HILARIOUS in the beginning, nice in the end, a little wander-y in the middle. The whole description of Rose Birkett's wedding was worth a lot. I also loved the relationship between Noel Merton and Lydia Keith and am glad that, as with so many characters in Angela Thirkell's books, I have reappearances of characters to look forward to.
So much so, in fact, that I have now bought an encyclopedia of all of Angela Thirkell's characters with their status in each book they appear in. It has become essential. Because when you have like a bazillion characters and you keep having them pop up in small or large ways, it is sure easy to lose track. ( )

This has not been re-released with Angela Thirkell’s other early Barsetshire novels (I managed to get a 90s large print edition through interlibrary loans) so I had an inkling that it wasn’t her strongest book.

It is set during 1939. It opens with the wedding of the daughter of the headmaster of Southbridge School - from Summer Half - and then once war breaks out, the school hosts an evacuated school from London.

One of the things I’ve appreciated about Thirkell is that she is insightful about her characters’ flaws and foibles, often amusingly so, but she also treats her characters with a certain gentleness - although her characters can be irritating or silly, they’re not defined by that. But in Cheerfulness Breaks In, she turns her attention to those who are outsiders to the English village - evacuees and refugees - and her humour is undermined by her reliance on stereotypes and perhaps by a lack of sympathy.

Thirkell’s novels usually limit themselves to focusing on a particular community or circle of acquaintance, with characters from other books making brief appearances. Rather than following this pattern, Cheerfulness Breaks In acts like a sequel, more interested in catching up with old characters than spending time with new ones. This means it is not a satisfactory standalone with a tight, coherent narrative - but since I knew those familiar characters from previous books, I was very happy to spend more time with them. Especially the lively, independent Lydia Keith, my main reason for wanting to read this, who is kept at home by an ailing mother.

I also liked the characters’ comments about feeling frustration at not being able to contribute more to the war:

“Look here,” said Lydia. “It’s perfectly foul for anyone to be themselves just now, but it’s about all one can be. I expect the Dean feels frightfully rotten too and would much rather be killed like St Thomas a Becket but he can’t, so has to do without. I feel pretty sick myself at doing nothing when Delia and Octavia are on night duty for weeks at a time and Mrs Brandon is having a houseful of children and Noel doing something secret in uniform and Colin, that’s my brother, training artillery in camp like anything - oh, and everyone doing something. You really aren’t the only one, Tommy. Anyway, the Dean must have a secretary [...]”

Even though it is less successful and delightful than Thirkell’s others, I’m glad I read this. ( )

This ninth entry in Thirkell's Barsetshire series was a delightful light read, perfect for summer, and for a time in my life when I didn't want anything weighty. Cheerfulness Breaks In centers around many of the same characters in Summer Half, three years later. There are three books in between, but I'd already read those (out of order -- horrors!), and it was quite fun to catch up on the characters' lives, and see that some of the annoying ones had matured into decent adults. Set at the outbreak of World War II, there's a certain amount of snobbery and bigotry towards non-English people. Thirkell is frequently criticized for this; I believe her writing represented popular opinion at the time and readers would have found her satire funny. Fortunately, it appears as short "witty" comments more than long passages, and I could just move swiftly on. The plot is pretty fluffy, as Thirkell chronicles the comings and goings of various Barsetshire inhabitants as they get involved in the war effort. And it's a pretty obvious setup for the ultimate marriage of two couples, which is satisfying even though you can see it coming almost from page 1. Even though all of that was wrapped up quite nicely, Thirkell surprised me in the final pages with both a significant sad event and a cliffhanger ending. Fortunately I have the next few books already on my shelves. ( )

This is the first of the wartime Barsetshire novels, opening in summer 1939 and covering the period of the “Phoney War” and up to Dunkirk. The context is rather like Waugh’s Put out more flags, with the people of Barsetshire learning to cope with evacuees, air-raid precautions, and the beginnings of rationing, whilst various characters of different backgrounds and opinions have to adjust to the new conditions. Thirkell shifts the focus skillfully back and forth between the older generation - who remember 1914 and expect the worst - and the young people preoccupied with getting into war service of one sort or another and - more than ever - with pairing-off. There are some good jokes, a couple of splendid set-pieces (the evacuees’ Christmas party is a classic bit of description), some splendid new characters (I especially enjoyed Miss Hampton and Miss Bent) and old friends. Altogether rather more to enjoy than in some of the following books, where the patriotic cheerfulness gets undermined by Thirkell’s bitterness about what she saw as damaging changes in the structure of traditional (conservative) English society.

Another delightful audio, and a lovely return to Barsetshire, the fictional county created by Anthony Trollope and lovingly sustained by Angela Thirkell. Though I've read only two of Ms. Thirkell's novels (listened, actually; the other one is The Brandons), I find them "just the thing." They are great fun, wickedly funny, and full of social commentary and mild romance. Think early 20th century Jane Austen. They also remind me of the Greek expression about a smooth river - we often use this expression in music, too, where the surface is smooth and legato, but what's happening underneath the surface (or in the accompaniment) is lively and quick or even turbulent. Nothing much ever happens plot-wise in these novels, but the book is bubbling with interesting characters, polite discussions where much is said by remaining unsaid, and a fascinating dynamic between all of the characters. This is a wartime novel, which delightfully captures the mood and excitement of the English countryside at the outset -- the villages rev into high gear to shelter evacuees, the young nurses complain about boring cases of measles while longing for gruesome war trauma, and the men fervently hope to suffer the glory and nobility of being blown to bits, or frozen to death, or perhaps even torpedoed and drowned. From my 21st century vantage point, all of the earnestness is both admirable -- the characters tirelessly throw themselves into the fulfillment of national duty -- and heartbreaking. A complex counterpoint to a light and funny novel.