Cold Comfort Farm review from Shipley Book Group

A number of the group were already familiar with Cold Comfort Farm, a novel that commands enormous affection among its admirers. On hearing the title almost anyone will be able to quote you “Something nasty in the woodshed” but to aficionados the book is a rich quarry of references for all occasions. News of sexual misbehaviour frequently provokes references to the Sukebind being in flower and decrepitude in man or beast can prompt memories of the disintegrating cows, Feckless, Aimless and Pointless.

The charm of the novel lies particularly in the contrast between the cool rationality of Flora, with her dislike of fuss, confusion and discomfort and the turbulent emotions and bleak fatalism in which the entire Starkadder family, in their various ways, delight in indulging in. As a narrative, the ways in which Flora succeeds in imposing order on chaos and disentangling the web of resentments, psychological complexes and social pitfalls, which beset the family, are eminently satisfying. There is a clear homage to Jane Austen in the character of Flora, which is underlined by a reference to Persuasion and a quote from Mansfield Park.

We enjoyed the fact that this was essentially a comic novel. It was a breath of fresh air after some of the weightier tomes we had grappled with recently (modern African fiction anyone?) and within its own terms, deftly handled in terms of plot, characterisation and language. The dialect is wonderful and the descriptive passages show a brilliant grasp of the works she was parodying. We all had our own favourites among the characters, from evil old Aunt Ada Doom to the fey Elfine and the smouldering Seth. My favourite short scene is that in which the emotionally charged dialogue between Judith and Seth is mirrored by the action of the porridge in the pot (which eventually boils over).

One of the group questioned whether it was acceptable that the country characters should be mocked from the viewpoint of London sophistication. However, if the book is regarded as a parody, then it is the stereotypical characters of popular fiction that are being mocked, rather than representatives of a particular social class. One could also argue that the London characters, Flora included, are “types” as much as individuals.

From the minimal background reading we had done, we were aware that the book was a parody of the rural novels popular at the time of its publication, particularly those of Mary Webb. One group member bought along a copy of one of her works, which was similarly rural and emotional. When I first discovered Cold Comfort Farm, many years ago, I particularly relished the fact that it seemed to be mocking D.H. Lawrence, who I was studying and who I detested. Although I have never seen any specific parallels drawn, I still think there is something very Lawrentian about the brooding sexuality of Seth, and possibly something of D.H. himself in the character of Mr Mybug.

To be critical, we did find some of the parody a little heavy handed at times. We felt that the introduction was sarcastic rather than ironic.We discovered little about Stella Gibbon herself, although this is something I should like to remedy. It is notable that Cold Comfort Farm is the only of her works that anyone has ever heard of.

One aspect of the novel that had not struck any of us in earlier readings was its futuristic setting, futuristic that is from a 1930s viewpoint. Although this gave it a very slightly Metropolis-ish edge, people whizzing around in aeroplanes, we agreed that it hardly seemed to make any difference to the impact of the book, which seemed very rooted in its own time with distinctions in class and gender very much in evidence. Since most of the action in the country had no futuristic references, key communications were made by letter and technology didn’t go much beyond Ford vans and “talkies” one wondered what the point of this was. Incidentally recent TV adaptations seemed to have sensibly ignored all this and set it as a straight period piece.

In conclusion this was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, if not a particularly profound one. We also enjoy a new repertoire of shared references, which go beyond “something nasty in the woodshed”.