A review by michael5000
Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons

4.0

I had forgotten how charming this little gem is. Satirical and romantic, it has a plot that depends on 1930s British manners but still feels fresh today. Gibbons mocks the manners of the well-off and the manners of the poor alike. She freely admits that good manners and good behavior won't usually bring one up in the world, but since they might, and since it makes a story more enjoyable when they do, we are promised a reasonably happy ending. Gibbons steps in from time to time to hand her characters their lucky breaks in authorial person -- we can't accuse her of breaking the laws of plausibility, because we were standing right there watching while she was doing it, and didn't do anything to try to stop it.