There are 29 books in the Virago Modern Classics series. The newest book is Three Score and Ten .

2
Wild Strawberries

Book cover of Wild Strawberries
A witty romp through English Country-house life at its most delightfully absurd. At Rushwater House in West Barsetshire, Lady Emily Leslie and her family are entertaining an assortment of house guests, hangers-on, and French monarchists. Amid a perfect welter of rapturous embraces and moonlight madness, a marriage is finally arranged.…
To his parents' dismay, Colin Keith - out of the noble but misplaced sense of duty peculiar to high-minded young university graduates - chooses to quit his training for the Bar and take a teaching job at Southbridge School. Little does Colin imagine that he will count among his pupils…

6
Pomfret Towers

Pomfret Towers
Centers around the weekend party that Alice Barton, a shy young English girl, attends at Pomfret Towers, the magnificent seventeenth century home of Lord Pomfret

8
Before Lunch

Book cover of Before Lunch

Jack Middleton likes to imagine himself a country squire. At weekends he retires to Laverings Estate with his wife, Catherine. He may be pompous, and they may seem ill-matched, but the couple are devoted to each other.

When Jack's widowed sister, Lilian, and her two stepchildren arrive to spend the…

9
Cheerfulness Breaks In

Book cover of Cheerfulness Breaks In

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times

It is summer 1939 and the social event of the year is about to take place: Rose Birkett, a flighty beauty with a penchant for breaking engagements…

As the war continues it brings its own set of trials to the the village of Northbridge. Eight officers of the Barsetshire Regiment have been billeted at the rectory, and Mrs Villars, the Rector's wife, is finding the attentions of Lieutenant Holden (who doesn't seem to mind that she is…

11
Marling Hall

Book cover of Marling Hall

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times

Mr Marling, of Marling Hall, has begun to accept - albeit reluctantly - that he will probably never be able to pass his wonderful old estate on…

12
Growing Up

Book cover of Growing Up

'Charming, very funny indeed. Angela Thirkell is perhaps the most Pym-like of any twentieth-century author, after Pym herself' Alexander McCall Smith

It is wartime in Barsetshire, and so much has changed. Belier's Priory is now a hospital for wounded soldiers, and Sir Harry and Lady Waring have moved to the…

13
The Headmistress

Book cover of The Headmistress
Barsetshire in the latter years of the Second World War is a peaceful and gossipy place, but there has been one lively change. A girls' school, evacuated from London, has taken over Harefield Park. Miss Sparling seems to be the perfect headmistress: she dresses as a headmistress should and is…

14
Miss Bunting

Book cover of Miss Bunting

Barsetshire in the war years. Miss Bunting, governess of choice to generations of Barsetshire aristocracy, has been coaxed out of retirement by Sir Robert and Lady Fielding to tutor their daughter Anne, delicate, sixteen years old, and totally lacking in confidence.

When Anne makes friends with Heather Adams, the gauche…

15
Peace Breaks Out

Book cover of Peace Breaks Out

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times

It is 1945. When peace breaks out at last, familiar wartime routines are interrupted, and the residents of Barsetshire seem as disconcerted as they are overjoyed.

As…

17
Love Among the Ruins

Book cover of Love Among the Ruins

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times

It's the summer of 1947, and peacetime has brought new challenges to Barsetshire. Beliers Priory, once a military hospital during the War, has now become a flourishing…

19
County Chronicle

Book cover of County Chronicle

'You read her, laughing, and want to do your best to protect her characters from any reality but their own' New York Times

The county of Barsetshire is aflutter with preparations. With the wedding of Lucy Marling and Sam Adams fast approaching, and Lucy's brother Oliver brooding over his ill-fated…

21
Happy Returns

Book cover of Happy Returns
“Her writing celebrates the solid parochial English virtues of stiff-upper-lippery, good-sportingness,[and] dislike of fuss. . . . Light, witty, easygoing books.” ―The New Yorker

As 1951 draws to a close, Christmas approaches―but the conservative upper class of Barsetshire have already received the gift they really wanted: Winston Churchill's re-election as…

22
Jutland Cottage

Book cover of Jutland Cottage

'Charming, very funny indeed' ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

Change is in the air in Barsetshire. The country may have a new queen, but Greshambury has a new rector, Canon Fewling, and a returned prodigal daughter: the beautiful, frivolous Rose Fairweather. But for lonely Margot Phelps, caring for her elderly parents in…

23
What Did It Mean?

Book cover of What Did It Mean?
As Elizabeth II's coronation draws near, the gentry of Barsetshire engage in preparations, committee meetings, and “their perennially amusing antics” (The New York Times).

A new queen is about to be crowned, and the prominent families of Barsetshire intend to make a good impression amid the festivities. Fortunately, the highly…

24
Enter Sir Robert

Book cover of Enter Sir Robert
The missing lord of the manor looms large in this quirky novel by an author who offers “a fresh, original, witty interpretation of England's social history” (The New York Times).

Lady Graham is anticipating the long-awaited appearance of Sir Robert, finally retiring from his glorious military career and globetrotting adventures…

26
A Double Affair

Book cover of A Double Affair
A “charming troupe” of Barsetshire inhabitants celebrate a spate of marriages―while one young woman bemoans her prospects―in this novel of 1950s English life (The New York Times).

The locals are all talking about the upcoming wedding of the vicar of Hatch End to the much-loved Miss Merriman―in fact, the couple's…

27
Close Quarters

Book cover of Close Quarters
A widow goes house-hunting in Barsetshire in this witty, moving novel by an author of “graceful stories of upper-class English life” (The New York Times).

One rainy summer, amid the social and cultural changes of postwar England, Mrs. Macfadyen wrestles with the loss of her beloved husband after just five…