Stella Gibbons Trivia

1. "Cold Comfort Farm" is dirty, chaotic and uncompromisingly dominated by a reclusive matriarch. Which character is determined to reorganize the whole Starkadder family?

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: Robert Poste's child

Flora Poste is often referred to as "Robert Poste's child" by members of the Starkadder family. They appear to wish to atone for some "terrible wrong" that they did to Robert Poste in the past, although, frustratingly, we are never told what this was! Aunt Judith declares that her lips are sealed since "we are not like other folk"!

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Starkadders

The phrase "There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort" is said numerous times by many different characters throughout the book.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: arranged

I have always liked the sound of the phrase 'a marriage has been arranged'.'

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: A dishmop

Adam never used his present. He hung it up because it was too pretty to use and carried on washing the dishes with a twig! When he finally moved with his cows to the squire's farm, he carried the little mop round his neck on a string.

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Brassieres

Mrs Smiling is disappointed when she discovers that what appeared to be a two-section brassiere in the shop window turns out to be just a variation on the "Venus" design.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: brassieres & bras & Brassieres & Bras

Her friends could restore her composure in moments of distress with the phrase: 'I saw a brassiere to-day, Mary, that would have interested you...'

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: Graceless, Aimless, Feckless and Pointless

The cows often lost bits of themselves, and their names might more appropriately have included Legless and Footless! They eventually joined the squire's herd and Adam went to look after them. There was also a bull called Big Business who was never let out of his field until Flora took pity on him one day.

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Stare suspiciously

Since the Starkadders isolate themselves from the rest of society they seem suspicious and socially inept until Flora's interference.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: Stella Gibbons

She also wrote 'Conference at Cold Comfort Farm' and a short story, 'Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm'. I've never seen either of {these;} I'm assuming they're out of print. But I imagine there will always be Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm!

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: Amos

"Cold Comfort Farm" is a parody of some of the rural novels of its time and "The Church of the Quivering Brethren" may well be based on a church described in "Susan Spray", a novel by Sheila Kaye-Smith. Amos subsequently becomes an itinerant Gospel preacher - and part of Flora's final solution to the family's chaotic problems.

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Brother

Seth and Reuben are brothers and have a younger sister Elfine.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: bee-keeping

I love the way Joanna Lumley delivers that line in the movie!

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Branwell Bronte

According to Mr. Mybug this can be proved through some rather mundane letters Branwell wrote to his Aunt Prunty.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: Sussex

Flora felt that Sussex was not quite like other counties...even before she arrived at the farm.

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: Charles Fairford

Mr. Meyerburg falls in love with "poor daft Rennet". Dick Hawk-Monitor lends respectability to the family by marrying Elfine, while Reuben is content with inheriting the farm. Urk consoles himself for the loss of Elfine by marrying Meriam, the hired girl.

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Cinema

Contrary to what everyone assumes Seth's real passion is cinema, not women. Reuben is the one with the passion for farming, while Amos has a passion for preaching.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: Persuasion

She felt that she had a lot in common with Jane Austen

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: Something nasty

The nature of the "something nasty", seen when Aunt Ada was "no bigger than a titty wren", is never revealed. Fig Stakadder was a real person - a family ancestor!

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Robert Poste's child

In spite of her protests, Adam continues to call Flora "Robert Poste's Child" throughout her stay at Cold Comfort.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: Seth and Reuben

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: Flora

Flora uses a copy of "Vogue Magazine" to convince Aunt Ada. She finally departs theatrically in an aeroplane! Dr.Mudel looks after Judith, while Seth makes a career in movies, employed by the director Earl P. Neck.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: sukebind

Meriam got pregnant each time, and Rennet tended to jump down the well. (I believe Ms. Gibbons invented 'sukebind').

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: Starkadders

The only beetle mentioned is Mrs. Beetle, a cleaning lady. She is raising her large family to be a jazz band! The only babies at the farm are the ones that Meriam, her daughter, produces each year when the sukebind is in bloom.

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: The near future

Surprising though it is, "Cold Comfort Farm" is set in a future which includes video phones so it can technically be regarded as science fiction.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: talkies

He likes the talkies 'better nor anything in the whoal world.'

From Quiz Rural Monkey Business

Answer: A nest containing four pink eggs

The four eggs are meant to prophesy four children to bless the young Hawk-Monitors. The book contains much that shows Stella Gibbons poking fun at old rural superstitions and rites such those in the contemporary novels of Sheila Kaye-Smith and Mary Webb.

From Quiz Something in the Woodshed

Answer: Something nasty

The phrase "Something in the Woodshed" has entered popular culture to mean something shocking that is kept secret. You never find out what she saw.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: leg

Adam didn't notice.

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: butter

...'ye run away to clap a bit o' butter on it to take the pain away. Ah, but there'll be no butter in hell!'

From Quiz Cold Comfort Farm - the Novel

Answer: Mr. Mybug

He intends to prove that Branwell Bronte, not his sisters, actually wrote 'Wuthering Heights','Jane Eyre', etc.

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