I was working through a category of books written in the Epistolary style during the Autumn months of 2019. As I was assembling this category I found many other books written as journal entries, diaries, emails, etc. So I began collecting these as well and they will be part of my 2021 reading.

A collection of the Provincial Lady series that contains four volumes- A Diary of Provincial Lady, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America, The Provincial Lady in Wartime. The Lady series was suggested to me by English readers on Twitter when I was looking for books written in an epistolary style, in this case, in the form of diary entries. I enjoyed all of the books but I do have to be in a certain mindset and get into the groove of her writing style. I marvel at the lifestyle of this strata of English society from the raising of children, to "having help', to the overdraft/banking/credit system, etc. 

The picture accompanying this entry is not from the actual volume I read. I lucked into purchasing the original published by MacMillan & Co. in 1947 which has a plain blue cover. The volume was originally purchased as a gift and has the endearing enscription: With affectionate greeting from Ella & Ernest Christmas 1947. Unfortunately it seems that the recipient either didn't read it or did not read the entire  volume as in several places the pages were left uncut after printing.

This was a marvelous book. The author seemed just to serve as a channel through which the words of John Ames could flow forth. It is no wonder this book won a Pulitzer Prize for Ms. Robinson. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Marie Beauchamp is the birth name of the writhe Elizabeth von Arnim, whose is most famous for writing The Enchanted April. I loved that book and wanted to read more works by the author and this a book often mentioned on Bookish Twitter. It is okay-it took me a long while to get through it-I just couldn't quite get in sync with the sentiments of the semi-autobiographical main character. It is told in the format of journal entries and so does dual duties category wise.