The Provincial Lady in America

No one could have been more surprised than our Provincial Lady to receive an invitation from her American agent to travel transatlantic and embark upon a programme of lectures and signings. She was particularly amazed because, having received an overture sometime before and feeling that she would rather stay in the English countryside, she requested that they meet quite a few ‘requirements’ before she would agree to go.   They met every stipulation. ‘Am completely thrown on my beam-ends by this. Can I possibly be worth this?’ And so off she goes. And, courtesy of her diary, we have an entertaining account of her shipboard life, her arrival and immediate encounters with enthusiasm - which sometimes stretches her credulity, and English patience. It is all go, window-shopping on Fifth Avenue, cocktails, meetings with a wide range of writers, society ladies, and even an old acquaintance. And then there are the book shop signings, the lectures to the good, the great - and the less