As an undergraduate student of English literature, I was required to read books. As a lover of English literature I have read many more than those on the module lists. What draws me to a particular book is not an exact science; it could be a recommendation from a friend, a review, a chance read of the blurb, or, as is the case with The Diary of a Provincial Lady, it could be the cover. In Waterstones one rainy afternoon I found a Cath Kidston designed book jacket and on a whim decided to buy it, whatever it was about. Inside I found what I believe to be one of the greatest pieces of literature written in the twentieth century. Humorous, sophisticated, subversive and real, E.M. Delafield’s book touched a nerve and sent me, quite literally, down the rabbit hole and I was hooked.
Now, as an MRes student at the University of Portsmouth, I am looking to examine why this book resonated so much with readers of Time and Tide magazine when it was initially serialised and why it has remained in print since. How can a fictional, upper-middle-class housewife from Devon be as relevant now as when she was written and what can we learn about our own national identity from reading about her?
The Provincial Scholar 