Stella Gibbons of Gibbons's "most enjoyable and vicious" satirical portraits. In her introduction to the book's 2011 reprint, Lynne Truss describes it as "a rich, mature novel, romantic and wistful, full of rounded characters and terrific dialogue" that deserved more commercial success than it received. The public's expectations were still prejudiced by "Cold Comfort Farm", which by 1949 had sold 28,000 copies in hardback and 315,000 in paperback. Anticipating that a sequel would be popular, that year Gibbons produced "Conference at Cold Comfort Farm", her shortest novel, in which the farm has become a conference centre and tourist attraction. There is much
George Gibbons Hearne George Gibbons Hearne George Gibbons Hearne (7 July 1856 – 13 February 1932) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Kent County Cricket Club between 1875 and 1895. He also played in one Test match for England against South Africa in 1891/92. Hearne was part of the famous cricketing Hearne family. His brothers Alec and Frank also played Test match cricket. Hearne was born on 7 July 1856 in Ealing in what was then Middlesex. His father, George Hearne, had played for Middlesex and became the groundsman at Kent's Private Banks Sports Ground in Catford in 1872.