If I like Nancy Mitford, Jilly Cooper, Barbara Pym...

[bigkidsdidit]

who else would I like?

A few months of biographies, feminist book group books and Serious Tomes and I need some fun (but not crap) books for the tube journey to work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

thanks :)

[meditrina]

Georgette Heyer - the Regency ones and the murders.

[meditrina]

And EF Benson Mapp and Lucia series.

[LoveInAColdClimate]

Barbara Trapido.

[cleanandclothed]

Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Howard. Josephine Tey.

[cjbartlett]

Fiona Walker is very good and very horsey and sexy like Jilly Cooper

[MmeLindor.]

Nora Roberts - her Chesapeake Bay trilogy, or any of the other trilogy.

if you like suspense, then her JD Robb series is good.

[icapturethecastle]

Possibly Kate Morton -The House at Riverton, Forgotten Garden the Distant Hours. Kate Morton has said Nancy Mitford is one of her favourite authors. I love both.

[bigkidsdidit]

ooh thanks everyone! I've never heard of any of these! Going to go mad on amazon!

I love horsey stuff and suspense. And crime fiction too but not too gory - Barbara Vine not Val McDermid

[cjbartlett]

have you read the Alexander Mccall Smith series?

[stleger]

Mavis Cheek. And Barbara Erskine. And Kate Atkinson who is quite gory but only in tiny bursts.

[DoubleDegreeStudent]

Oh, oh, oh - in the summer I was introduced to Rosamond Lehmann. Dusty Answer is the one I read - I'd put it between Pursuit of Love and Brideshead Revisited (ie. you might not boast about reading it, but you get totally swept up, the prose is beautiful and you aren't embarrassed to be reading it)

[CrackerFactory]

Sophie Kinsella especially "Twenties Girl" - absolutely amazing!

[meditrina]

There's always PG Wodehouse!

And if you want "nice" crime, try the Diasy Dalrymple books by Carola Dunn and the Lord Edward Corinth ones by David Rogers, and of course, the wonderful Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters.

[bigkidsdidit]

I have read Alexander McCall Smith (and I have my own Bertie!) and love them. Not such a fan of Sophie Kinsella, although I have read a few. Love Wodehouse!

Oh I'm so excited about all these! Lovely new books.

[EightiesChick]

Laurie Graham - wrote Gone With the Windsors, The Future Homemakers of America. Very funny.

[AnyoneButLulu]

The Diary of a Provincial Lady - EM Delafield, very Mumsnet. My copy has a preface by Jilly Cooper, who is a huge fan.

[SybilBeddows]

I was going to say E.F. Benson.

[SuePurblybilt]

Rafaella Barker

[LoveInAColdClimate]

Great thread, thanks for starting it.

[Francagoestohollywood]

I second The diary of a provincial lady

[stleger]

Oh I love Laurie Graham! And Deborah Moggagh.

[gethelp]

Elizabeth Taylor - not the film star! Rachel Cusk is good, but you should try Persephone Books, their shops are in London but also on the internet.

[steamedtreaclesponge]

Dorothy Sayers is great for not-too-gory crime fiction - Lord Peter Wimsey is a wonderful creation and her books are very clever. If you like Agatha Christie you'll probably love her. Would also second the recommendations of Georgette Heyer and Rosamond Lehman, and Elizabeth Peters.

Have you read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day? That's one of my favourites - really brilliant and good fun. It's published by Persephone who do a lot of great books, all by women writers and mostly published in the first half of the 20th century.

Sophie Kinsella is quite fun but very very silly - I find her characters too annoying to read but I know they are very popular. TBH the only chick-lit author I can read without wanting to kill myself is Marian Keyes.

[steamedtreaclesponge]

X-post with gethelp there!

[bigkidsdidit]

Thanks so much everyone!

I have been to Persephone a few times, I bought my mum some books there for Mother's Day. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is WONDERFUL. One of my favourite books I've read in years. The Persephone books are so beautiful, too. There's a branch right by my work, I should pop by more.

Marian Keyes I like too but the older stuff more than the recent books. Aside from Keyes I don't like chick lit with weak women characters spilling things down themselves when they meet the man of their dreams etc like Jennifer Aniston films. Much prefer Hermione Harefield

Anyway, I've just gone mad at amazon and bought:
Diary of a provincial lady
Dusty answer by Rosamund Lehman
A perfect life by Rafaella Barker
The grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
House at Riverton by Kate Morton
My cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, which popped up as a 'other people who bough Kate Morton also bough this'
and Perfect meringues by Laurie Graham.

All for £40. I cannot WAIT now, so excited to get cracking.

thanks :)