To many readers, Angela Thirkell is the British writer of light fiction compounded of gentle irony, grave absurdity, and urbane under-statement. Here, in one of The Barteshire Novels, The Brandons, Mrs. Thirkell chronicles the troubles Mrs. Brandon, a middle-aged widow with two grown-up children, has with her husband's rich maiden aunt, who theatens to leave her money elsewhere if she is not given the attention she feels is her due.