A witty portrait of rural England in the early twentieth century, the Penguin Classics edition of Stella Gibbons’s Cold Comfort Farm is introduced by Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves.

When sensible, sophisticated Flora Poste is orphaned at nineteen, she decides her only choice is to descend upon relatives in deepest Sussex. At the aptly-named Cold Comfort Farm, she meets the doomed Starkadders: cousin Judith, heaving with remorse for unspoken wickedness; Amos, preaching fire and damnation; their sons, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben; child of nature Elfine; and crazed old Aunt Ada Doom, who has kept to her bedroom for the last twenty years. But Flora loves nothing better than to organise other people. Armed with common sense and a strong will, she resolves to take each of the family in hand. A hilarious and ruthless parody of rural melodramas and purple prose, Cold Comfort Farm is one of the best-loved comic novels of all time.

This new Penguin Classics edition includes an introduction by Lynne Truss discussing Stella Gibbons’s unconventional life and career and her joyously satirical voice.

Stella Gibbons (1932-89) novelist, poet and short-story writer, was educated at North London Collegiate School and studied journalism at University College, London. She then worked for ten years on various papers, including the Evening Standard and published several books of poetry and short stories.