Discussions of a handful of light-hearted novels published between 1918 and 1940. Most have been re-issued by Virago and Persephone Books. Setting them in the context of their time and glancing aside to other works by these women authors, we will discuss the following titles : "Diary of a Provincial Lady" by E. M. Delafield, "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons, "Miss Buncle's Book" by D.E. Stevenson, "The Enchanted April" by Elizabeth von Arnim, "Lolly Willowes" by Sylvia Townsend Warner, "Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day" by Winifred Watson. Why were these novels so popular in their day? Why read them now, almost a hundred years later? Though their mood is comic, do darker notes lie beneath the surface?