THE KIND ENGLISH
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE. By Anégela Thirkell. Hamish Hamilton. PRIVATE Enterprise is a_ satirical novel set in an English county in the period immediately following the second World War. The satire is not even slightly edged with malice. Miss Thirkell seems ‘to like her people and pokes only gentle, friendly fun at them. A love story, or rather a combination of love stories, provides the background for the fun, but the plot-if it can be called a plot-is commonplace and tedious. The merit of the book lies in its perceptive witty dissection of Various English Types. There are The Nannies enjoying a benevolent dictatorship over the entire household. The fact that for some ob--scure, English reason they cannot be dismissed when the children grow up, and cannot be happy without babies, gives their employers considerable worry and a proprietary interest in the outcome ‘of the love affairs. There are The Workmen, who in one delightful chapter bail up their mistress in her own kitchen while they bore her to tears with details she doesn’t understand and advice she doesn’t want. But she cannot escape without hurting their feelings. It is a nice thought that only a people irinately kind could be satirised thus.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19480716.2.55.6
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 33
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204THE KIND ENGLISH New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 473, 16 July 1948, Page 33
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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