A Bright Young Thing
It’s 1931. The Great Depression has begun. In London, a young socialite named Astra Davies finds herself in a terrible jam. Astra’s parents have both dropped dead, leaving her a fine old country house and no money at all in which to continue her rather carefree single life. Thanks to her father’s bad investments, Astra inherits nothing but some worthless stock and a great many debts.
Ignorant of all things financial, Astra must figure out a way to save herself. But a female relative is in league with the family lawyer, and they advise Astra to fire all the servants and to sell the family estate at Hensley. Astra rents out her former home to buy time and moves in with an aunt and her witty cousin, Toby, who conspires with Astra to get out of her dismal financial situation and save her family home. What transpires is a very 1930s romance, with lots of banter between Astra and her friends reminiscent of the Thin Man movies.
The social milieu of upper-class England at the start of the Great Depression seems realistic enough, with its summer house parties and country weddings, but some characters do border on cliché. The handsome and helpful aristocrat, Jeremy Harris, Earl of Dunreaven, for one, a naval officer recently returned home from the sea, seems way too good to be true.
With a little help from her friends, and a bit of creativity, Astra triumphs. Her development from a social butterfly to a smart, competent woman is nicely rendered as she blooms into maturity in this very readable upper-class romance.
