As readers of Angela Thirkell's enticing chronicles of Barsetshire are well aware, the county itself - a fictional but familiar stretch of English countryside inhabited by infatuation, endearments, and cross purposes - can seem the primary character in her delightful comedies. Nowhere is this more true than in COUNTRY CHRONICLE, in which readers are reacquainted with the plaints, and passions of several members of Barsetshire society. Through a choreographed round of fetes, parties, and other occasions, Thirkell introduces a series of intrigues - romantic, literary, and personal - as well as a few intriguing stragers to the country houses and village lanes of BarsetshireThirkell introduces a series of intrigues-romantic, literary and personal-as well as a few captivating strangers to the country houses and village lanes of Barsetshire.