Rich Relatives by Compton MacKenzie

Jasmine Grant arrives alone at York railway station, exhausted after a long journey from southern Italy to the chill of the north, and at once feels herself a stranger in England. Draggled, grieving, and out of place, she wanders the city walls in a state of exile and memory, mourning the island home of Sirene, her dead father, and the mother she barely knew. Compton Mackenzie turns her displacement into a social comedy of loss, where family obligation is as bewildering as the climate. A flood of letters from her father's eccentric English relations deepens the novel's satire. Lady May, Aunt Cuckoo, Mildred, and Aunt Ellen all demand, patronize, or manage her in their own absurd ways, revealing a world of snobbery, duty, and comic self-importance. Jasmine's future among them seems both inevitable and absurd, especially as she is expected to fit into their plans rather than shape her own life. Then, in a chance encounter over a lost bundle of letters, she meets a sandy-haired young man bound for the same destination, and their easy wit and shared coincidences spark the promise of romance amid the family chaos. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.