Stella Gibbons "Cold Comfort Farm"; it mentions none of her other works—while providing her "bêtes noires" Morgan and Mary Webb with full entries. To Gibbons, "Cold Comfort Farm" became "That Book" or "You-Know-What", its title never mentioned. Despite her growing irritation and expressed distaste for it, the book continued to be lauded by successive generations of critics, Boston described it as "one of those rare books of comic genius that imprints itself on the brain and can never afterwards be eradicated". A more negative view of the book has been expressed by the literary critic Mary Beard, who considers it "a rather
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