Before Lunch

Angela Thirkell's comedy of manners records the amusing high jinx of the very rich. Released in 1939, BEFORE LUNCH is one of her Barsetshire series, which catalogues the lives of the gentry in the period between the Wars, when "doing the right thing" was more important than "doing your own thing." When a tea shop and garage are proposed for pristine Pooker's Place, the residents of Barsetshire join together to stop its construction. People fall in love, sometimes with the wrong partners, but everything works out properly in the end. Golden Voice Nadia May (aka Donada Peters and Wanda McCaddon) provides freshness and dimension to characters who could easily be clichés. Her lighthearted touch invites nostalgia for a kinder, gentler time. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine