This was reccommended by a fellow BookCrosser as one of her go to favorites. It is not always the easiest read, the main characters are just on the edge of adulthood and have all the intensity and anguish of that stage of life, when everything seems horribly overwrought and full of great meaning. Lydia is the focus of most of this, despite constantly being described as not attractive, she seems to have a magical ability to draw people, esp. men, to her and, more importantly, get them to do whatever she wants. This mostly seems to lead to heartache and, in two very awful circumstances, great tragedy. I spent alot of the time very frustrated with the characters but, ultimately, it was worth the effort to read.

Another lovely story set in the 50's.
Lydia moves into Evensford village and also into young men's hearts.
H.E. Bates can do no wrong when writing about the times when life was much slower and innocent.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher Bloomsbury via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review. ( )

My favorite of his books, a long, frequently sad love story told from the point-of-view of a narrator who is never named. Saw it as a Masterpiece Theater series long ago and came across a paperback of it at a Library sale. Replaced that copy with a beat up hardcover, and this lovely copy replaces that one. Hand-tipped color plate on the cover. ( )

I first read this book by flashlight at the tender age of 12 after pilfering from my Aunt's bookshelf . Lucky for me it is as wonderful as I remember but for a million different reasons than I remembered it being. A very English story of coming of age, society clashes and love lost and found. No wonder it was made into a equally lovely masterpiece theater production.... Sigh....... ( )

An affectionate portrait of small town English life between the wars, growing up and falling in love. Lydia, the princess of the town, grows from childhood to womanhood through love and tragedy, while the narrator takes a quieter path. Social life and the gradations of social class are depicted lightly but vividly. For me the book stayed at the surface, the tragedies failed to move me as much as they should and the romance again seemed at one step removed. Some of this is probably due to the intentionally rather callow narrator, but I think not all of it...