Manuscripts

Angela Thirkell collection

Description: Two diaries, one authored by Angela Thirkell and another by her mother Margaret Mackail; a photograph album compiled by Margaret Mackail; and loose photographs. Both diaries consist of brief, datebook-type entries, though Margaret Mackail's is more detailed. Photographs are primarily of Angela Thirkell throughout her life.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1890-1949
Call number: mssThirkell
Creator: Angela Thirkell Society(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Gift of Angela Thirkell Society, October 2023.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.
Rights: The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
Associated people: Mackail, Margaret (Burne-Jones),; Thirkell, Angela,
Find out more: View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab); View in the Online Archive of California(Opens in new tab)

Angela Thirkell collection

Manuscripts

Two diaries, one authored by Angela Thirkell and another by her mother Margaret Mackail; a photograph album compiled by Margaret Mackail; and loose photographs. Both diaries consist of brief, datebook-type entries, though Margaret Mackail's is more detailed. Photographs are primarily of Angela Thirkell throughout her life.

mssThirkell

Image not available

Trooper to the Southern Cross

Rare Books

"Angela Thirkell, the famous novelist, was born in London in 1890, and travelled to Australia after World War I with her husband and 2 sons. The basis for 'Trooper to the Southern Cross' was found in the astonishing facts of their voyage to Australia on what was primarily a troopship returning about 800 Diggers to Australia. Angela Thirkell on a ship full of returning Diggers! A buried comic masterpiece. Hidden under a pseudonym, Angela Thirkell, best-selling chronicler of the English counties, is now revealed to be a brilliant satirist of the Australian character. Thirty years before Barry Humphries (who loves the book) she captures our idiom and our tastes -- with deadpan innocence and no mercy, her irony sails right home"--Back cover.

657408

Image not available

Before lunch : a novel

Rare Books

"Middle-aged Catherine Middleton, married to an obtuse but endearing older man, is the still center of a swirl of two generations of 'gentry' on the brink of WW II. The activities of youngsters and contemporaries go on around her and it is only gradually that one sees how, without conscious manipulation, nothing happens without her. The characters are subtly and humorously drawn -- keep an eye on the hypochondriac and self-absorbed Miss Starter who displays a shrewd gift for defining the essentials and deflating the fatuous. At the end, youngsters and oldsters are properly sorted out and paired off, mostly as expected, after several false starts. Alistair, the older man who sets off after the 'ingénue' is nudged back into place with Catherine's sister-in-law (his contemporary). She, in turn, sees 'her young man' off to seek his dream, leaving her bereft of the companions of her mind and heart -- duty and honor intact, with the notion of 'self-fulfillment at all costs' decades away."--From Angela Thirkell Society of North America's website.

657409

Image not available

Marling Hall : a novel

Rare Books

"As the war continues, the Marlings cope with friends, relatives, and 'outsiders.' The definition of an 'outsider' is a subtle one; the Harveys, a brother and sister who rent a nearby house for the duration seem eminently suited for inclusion. Gradually, however, through a series of misadventures, mostly involving chickens, their landlady, Mrs. Smith (one of the local non-gentry eccentrics) turns out to be 'one of our own.' Utter confusion surrounds building a hen coop, chasing chickens, and futile attempts at foiling Mrs. Smith. Lucy, the younger Marling daughter, barges about noisily managing and mismanaging, but in the end, is sensitive to the growing attachment between her friend Capt. Barclay and her widowed sister Lettice. Miss Bunting (retired governess) and Miss Merriman (companion to the redoubtable Lady Emily Leslie) are instrumental in thwarting the charming but philandering cousin David so as to snare Lettice for Barclay. As an added bonus the Harveys’ housekeeper becomes engaged to the local carpenter and their maid to Ed Pollett, 'immune to education' but an exceptionally competent handyman"--From Angela Thirkell Society of North America's website.

657411

Image not available

The headmistress : a novel

Rare Books

"The Beltons of Harefield Park, in financial straits endemic to the times, have leased the ancestral home to the Hosier's Girls School whose headmistress, Miss Sparling, a cut above the 'nouveau riche' students, is welcomed into village society. Sam Adams, a wealthy, self-made industrialist, and his lumpish daughter Heather are introduced and we glimpse 'the thin entering wedge' into the solid front of the old gentry. Mixo-Lydians backed by Dr. Perry's wife, and Slavo-Lydians, clients of the mildly obnoxious Mrs. Hunter, barely avoid violent confrontation; it is Mr. Adams who gives short shrift to their belligerent solicitations. And we meet again the bemused Mrs. Updike whose self-battering, as she careens through life, gives new meaning to 'accident-prone.' Miss Sparling reaches an 'understanding' with perennial bachelor Sidney Carton (yes, we know) and strong-willed Elsa Belton is corralled by Capt. Hornsby who declines to be jilted. The poignant relationship between Mrs. Belton and her charming but prickly younger son, Charles, on embarkation leave, cuts through the lightheartedness and brings the war home"--From The Angela Thirkell Society of North America's website.

657412

Image not available

A double affair

Rare Books

"Mrs. Thirkell takes us back to Barsetshire in time to assist (in the French sense) at the marriage of Mr. Choyce, the Vicar, and Miss Merriman, for so long the devoted friend and help to the Leslie and the Graham families. Meanwhile a kind arrangement of fate seems to be clearing the way for George Halliday, who until now has been rather mother-ridden, to win exactly the right kind of wife. This is not the only sign of matrimonial fever in the county. In the Close two charming granddaughters of the Dean give every indication that they will soon thin the ranks of Barsetshire bachelors, while the arrival of an interesting and aristocratic newcomer within the Cathedral precincts in the Rev. Lord William Harcourt affords scope for much agreeable speculation. It is true that Edith Graham, that rather exasperating young woman, has a salutary shock when her much-tried father speaks out and her cousin, Lord Mellings, tells her exactly what they all think of her. But Mrs. Thirkell can hardly ever bear to be consistently unkind to her Barsetshire friends. This is a book which evidently she particularly enjoyed writing; so the trying Edith is let off lightly and by the end seems to be on the verge of settling down at last. These proceedings are, of course, accompanied by the usual chorus of villagers an clergy"--From dust jacket.

657415

Angela Thirkell collection

Opening Hours

Admission Info and Tickets

You might also be interested in

Angela Thirkell collection

Trooper to the Southern Cross

Before lunch : a novel

Marling Hall : a novel

The headmistress : a novel

A double affair