Darling Ma: Letters to Her Mother, 1932-1944

These cheery letters from comic monologuist Joyce Grenfell (1910-1979) about the English social scene during the Depression and WW II will appeal to Anglophiles and other readers interested in the daily lives of the famous. After divorcing the author's father, her mother, Nora Phipps, youngest sister of Lady Astor, married a former Yale football hero, moved to the States and settled in North Carolina. It was to her that the author wrote about life on the London stage and at the Astors' country estate, Cliveden; her shopping, cooking and journeys; her entertaining the troops; her husband, Reggie, and friends Richard Addinsell, Noel Coward, Myra Hess, Beatrice Lillie and Stephen Potter. There's plenty of gossip and good humor but surprisingly little comedy in this well-edited collection by British director Roose-Evans. Photos. (Aug.)