Novelists Against Social Change

Kate Macdonald teaches British literature and publishing history in the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading, UK. She researches twentieth-century British book culture, publishing history and popular reading, on which she has published widely.

• 1. Introduction: Politics and Pleasure in Language2. From Communism to the Wall Street Crash: Buchan in the 1920s3. Ex-officers and Gentlemen: Yates in the 1920s 4. Political Uncertainty: Buchan in the 1930s5. Novels of Instruction: Thirkell in the 1930s 6. Aggressive Reactions: Yates in the 1930s and 1940s7. Thirkell in Wartime, 1940-458. Rewriting History: Yates and Thirkell, 1945-19609. ConclusionEndnotesAppendix 1: List of works by John Buchan, Dornford Yates and Angela ThirkellWorks cited Index

'This volume is to be welcomed as a significant addition to this developing field of study. Kate Macdonald has produced a careful and well-grounded account of the work of three important writers in the middlebrow tradition. The book offers an original and refreshingly accessible analysis of these authors, examining their status as major figures in popular fiction, but also providing a nuanced and sensitive critique of their novels within the socio-cultural context of their times. Students of twentieth-century popular culture will find Dr Macdonald an astute and readable critic in this authoritative guide to the best-loved fiction of the time.' - Rob Spence, Edge Hill University, UK