Northbridge Rectory

Bartsetshire during wartime finds Mr Downing, Miss Pemberton, and Mrs Turner engaged in a love triangle; a chorus of officers raucously quartered at the rectory; and village ladies with violent leanings. In Mrs Major Spender, Thirkell offers a devastating sketch of the good-natured egoist, and readers will be pleased that the less-than-articulate Betty finds a soulmate in Captain Copham. As the war continues, life in Northbridge sees changes. Mrs Villars, the Rector's wife, finds the attentions of Lieutenant Holden of the Barsetshires, who is billeted with her, quite exhausting. The middle-aged ladies and gentlemen who undertake roof-spotting from the church tower are more concerned with their own daily life than with parachutists. There is also the triangle of Mr Downing, his redoubtable hostess Miss Pemberton and the hospitable Mrs Turner at the Hollies, together with a chorus of officers billeted at the Rectory, ladies with violent leanings to High or Broad church, and other village characters