- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (16 July 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747539952
- ISBN-13: 978-0747539957
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 740,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stella Gibbons is remembered for one book, the wildly funny Cold Comfort Farm, and otherwise largely forgotten. This biography by her playwright nephew gives a comprehensive and forgiving portrait of a rather ordinary life, in which writing took second place to her religious beliefs and the performance as good wife and mother that went with them.
Stella Gibbons grew up with a domineering father and spent a brief period running with a fast bohemian set before settling into marriage with an unsuccessful singer who had snobbish relatives. A job on The Lady that involved reviewing contemporary fiction, and a strong sense of the ridiculous, produced her sublime parody of rural melodrama; Oliver is good on precisely what she had been reading and was parodying. He tries his hardest to make her 20 other novels sound interesting and appealing; this is at the very least a competent guide to the rest of her career. Part of the trouble was, simply, that she found massive public and critical acclaim with her first book and rather than live up to it, affected to play a different game. Oliver does his best to make this seem attractive. --Roz Kaveney
Product Description
Born into an Irish family in Hampstead where she lived for most of her life, Stella Gibbons is probably best remembered for her book "Cold Comfort Farm". Written by her nephew, this biography of the novelist and poet draws on her personal papers including two unpublished novels.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is engaging, well-written and immaculately researched literary biography of a true writer's life, intimately exploring the great Stella Gibbons's philosophy, opinions -- and also her childhood, giving illuminating insight into the genesis of Cold Comfort Farm, and leaving me wanting to read more of Stella's work and wishing there were more in print. Her life was the opposite of showy or show-offy, and all the more intriguing and moving for it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A fascinating look at the life and preoccupations of the 'Cold Comfort Farm' author Stella Gibbons. written by her nephew, who is himself a novelist and actor.
Cold Comfort Farm was Stella's most popular novel, and the praise it brought her made Virginia Woolf catty and envious.
Reggie Oliver does a good job of putting Gibbons' work in the context of her personal life and family troubles.
Not being a professional biographer his account lacks the scholarly discipline, but his personal knowledge of his subject more than makes up for this disadvantage.
There is not a whole lot of information out there about Stella Gibbons, and this is her only published biography, a must if you loved Cold Comfort Farm and have been intrigued by the very different approach of her later work.
Cold Comfort Farm was Stella's most popular novel, and the praise it brought her made Virginia Woolf catty and envious.
Reggie Oliver does a good job of putting Gibbons' work in the context of her personal life and family troubles.
Not being a professional biographer his account lacks the scholarly discipline, but his personal knowledge of his subject more than makes up for this disadvantage.
There is not a whole lot of information out there about Stella Gibbons, and this is her only published biography, a must if you loved Cold Comfort Farm and have been intrigued by the very different approach of her later work.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Useful, but not entirely reliable
27 May 2007
Format:Hardcover
I would consider myself a scholar of Stella Gibbons, or at least of her "Cold Comfort Farm," having devoted a semester of independent study work in college to her most popular novel. Her nephew Reggie Oliver does an okay job of putting Gibbons' work in the context of her personal life and family troubles. However, you have to take his writing with a grain of salt--he's a little overly sentimental about dear old Auntie Stella, and focuses mainly only on Gibbons' life in relation to "Cold Comfort Farm". I was also really frustrated with the fact that he does not cite any of his sources in-text, and only has a meagre bibliography, which leaves the researcher with little to go on in terms of factual sources. However, since there is not a whole lot of information out there about this entirely talented authoress, you cannot ignore this book, her only biography.
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