As one nears the end of a series of almost 30 novels, it seems only reasonable to expect that the books would become predictable, repetitive or both. Happily that is not the case with Angela Thirkell's Barsetshire novels - a series based upon an imaginary English county first invented by Anthony Trollope. Part of this success is no doubt due to the very large cast of characters covering multiple generations that appear throughout the series. Among other things this allows the author to bring characters, if not entire families, in and out of the series.
One example of this occurs in the book that I just finished - What Did it Mean? which takes place between the death of King George VI and the coronation of Elizabeth II. Major parts in the novel are played by Lord and Lady Pomfret who we first met in Pomfret Towers when they were only Sally Wicklow and Gillie Foster - the heir apparent to the Pomfret Estate. One of the climaxes of that book was their engagement just when Gillie learns that his own father has died and that his time to take over the vast responsibilities of the earldom cannot be far off. Other prominent characters in that novel are Roddy Wicklow (Sally's brother) who becomes the Pomfret Estate agent and Alice Barton who eventually marries Roddy. 
Pomfret Towers is fairly early in the series and surprisingly (at least to me) none of these characters play much of a role in subsequent novels. There are references to the Pomfrets and sometimes to Roddy, but they have only cameo roles if at all. Alice (who along with Rose Birket, I find to be most exasperating characters in Thirkell), I believe has acutally appeared only once thereafter. All of this starts to change in the latter novels and the Pomfrets play a prominent role in What Did it Mean? although Alice is still no where to be seen.
Much of probably the first 250 pages of this book consist of the typical scenes that make up Thirkell's novels to the point that I thought that she was at least becoming predictable. The one thing that seemed to be missing was any kind of romantic relationships which is usually at the heart (literally and figuratively) of Thirkell's work. However the last 100 pages demonstrated that at the end of her career Thirkell hadn't lost her ability to surprise or at least not as far as I am concerned.
I was more than a little surprised that the romantic relationship, which doesn't develop until late in the book, centered on Mr. Downing the bumbling scholar who was introduced early in the series in Northbridge Rectory. In that book Downing was one point of a romantic triangle between Mrs. Turnder and Miss Pemberton - the latter woman being Downing's landlady and collaborator. When I wrote about that book, I said that the key issue for Downing was deciding on what he really wanted - which seemed to be resolved at the end of the story. Yet in this book Thirkell reopens the issue with this time the question seeming to be what does Mr. Downing need as opposed to what he may want or thinks he wants. It was fascinating to see how the author reopens this male-female dynamic in a way that is very real and believable.
As noted earlier a focal point of the book is the events leading up to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. While mention is made of the coronation itself and the roles played by the Pomfrets and others, the real center is how the event will be observed in Northbridge. While Thirkell adds a touch of class and elegance with the participation of Jessica Dean and her husband collaborator, Aubrey Clover (which is no end of help to the Pomfret's shy son) the primary emphasis is on a pageant presented by the residents of the village which at one level seems to be incredibly amateurish and hokey. At one level this seems to be a satire of the people in the village and their feeble attempts to mark this great event. Yet as the description of the pageant takes place, it seemed, at least to me, that this could be read at a much deeper level.
Thirkell's description of the events themselves reminded me of a section Jonathan Bate's book - The Genius of Shakespeare. In writing about the history plays, Bate takes the concept of "This England" far beyond the idea of "This royal throne of kings" to what was common and ordinary in English life - especially through the writings of Edward Thomas. Thirkell, who has an encylopedic knowledge of some of the history plays, seems to me to be sending the same message with this section of her book. In other words while the coronation of England is what England is about so also is the far simpler and more basic lives of its people no matter where and how they might live.
I have already moved on to the next novel - Enter Sir Robert and have only about five to six books to go. Earlier in my reading life I would probably have tried to spread these books out, but I don't want to do that now. Rather I want to finish them so that I can go back both to them and Trollope's original works to better understand the connections and themes than run throughout these fascinating books.
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