Fans of E. M. Delafield’s Diary of a Provincial Lady should also enjoy The Provincial Lady in London, which is humorous in the same vein. The narrator, having made a surprising amount of money with her first novel, decides to buy a flat in London and to write there, free from the interruptions of daily life.
If only. Instead, we meet an entirely new set of characters. Emma is always dragging the narrator off to literary events and forcing her to speak on little or no notice. Pamela Pringle, who the narrator knows from a girl, has since had at least three husbands and uses the narrator as an alibi to her current husband while she is out with her boyfriends.
At home, Vicky has decided she wants to go to school and dispense with the services of Mademoiselle, which results in some painful scenes, almost as bad as those with the succession of cooks. For times when the children are home from school, they hire a tutor, whom the narrator refers to as Casabianca. I had to look that up to get it.
The narrator and her taciturn husband, Robert, navigate family vacations in France, dismal parties, church fêtes, casinoes, and unbalanced checkbooks while the narrator makes just as much fun of herself as anyone else. Amusing stuff!
I read the first Provincial Lady book recently and enjoyed it, so I would like to read more of them. This sounds very similar though, so I’ll probably wait a while before reading it.
Yes, it is similar. I thought I might read them all, but if I do, I will wait a lot longer before reading the next one. Not so sure now, since these two were so similar.
I’ve been meaning to read Diary of a PL for years, and now there are 2 to read, my list is getting longer and longer!
That seems to be how it works!
This sounds like a fun novel! I’d have to read the first one first, of course.
It probably wouldn’t matter if you did.
These are such fun: I love them!