CHEERFULNESS BREAKS IN

Beware of listening in public places to Nadia May read Angela Thirkell, for you will laugh out loud and people will stare. For those who have never read Angela Thirkell’s delightfully malicious and observant tales about England in the 1930s and ’40s, this is the place to start. And for those who read them long ago, Blackstone Audio’s new production is a perfect reintroduction. The plot of the wartime story of CHEERFULNESS BREAKS IN is too complex to relate; suffice it to say that there are soldiers, two boys’ schools, misdirected romance, two marriages--and much high-spirited social commentary. Nadia May simply inhabits the characters, from the Eastern European refugees to the Barsetshire village matrons to an awful effete young man. An audiobook that you will want never to end. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 04]