3. E. M. Delafield - Diary of a Provincial Lady
In this episode, Amy and Kim take a closer look at E.M. Delafield’s charming Diary of a Provincial Lady, a fictional (yet largely autobiographical) journal of an upper-middle class woman living in Devon, England. The diary was first serialized in the progressive political and literary review magazine Time and Tide before becoming a bestseller in the U.K. and the U.S. in the early 1930s. Amy and Kim also contrast and compare Delafield’s life with the diary, discuss why a book that has never been out of print isn’t more widely read today, and reveal what the tome has in common with Phoebe Waller Bridge’s Fleabag.
Discussed in this episode:
E.M. Delafield’s Diary of a Provincial Lady
The Unlucky Family by E.M. Delafield (we incorrectly refer to it as The Unhappy Family in the episode)
Zella Sees Herself by E.M. Delafield
The Bradford Estate in Kentisbeare, Devon, England
Provincial Daughter by R.M. Dash
Brides of Heaven was published in Violet Powell’s biography of Delafield, The Life of a Provincial Lady
The Edith Thompson and Frederick Bywaters murders
Messalina of the Suburbs by E.M. Delafield
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
The Brontes: Their Lives Recorded by Their Contemporaries by E.M. Delafield
“I wish more people would read … The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield” in the Guardian U.K.
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
“The Women’s Institute: No Longer about Jam and Jerusalem” in the Guardian U.K.
The Provincial Lady Kindle book that includes The Provincial Lady Goes Further, The Provincial Lady in America, and The Provincial Lady in Wartime