The Enchanted April

On a rainy February day in London, two women who barely know each other, the shy Lotty Wilkins and the unhappy, devout Rose Arbuthnot, see the same advertisement: a small medieval castle on the Italian coast is for rent for the month of April. Too poor to afford it alone, they take in two other strangers, a beautiful society lady weary of admirers and an elderly widow who lives among memories of famous men.

What happens to the four women among the wisteria and the sunshine is the whole delightful story. Elizabeth von Arnim (1866–1941), born in Australia and a cousin of Katherine Mansfield, wrote it in 1922 after her own holiday in Portofino, and it became a bestseller and later a much-loved film. It is pure comfort reading, wise as well as funny.