Coronation Summer — Angela Thirkell

A rarity in the Thirkell canon, this charming and witty historical novel is set in the coronation summer of 1838, when the young Victoria, scarcely older than the tale's narrator, Fanny Harcourt, assumes the throne of England.

The seventeen-year-old Fanny's journey from her native Norfolk to London, where she takes up residence with close friend Emily Dacre (and her father as chaperone) in a Queen Street apartment for the six weeks of festivities surrounding Victoria's corination, allows Thirkell a splendid opportunity to portray the excitements of the capital and its environs through unsophisticated yet sharply discerning eyes.

Thirkell's fictional experiment will surprise and delight her established fans and win her new admirers among those enchanted with Victoriana.