Margery Sharp – författare

It was indeed very difficult for the Laventie children not to be a little priggish.

Ann Laventie, the youngest of three children in a long line of anti-social Sussex gentry, doesn''t quite fit the mould of her intellectual, elegant, ultra-modern siblings Dick, an artist, and Elizabeth, a high-brow writer. Their father is scholarly and just wealthy enough to focus all his attention on reading and other highbrow pursuits. Ann, on the other hand, worries about being plump, is what might be called a ''people person,'' and appreciates the simpler pleasures. As the young Laventies spend more and more of their time in the glitter of London, their differences grow more pronounced, and when Ann returns home with an unsuitably ordinary fiancé, this dazzling, witty battle of the brows reaches its exhilarating climax.

Rhododendron Pie, one of Margery Sharp''s rarest and most sought-after novels, was her debut, reportedly written in one month while Sharp worked as a typist and shared a flat in Paddington with two other girls. But it already shows all the charm, humour, and sophistication that characterizes Sharp''s beloved later work. First published in 1930, it has, inexplicably, never been reprinted. Until now. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women''s historian Elizabeth Crawford.

''A first novel of quite unusual charm, pointedly and gracefully written, and whimsically human'' Yorkshire Post

He also made himself a weekly allowance of five shillings for cigarettes, stationery, amusements, shoe-repairs, razor-blades, laundry, toothpaste, hospitality and ''bus fares; and having thus cut his coat to his cloth, wore it in great content.

The only thing he had not allowed for (and this in an author must surely be considered strange) was Love.

Upon the death of his distant, unaffectionate father, Alistair French, a young store clerk, takes his small inheritance and escapes from the humdrum to a flat in London in order to Write. He and his friend Henry take cheap lodgings in a Paddington boarding-house whose denizens include the spirited, starstruck Winnie Parker, her full-throated mother, who shares Winnie''s passion for films if not her admiration for Garbo ("''Olds ''erself like a sack of potatoes"), and (generally) an army of Winnie''s admirers.

But Alistair, faced with the many distractions of Bloomsbury and Bohemia, has considerable trouble getting any writing done. And then there''s the biggest distraction of all-a lovely young actress named Cressida who is, to Alistair''s chagrin, determined to marry only a man who can further her career. First published in 1932 and out of print for more than 80 years, Fanfare for Tin Trumpets is one of Margery Sharp''s most irresistibly cheerful confections. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women''s historian Elizabeth Crawford.

''We can only hope that this charming piece of impertinence will be widely read for its fine sympathy with youth in all its shapes'' Angela Thirkell

She announced herself, rather self-consciously, as Mrs. Henry Smith, and he replied that Mrs. Cornwallis was expecting her. To Caroline, following him through a wide shabby hall, the whole episode was beginning to feel like a nightmare. She was intensely conscious of herself-of her dress, her voice, the way she placed her feet. She felt like a cook-general going to be interviewed.

"Mrs. Henry Smith," said the butler contemptuously.

In Four Gardens, the most emotional and nostalgic of Margery Sharp''s brilliant novels, we meet the lovable Caroline Smith (née Chase) and glimpse the stages of her life through the gardens in which she digs. There''s the lavish abandoned one in which she has no right to dig; the tiny one in which she has no time to dig; the extravagant one, complete with stubborn gardener, in which she''s not allowed to dig; and one final garden, hers and hers alone, in which she finds quiet, wise contentment. As we follow Caroline through the vicissitudes of life, we meet her adoring husband Henry, her shockingly modern children Leon and Lily, and friends and neighbours from the self-righteous Ellen Taylor to the posh but hilariously down-to-earth Lady Tregarthan.

First published in 1935 and out of print for more than half a century, Four Gardens has long been a favorite of Margery Sharp fans and is one of six early Sharp novels now available from Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press.

''The Jane Austen touch, springing from a detached, quiet power of observation, a delicious, satirical way of relishing affectation, and a respect for sensible, genuine people.'' New York Times

Lisbeth Campion was engaged, as usual, in resisting advances.

Arthur Alfred Partridge, a middle-aged widower with a drab job and a frustrated sense of adventure, gets more than he bargained for when he encounters the irresistible Lisbeth Campion, whose troubles go well beyond her plethora of suitors. She''s particularly concerned about her wastrel brother Ronny, fresh from six months in prison for peddling cocaine (he thought it was baking powder, really he did!), with whom her stern, upright Army fiancé, expected back from India soon, has forbidden her further contact.

In a gloriously implausible but deliciously entertaining sequence of events, Mr Partridge gets swept up in Lisbeth''s unusual efforts to get Ronny safely squared. In the meantime, these three eccentric souls set up makeshift housekeeping in London and work at odd jobs (some very odd indeed) to make ends meet. Harlequin House, first published in 1939 and out of print for more than 60 years, has all the glitter and wit readers expect from the incomparable Margery Sharp. This new edition features an introduction by twentieth-century women''s historian Elizabeth Crawford.