A favorite summer pastime is the amateur theatrical. Here it serves as the stage for the farce that society can become when played in deadly earnest.

Angela Thirkell is the modern Jane Austen for some, and in this book, there are allusions to Mr. Frank Churchill and Mrs. Norris of Pride and Prejudice. It is understood the readers know their origins.

August Folly chronicles the lives and loves of modern Barsetshire with Thirkell's wit and sophistication. The gentlemen and gentlewomen display some less than cultivated manners but seem to pull back into character with an apology or a gallant act to save their esteem. The comedy is held together with word and deed - especially word.