Can you recommend me a gentle and old fashioned page turner for a 70 year old?

[RoastieToastieReastie]

For a colleague who is in hospital who I know loves to read (so anything too obvious she will likely have read). I know she loves old fashioned type and happily ever after type books. She's read all the classics etc.

[CMOTDibbler]

How about a Georgette Heyer? My favourites are The Grand Sophy, Frederica, or A Civil Contract. All lovely, gentle, well written, everything turns out beautifully in the end

[Solasum]

Anything by Elizabeth Aston

[Twowrongsdontmakearight]

I bought Catherine Cookson books for my Gran when she was ill (large print!).

[Ladyflip]

The shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher if she hasn't read it

[bruffin]

Alexander McCall Smith book

[Canyouforgiveher]

She might like Joanna Trollope - especially the earlier ones

Anthony Trollope is lovely - if she has read the Palliser and Barsetshire ones, there are plenty of standalone ones.

Susan Howatch is good too although not sure about happy ever after. Her starbridge series is excellent if your friend is interested in church of England with slight paranormal stuff.

I love Norah Lofts - but I suspect she is out of print now.

[PiratesLifeForMe]

The Guernsey literary & potato peel society. Nice easy warm book. Bit of light history & kind of an old fashioned romance in there too.

[dementedma]

Yes to Shellseekers and Georgette Heyer.
My mother used to love the Lilian Beckwith books too, and Elizabeth Goudge - The Herb of Grace/ The City of Bells.

[MrsPeel1]

The Poldark books. Anything by Mary Wesley.
50 shades of... No, definitely not.

[Booklover123]

The miss read series or any books by Persephone publishers, the Dorothy whipple novels are such well written books with a proper story. They put some modern day writers to shame!

[maamalady]

My nan loves the Cadfael books (Edith Pargeter, if I remember correctly) and also the Falco books (Lindsey Davis, Roman whodunnits and frequently very funny - my mum and I like them too).

[SkaterGrrrrl]

Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day.

[Husbanddoestheironing]

The Cazalet series by Elizabeth Howard might be good. There's 5 of them I think covering from the 1930s to the '50s. Enough happening but fairly gentle, and well-written.

[Canyouforgiveher]

One of the funniest "old fashioned" books I've ever read was Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant. think it was a virago print.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand is also lovely.

Agree about the Guernsey one

[MotherofFlagons]

Josephine Tey.

The Daughter of Time a hospitalised detective investigates the princes in the Tower.

Miss Pym Disposes Murder mystery set in a girls' school.

[WelliesTheyAreWonderful]

The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul by Deborah Rodriguez or Joanna Harris's Chocolat?

[Themodernuriahheep]

The British library has come out with all sorts of detective stories that were out of print. She might like the Christmas set of short stories or the ones set in specific areas. If you google you will find them.

I second all the mentions, but esp the Precious Ramotse series by McCall Smith. Just the right sort if thing gif a hospital.

TheEnglish equivalent but not so well written IMV, but funnier, is the Hamish Macbeth series, set in Sutherland by the author of Agatha Raison, Beaton?

[dementedma]

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

[Roseformeplease]

The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Window...

[Becles]

I came on traffic thread to suggest Georgette Heyer. I would go with both the regency romances and the inter awr detective series.

I.really wish they would be adapted for television.

[CMOTDibbler]

Another gentle, everything alright in the end book is Mrs Harris goes to Paris. I read it after it was recommended on here and adored it (and the others by same author)

[ChippyMinton]

I'd also recommend the British Library Crime Classics. My reading group just finished Mystery in White by J.Jefferson Farjeon, very readable.

[ChippyMinton]

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

[YouBastardSockBalls]

Has she read Evelina by Frances Burney? It's lovely, written in the late 1700s.

Or Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day :)