The Woods in Winter, Stella Gibbons
The Woods in Winter, Stella Gibbons
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Woods in Winter

Author: Stella Gibbons

Narrator: Gabrielle Baker

Unabridged: 9 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/28/2024


Synopsis

. . . for the first time in her life, she was living as she had always unknowingly wanted to live: in freedom and solitude, with an animal for close companion. Her new life had acted upon her like a strong and delicious drug.

Ivy Gover, a curmudgeonly middle-aged charwoman with some slightly witchy talents, inherits a rural cottage in Buckinghamshire and takes up residence near the tiny village of Little Warby. Having settled in with a rescued dog and a pet pigeon, she manages, despite her anti-social instincts, to have surprising effects on her new neighbors, including Angela Mordaunt, a spinster still mourning her dead beau, Coral and Pearl Cartaret, ditzy sisters who have just opened a tea shop, the local vicar, and wealthy Lord Gowerville, whose devotion she earns by healing his beloved dog. But her biggest challenge will likely be the twelve-year-old runaway who shows up at her door . . .

Blending vivid characters and a deep knowledge of human nature, this is also a funny and poignant tale of the challenges and freedoms of old age and solitude. The Woods in Winter was first published in 1970 and was the last novel Stella Gibbons wrote for publication.

About Stella Gibbons

Stella Gibbons was born in 1902 in London. She was educated first at home, then the North London Collegiate School for Girls, and finally at University College, London, where she did a two-year course on journalism. Her first job, in 1923, was as cable decoder for British United Press. For the next decade she worked as a London journalist for various publications, including the Evening Standard and The Lady. Her first published book was a volume of poems in 1930. This was followed by the classic comic novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932) which remains her best-known work. In 1933 she met and married Allan Webb, an actor and singer, the marriage lasting until the latter's death in 1959. From 1934 until 1970, Stella Gibbons published more than twenty further novels, in addition to short stories and poetry, and there were two further posthumously-published full-length works of fiction. She was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and was awarded a Femina Vie-Heureuse prize in 1933 for Cold Comfort Farm. Stella Gibbons died on December 19, 1989, at home in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by JimZ on August 01, 2021

So, this is the sixth novel I have read by Stella Gibbons, the others being Cold Comfort Farm (1932 – I gave it 4 stars), A Pink Front Door (1959 - I gave it 4 stars), The Swiss Summer (1951 – I gave it 2 stars), The Snow-Woman (1969 – I gave it 4 stars), and Weather at Tregulla (1962 - I gave it 3......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on January 17, 2025

Such a unique story! I’m so glad I read this for the Cozy Reader book club. It’s almost more like a village story than one with a central heroine like I was expecting. Except it’s not really a village (more an area of the countryside) and Ivy is definitely the heroine. But there are lots of side cha......more

Goodreads review by Abigail on December 05, 2021

I’ve never been able to finish Cold Comfort Farm, so discovering the other novels of Stella Gibbons this year has been a revelation. The Woods in Winter was a treat that I devoured in a couple of days. Published in 1970, it harks back to the 1930s—the time of Bright Young Things and a scarcity of you......more

Goodreads review by Beth on January 24, 2022

"Think, Ivy - it's a cottage of your very own, in the country!" Suddenly, there swept along the landscape ruled by her mind's eye the majestic vision of the Nethersham beeches; towers and castles of rustling green; benign father-gods of the woods, filled with their gently-stirring life in the blu......more

Goodreads review by Elinor on March 18, 2022

Having decided to read more of Stella Gibbons, I tackled this one with enthusiasm but was slightly disappointed because the story sort of falters to a stop. Nevertheless, I enjoyed her brilliant writing style and her truly unforgettable characters, the main one being Ivy, the independent-minded char......more