Author: Barbara Comyns
Publisher: Daunt Books
Paperback
Staff Pick – Sam says…
I was totally gripped and utterly charmed by this parable of bucolic village life gone awry. Set during the 30s (and first published in the 50s) we follow the genteel, but down at heel Willoweed family, as they prance around their eccentric estate. But when the miller goes mad and drowns himself, and then – the following day – the butcher slits his throat, their parochial life slides into disorder.
One of the greatest bullying matriarchs in fiction, as well as one of the most memorable opening scenes (ducks floating in the drawing room) make this beguilingly strange and wickedly funny tale of country life the perfect escape from February drabness. I read it in two sittings and am now a confirmed Comyns convert!