THIS!
This is why I kept reading Angela Thirkell. I knew that there would be more books of the same caliber as Wild Strawberries.
This book is about the Marlings, but particularly the widowed daughter Lettice, who has two young daughters and is a bit susceptible to thoughts of a second marriage.
On her mind are two men: David Leslie, a distant family connection, and Tom Barclay, an officer stationed nearby.
David Leslie made his first appearance in "Wild Strawberries" as an undependable but irresistible flirt. He's still that way here, only slightly more dependable. In most books this kind of character can be easily dismissed. You think, "This guy's worthless," and anxiously wait for the heroine to realize the value of the better man. Not so here. David Leslie really is fairly irresistible, regardless of his flaws. How did Angela Thirkell do it? I look forward to seeing him in more books. There is a sense that he may outgrow some of his flightiness, and that would be...amazing.
The other suitor, Tom Barclay, is delightful in his own way, but not nearly as complicated.
Lettice's younger sister, Lucy, is hilarious for her unconscious way of always "telling people what" and being the happiest bossy person ever.
Lots of other good characters, like the insane but shrewd landlady who keeps popping in and "borrowing" things from the house that she agreed to rent furnished.
Another book set in the middle of World War II. Angela Thirkell was able to publish her books in what seems like nearly real-time during the war, about one per year, so what the British went through and their feelings are very near to the reader, very intimate.
Thoroughly enjoyed it.
By the way, my edition had the worst synopsis ever on the back cover and made it sound like some thriller romance with jealous rival sisters. That, it most definitely is not. Awful marketing by the publisher in this case. ( )

Lettice, the widowed daughter of the Marlings, struggles here with her fate, and it's rather touching. (She also struggles with her nanny, which is more amusing.) But if you love the whole series, you will probably be more interested in governess Bunny, irrepressible Lucy Marling (first really Telling Us What here), irresistable Lady Emily Leslie and her possesions and her soft-but-capable daughter, and the usual flirtations of David Leslie. ( )

Marling Hall is about three of the Marlings’ adult children: Lettice, recently widowed, who lives in the converted stables with her young daughters; Oliver, whose eye problems mean he’s working in an office instead of serving in the military; and Lucy who is strong-willed and practical and unconventional in a familiar, Thirkell-ish way.

There’s a war on but somewhere in the distance: rationing is a minor inconvenience; neighbours’ attempts at owning chickens are merely a source for drama and comedy; Lettice is ready to move on from her husband’s death; Lucy goes out each day to do war work but instead of following her, the story focuses on domestic, familial and social interactions. Thirkell is delightfully, gently, observant and not wholly predictable, especially when her characters showed unexpected moments of depth.

In hindsight, I think I would have liked it more had the book spent less time with some characters who I didn’t like very much, and had it not been for a few small details in the ending (such Lettice needing to be rescued from a foreigner, and mutely pleading her suitor like she were a dog and he her master). But nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it.

”I didn’t know nurses were being sent out,” said Mrs Marling.
A general conversation characterised by partial knowledge hovering on the the verge of ignorance then took place during which it was decided that no one knew if nurses were being sent or not, that if they were it was a shame, and it was a shame if they weren’t. This conversation might have gone on for ever, had not the dean come in with Mrs Morland [...] ( )

Thirkell's 1942 book, set in the closing months of 1941. The people of Barsetshire have settled down to the hardships of wartime. The Marlings are trying to run their home with only four servants, aiding the war effort by clearing the table themselves after breakfast. Their daughter Lettice, whose husband was killed at Dunkirk, is living in the stable-block, and the retired governess Miss Bunting is helping out with looking after her small daughters. Lettice has reached the point where she is able to think about remarriage, but of the suitors on offer, one is the charming but notoriously unreliable David Leslie (who has complicated the plot of romances in several previous novels already), another is a rather middle-aged and probably gay civil servant with a thing about 16th century poetry, and the third seems to be attached to Lettice's noisy sister Lucy. We have a pretty good idea how it's going to turn out, but there's a lot of worthwhile comedy about chickens, dogs, occasional tables, and the age-old rivalry between Palace and Deanery to come before the happy resolution. ( )

A lighthearted tale set around the Marling household during World War 2. Lettice is the widowed daughter of the house, being gently brought round to the idea of marriage. The question is, who is most suitable? Her sister Lucy could tell her what, she does so with everyone else. Down the road Geoffrey and Frances Harvey are siblings from London engaged in regional war work, but also with an eye to local suitors. Their landlady, the widowed Mrs Smith, is very funny, as she cannot bear to be parted from this house and her belongings.
Thirkell is wry and cynical here, and the result is a clever and entertaining novel. ( )