Stella Gibbons "she applied her versatility as a writer to every subject under the sun bar cookery, which was the province of a certain Mrs Peel." At the same time she began work on the novel that would become "Cold Comfort Farm"; her colleague and friend Elizabeth Coxhead recorded that Gibbons "neglected her duties disgracefully" to work on this project. In her time with "The Lady", Gibbons established a reputation as a caustic book reviewer, and was particularly critical of the then fashionable "loam and lovechild" rural novels. Novelists such as Mary Webb and Sheila Kaye-Smith had achieved considerable popularity through their
Ada Brodsky via Trieste. At Ben Shemen, Neumark received an education in which music, theatre and literature played a major role. She, with the other children, were also closely involved in agricultural work. Ada translated between the local Hebrew-speaking children and the new arrivals from Germany. Neumark's parents needed a visa from the British Mandate in Palestine to emigrate there. This was a costly affair, requiring around £1,000 or 12,500 Reichsmarks, which they did not have. Ada's aunt who was already in Palestine collected the monies with great difficulty, and a relative with British citizenship had to personally deliver it in Germany