I have re-read this because the atmosphere of the book has lingered with me since first reading it many years ago. The story takes place in rural Sussex after WWII has ceased, but when daily life remains on a war-time footing. Almost all the main characters are there because of displacement caused by war: a young family living in a dismal cottage because their house had been destroyed, the father still away with the army; a bachelor scraping a living with a chicken farm because the family firm had failed; Italian prisoners-of-war working on the adjacent farm, along with urban Land Army girls. "The Matchmaker" is the young mother in the cottage, although perhaps a better title would be "The Meddler". Stella Gibbons had found fame with "Cold Comfort Farm", and in "The Matchmaker" makes reference to it, when there is talk of "something nasty in the woodshed".

What I had remembered from reading it before was the atmospheric descriptive writing. For example, when the children are given bicycles, we learn: "After tea they all went down to the crossroads for the first lesson.The evening was calm and the setting sun changed the colour of the fresh leaves to gold: the weather was not yet hot enough to draw up scents from the earth as evening came on and only coolness, scented with new grass, pervaded the air; buttercups and daisies were beginning to bud but glittering celandines still covered the ditch-banks and shone out in the meadows. The gaze wandered on, beyond coppices and spinneys that had not yet attained the full opulence of summer and still showed the brown shades and angularities of early leafage, past distant hillside meadows of emerald wheat and those low jewel-blue summits in which all horizons in this part of Sussex seem to end, but always it returned to one point: Chanctonbury Ring, beckoning the imagination towards its woody shades, high and far off in the clear air, against the rosy sky".

Like "Cold Comfort Farm" the novel contrasts urban and rural life, and its final set piece is the Harvest Supper after all the main characters have assisted with the wheat harvest. The author notes, when the chicken farmer arrives for the feast, "The poor man did not realise that he was surrounded by the true luxury - beautiful light, flowers, fragrant scents, simple but delicious food - which appeals instantly to the senses and does not rely upon such secondary comforts as stainless steel or draught-proof walls. How far from understanding human beings are those advertisers who promise us electric irons when we crave for fresh grapes!" After this, the characters disperse to return to their familiar lives, the dramas and heartaches of their time in Sussex quickly receding, the events there almost as fleeting as the ephemeral changes of light and country flora Stella Gibbons records so vividly. ( )

WW2 is over, but with her own house being destroyed by bombing, Alda Lucie-Brown finds a home for herself and her three daughters in a somewhat unsuitable cottage in rural Sussex. Her husband is still serving as a major in Germany so Alda amuses herself with matchmaking for her friends and neighbours, in particular for her friend Jean who comes to stay with the family, but also for their slightly disagreeable neighbour Mr Waite as well as the local Land Girl Silvia, and the Italian prisoner of war, Fabrio.

I had great hopes for this book, having really enjoyed Stella Gibbons's Nightingale Woods but this one didn't grab my attention in the same way. Part of the problem was that I didn't find Alda a very appealing character, she's very Emma-like in some respects but she remains oblivious, and indeed completely unconcerned, by the damage she is doing by her meddling. It's never 100% clear whether the reader is supposed to be laughing at Alma for her machinations, or applauding her efforts. Her friend Jean is probably a much kinder character, but dull, with her main characteristic being a desire to be married to pretty much anyone who will have her. And in this sort of book it's probably fairly essential to like at least one of the major characters.

So this isn't really one that I can recommend hugely, but I'll certainly give something else by Stella Gibbons a try. ( )

This is one of my favorites by this author. Her world building is stunning (witnessed in every book I've read by her) and you fall in love with her characters. This book is no exception. Historical setting (but with the difference of same sex couples are common) witty dialogue, engaging characters. For such a short book, this one has it all. There's no sex, but you feel each characters emotions strongly.

Really, I just can't recommend this one enough. :) ( )