Shed Sheds", which argues that a "place of retreat" is a "male necessity" which provides men with solace, especially during their retirement. In contrast, in the novel "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons, Aunt Ada Doom saw "something nasty in the woodshed" and retreated to her bed for half a century. To woodshed, or 'shed, in jazz jargon, is "to shut oneself up, away from the world, and practice long and hard, as in 'going to the woodshed'." The word is recorded in English since 1481, as "shadde", possibly a variant of shade. The word shade comes from the Old English
Stella Gibbons a leading voice in the "Georgian" poetry movement, began to publish Gibbons's poems in his magazine, "The London Mercury". Squire also persuaded Longmans to publish the first collection of Gibbons's verses, entitled "The Mountain Beast", which appeared in 1930 to critical approval. By this time her by-line was appearing with increasing frequency in the "Standard". As part of a series on "Unusual Women" she interviewed, among others, the former royal mistress Lillie Langtry. The paper also published several of Gibbons's short stories. Despite this evident industry, Gibbons was dismissed from the "Standard" in August 1930. This was ostensibly an economy