she and her sister were educated by a governess. After her father's death, in 1934, Miss Fair and her mother and sister removed to a small house with a large garden in the New Forest in Hampshire. From 1939 to 1944, she was an ambulance driver in the Civil Defence Corps, serving at Southampton, England; in 1944 she joined the British Red Cross and went overseas as a Welfare Officer, during which time she served in Belgium, India, and Ceylon. Miss Fair's first novel, Bramton Wick, was published in 1952 and received with enthusiastic acclaim as 'perfect light reading with a dash of lemon in it . . .' by Time and Tide. Between the years 1953 and 1960, five further novels followed: Landscape in Sunlight, The Native Heath, Seaview House, A Winter Away, and The Mingham Air. All are characterized by their English countryside settings and their shrewd and witty study of human nature. Elizabeth Fair died in 1997.

Price: 32.1 AUD

Location: Hillsdale, NSW

End Time: 2025-01-12T16:22:42.000Z

Shipping Cost: 24.77 AUD