Young Flora Poste leaves the funeral of her parents and finds herself alone with insubstantial means ("barely enough to keep her in stockings and furs") in mid-1930's London. The young 20-something has no means (nor intentions) of developing her own career save to follow in the footsteps of Jane Austen in becoming an author . . . when she's 50. But she's confident in the support of friends and distant relatives as she gathers life experiences for her writing. She makes a very wise choice when she decides she'll stay with the Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm - which she expects to be "appalling but interesting" - and where she'll use her talents to fix things (and people). The colorful array of cousins on the farm do not disappoint, but she's confident and, in the end, removes the curse on the farm, frees the cousins from the clutches of the aptly named matriarch, Ada Doom, finds love and fulfillment for all . . . and even helps old Ada overcome her self-imposed solitude after, as a little girl, she "saw something nasty in the woodshed."
—John R. Williams