A reader writes: “This ought to be regarded as an English comic classic. The heroine, Martha, is plain, with curly hair, small eyes which she tries to enlarge in a soulful manner by stretching them in front of the looking glass, and very little chin. She is extremely clever and totally innocent.

”This witty book, crisp and dry as a fresh biscuit, is a novel of astonishing subtlety and of a subtlety… It is native and assured. It is this subtlety that saves Making Conversation from the imputation of triviality, of being just a “funny novel”. It is about a real girl, for whom we ought to be sorry, but for whom, because of her strength of nature, we are not sorry in the least. She would raise her eyebrows at us if we were.”  (Pamela Hansford Johnson, Times Literary Supplement).

Hardback, around five inches by more than seven tall, is bound in its publisher's original green cloth, lettered in original gilt.  

First edition published by Leonard Stein,  London in 1931. Provenance: endpapers suggest it may have served a spell as a library book somewhere, although free from the usual pockets, tickets and exterior markings. Free from  permanent inscription and markings to the text.

Although interior condition is overall good, because this original letterpress book is old, it does display minor signs of use and age — such as intermittent foxing, the usual discolouration to old paper — consistent with a printed object of this vintage. All 288 pp main text are complete and otherwise correct.

¶ Christine Longford, Countess of Longford (1900-1980); Anglo-Irish writer. ¶

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