The Country Life (novel) "The Country Life" won a 1998 Somerset Maugham Award, and was selected as one of the Notable Books for Adults of 2000 by the American Library Association. The Country Life (novel) The Country Life is a comedic novel by Rachel Cusk, first published in 1997, which draws on Stella Gibbons' "Cold Comfort Farm" and Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre". It won a 1998 Somerset Maugham Award. The novel is a comedy that draws on both "Cold Comfort Farm" by Stella Gibbons and "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë. Stella Benson, the first-person narrator, abruptly abandons her life in London to take a
Edward Stanley Gibbons by enlarged prostate". He is buried in Twickenham cemetery. Gibbons' string of wives, all but one of whom died relatively young, his swift remarriages and his background in pharmacy has given rise to suspicions of ill-doing on his part, however there is no evidence for this. Edward Stanley Gibbons Edward Stanley Gibbons (21 June 1840 – 17 February 1913) was an English stamp dealer and founder of Stanley Gibbons Ltd, publishers of the famous Stanley Gibbons stamp catalogue and other stamp-related books and magazines. Edward Stanley Gibbons was born at his father William Gibbons' chemist shop at 15 Treville Street,