For those who have read and reread Austen, Trollope, and Dickens, discovering a novel by Angela Thirkell is akin to finding gold in an abandoned mine. Long out of print, her novels are currently enjoying a minor renaissance.

As the title of this bright, unashamedly nostalgic novel suggests, Thirkell had a genius for describing the comfortable routine of everyday life in a small English village. Published in 1939, Before Lunch is a glittering portrait of the charming community of "Barsetshire," based on her own county.

Lady Bond and Lord Pomfret are compelled to unite with the Middletons and the Stoners to stop the erection of a tea shop and garage on unspoiled Pooker's Piece. The young and the not-so-young all fall in love, not always with the right person, and sort out their affairs in a hilarious welter of cross-purposes.