Stella Gibbons full-time writing career. In March 1931 Gibbons had become engaged to Allan Webb, a budding actor and opera singer five years her junior. He was the son of a cricketing parson, and the grandson of Allan Becher Webb, a former Bishop of Bloemfontein who served as Dean of Salisbury Cathedral. On 1 April 1933 the couple were married at St Matthew's, Bayswater. Later that year she learned that "Cold Comfort Farm" had been awarded the "Prix Étranger", the foreign novel category of the prestigious French literary prize, the "Prix Femina". It had won against works by two more experienced writers,
Stella Gibbons the 1957 Heritage edition of "Sense and Sensibility", was a long-time admirer of Austen, and had described her in a "Lady" article as "one of the most exquisite" of woman artists. After the war, Allan Webb resumed his stage career with the role of Count Almaviva in the 1946 Sadler's Wells production of "The Marriage of Figaro". In 1947 he appeared in the original run of the Vivian Ellis musical "Bless the Bride", and made several further stage appearances in the following two years. During this time he had a brief affair with the actress Sydney Malcolm, for which Gibbons