Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ankle Deep | 1933 | Angela Thirkell | Buy |
| 2 | Trooper to the Southern Cross | 1934 | Angela Thirkell | Buy |
| 3 | The Grateful Sparrow | 1935 | Angela Thirkell | Buy |
| 4 | O, These Men, These Men | 1935 | Angela Thirkell | Buy |
| 5 | Coronation Summer | 1937 | Angela Thirkell | Buy |
Before Angela Thirkell found her footing with the Barsetshire series, she wrote a handful of novels that sit outside that fictional world. Ankle Deep (1933) appeared the same year as High Rising and has a semi-autobiographical quality, drawing on Thirkell’s own life rather than Trollope’s county. O These Men, These Men (1935) is a comedy of remarriage and romantic entanglement in the manner of her Barsetshire work but without that setting’s supporting cast of recurring characters.
Trooper to the Southern Cross (1934) is the most unusual of the group. Published under the pseudonym Leslie Parker, it is set on a troop transport ship carrying Australian soldiers home after the First World War and reflects Thirkell’s years living in Australia after her second marriage. The book is notably saltier and less refined than her English fiction, and Thirkell kept the pseudonym throughout her lifetime.
Readers who enjoy the Barsetshire books will find the standalones worth sampling, but they work best as context for understanding how Thirkell developed her voice. The discovery of Barsetshire as a setting gave her the recurring social world and character depth that her earlier standalone fiction lacks.