This passage comes from Angela Thirkell’s Peace Breaks Out (1946), the 15th or so of her unabashedly snobbish (but addictive) series of novels set in the same imaginary English county as Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire Chronicles. It reminded me of the recent furore over Laura Pidcock’s assertion that she could never be matey with political opponents. Joseph Harker’s response annoyed many – while Jess Phillips is more relaxed about the issue. What are Harry’s Place readers’ experiences of cross-party friendships?
Returning briefly to Thirkell – it’s striking that, although she is a decidedly conservative writer, even in her earlier 1930s novels fascism is always viewed with hostility whereas Communism is indulged as a youthful eccentricity, and the Labour candidate Mr Adams, as is probably clear from the extract, is also presented in a friendly light.