The Diary of a Provincial Lady
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  • Published: 25 June 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141191812
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $29.99

The Diary of a Provincial Lady

Formats & editions
EBook
5 Jun 2014
Audiobook
26 Sep 2019
Paperback
25 Jun 2014
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The much-loved comic masterpiece of domestic life, new to Penguin Modern Classics with an introduction by Rachel Johnson

'January 22nd - 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? Feel that life is wholly unendurable, and decide madly to get a new hat'

It's not easy being a Provincial Lady in Devonshire in the 1920s, juggling a grumpy husband, mischievous children and a host of domestic dilemmas - from rice mould to a petulant cook. But this Provincial Lady will not be defeated; not by wayward flower bulbs, not by unexpected houseguests, not even by the Blitz. She will continue to preside over the W.I., endure rain-drenched family picnics and succeed as a published author, all the while tending to her strawberries.

The Diary of a Provincial Lady is a brilliantly observed comic novel, as funny and fresh today as when it was first written.
  • Published: 25 June 2014
  • ISBN: 9780141191812
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 576
  • RRP: $29.99
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Praise for The Diary of a Provincial Lady

I re-read, for the nth time, E.M. Delafield's dry, caustic Diary of a Provincial Lady, and howled with laughter

India Knight

She converts the small and familiar dullness of life into laughter

The Times

I finished the book in one sitting, leaving the children unbathed, dogs unwalked, a husband unfed, and giving alternate cries of joy and recognition throughout

Jilly Cooper

A Pooterish masterpiece of 20th-century humour

Christopher Fowler

In the pages that follow is laid out the best of British womanhood, and you will fall in love with a capable, funny, clever, and never cloying woman ... EM Delafield has provided us with a faithful and funny and lasting record of having it all at a time when the concept was so alien that it didn't even exist

Rachel Johnson