Try Anything Twice (virago Modern Classics)

"Giving a party is very like having a baby: its conception is more fun than its completion, and once you have begun it, it is amost impossible to stop." Famous for her creation of the much-loved Mrs Miniver, Jan Struther here turns her attention to peacetime life - its parties and its everyday contemplations. Displaying all the wit, warmth and vivacity of her celebrated heroine, she informs us that making lists "unlike most pastimes...is cheap, harmless and independent of your age or income", or describes how, casting aside years of reluctance and seizing a small toasting-fork (there being no trowel available), she discovered the delights of gardening... Part of the charm of this collection of essays and sketches lies in its portrait of a vanished world - that of the "upper-middle-class, lower-middle-aged Englishwoman" - but most important is the sheer zest of Jan Struther's generous and unconventional mind.