Book description
Life is not quite a fairytale for poor Viola. Left penniless, the young
widow is forced to live with her late husband's family in a joyless old
house. There's Mr Wither, a tyrannical old miser, Mrs Wither, who thinks
Viola is just a common shop girl, and two unlovely sisters-in-law, one
of whom is in love with the chauffeur. Only the prospect of the charity
ball can raise Viola's spirits - especially as Victor Spring, the local
prince charming, will be there. But Victor's intentions towards our
Cinderella are, in short, not quite honourable . . . Stella Dorothea
Gibbons was born in London in 1902. She studied journalism at University
College, London, and worked for ten years on various papers, including
the Evening Standard. Her first novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932) was (and
is) hugely successful. She married the actor and singer Allan Webb, who
died in 1959. They had one daughter. Stella Gibbons died in 1989.
