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Original poster

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

87 replies

bigkidsdidit · 13/09/2011 21:08

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 :)

OP posts:
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Auntiestablishment · 08/10/2011 13:43

Forever Amber - Kathleen Winsor. Historical bodice-ripping-blockbuster

Was also going to say Sayers and Heyer.

If you like Sayers, try Ngaio Marsh (Inspector Alleyn). And PD James (Dalgleish).

quirrelquarrel · 26/09/2011 21:19

Could always try Colette/Roald Dahl/Chaim Potok...

Or if you want something nice to read on the tube, there's EH Gombrich's Little History of the World. Supposed to be for kids, it's for everyone really.

TheSmallClanger · 25/09/2011 22:17

I've been looking at Barbara Pym novels for my reading list, all because of this thread!
MN is nothing if not inspirational!

mycatsaysach · 24/09/2011 18:47

ahhhhhh some of my fave books ever are on here

snobs
eva rice
love monica dickens too
and cff

all v highly recc

elkiedee · 24/09/2011 18:44

People have already suggested all the obvious possibilities, just thought I'd mention that Vintage are reissuing Stellla Gibbons, with the exception of Nightingale Wood which is fab and was reissued from Virago a couple of years ago.

I also love Barbara Comyns.

susylou · 22/09/2011 22:42

and how could I have forgotten Neville Shute? Anyone else with me? A town like Alice, Requiem for a Wren, Beyond the Black Stump..

am with all Heyer fans. I'd add Devil's Cub (after These Old Shades, obviously) and A Civil contract to the list. and Frederica.

Who wrote The Devil's Advocate?

Also, Colleen McCullough.

susylou · 22/09/2011 22:28

agree all the above
Light romantic novels:1930s to 50s:
EM Delafield,
Angela Thirkell, DM Stevenson
Thirkell gets the inter war social caste snobbishness and is I think as funny as Benson though not so well known - Wild strawberries
Rumer Godden - eg Black Narcissus
Elizabeth Goudge - the Damerosehay ones or A scent of water
Paul Gallico

how about EM Forster?, Howard's End, A Passage to India, A Room with a View

and Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion

on crime,
the Miss Silver mysteries - not so good as DL Sayers, very gentle - knitting and english muffins (good in times of flu or desperation)
Edmund Campion's detective stories
Wexford - gentle
the sometimes politically incorrect Dick Francis horse thrillers - but not just horses, good detail elsewhere
Lindsay Davies' Falco series - begin with The Silver Pigs

Original poster
bigkidsdidit · 22/09/2011 17:53

Have read Vile Bodies, Brideshead and CCF, also almost all Ruth Rendell - like all those suggestions so might get snobs then!

Just finished Diary of a Provincial Lady. I LOVED it! Kept suddenly GUFFAWING and making people jump. At one point - when she's playing tennis at the country house party, I think - I laughed so much I started coughing Blush and a woman opposite looked up, looked at the book and beamed in recognition :)

Have to say I did not like the further Diaries in the volume though.

Grand Sophy now!

OP posts:
CJCregg · 21/09/2011 09:40

Would also recommend The Grand Sophy. And Friday's Child.

Winter's coming, I can feel a complete Georgette Heyer re-read coming on ...

LadyBeagleEyes · 20/09/2011 20:43

Ooh, where do I start.
Y for The Grand Sophy, then there is Frederica, Black Sheep, Arabella, These Old Shades, I could go on and on, oh and Venetia and Sylvester.
The books are light and frothy and witty, and so well written, she knew her stuff did Georgette Heyer.

suzikettles · 20/09/2011 20:35

I like Bath Tangle and The Black Moth, but The Grand Sophy is good too.

They all stand alone I think (at least the ones I've read do), so it doesn't really matter.

Haberdashery · 20/09/2011 20:27

Celia and Kings, I don't think you could go wrong with The Grand Sophy.

TheSmallClanger · 20/09/2011 20:12

Snobs by Julian Fellowes is very Mitford-esque. Vile Bodies was an obvious influence on Nancy Mitford, but Brideshead Revisited is probably a bit maudlin and introspective for what you want at the moment. It's always made out to be about the friendship between Sebastian and Charles at Oxford, but that's only a small part of the story.

Cold Comfort Farm is laugh-out-loud funny.

In terms of crime, what about some of the older Ruth Rendells? Lots of intrigue, affairs and weirdness in big houses, alongside the death and destruction.

Kingsroadie · 19/09/2011 14:35

I haven't I haven't! Me too - which to start with?

CeliaFate · 18/09/2011 15:09

I've never read Georgette Heyer - which one shall I start with?!

LadyBeagleEyes · 18/09/2011 13:22

I'm jealous of anybody that hasn't read Goergette Heyer.
I've just re-read them all on my kindle, and there's no more left.
I love her.

Kingsroadie · 17/09/2011 21:54

Bigkids - don't worry - I do think Vile Bodies and Brideshead are proper books Grin - was just referring to them sort of as an aside as Haberdashery mentioned Julian Fellows was a bit Waugh-esque.

Re Clan of the Cave Bear - only if not a sex scene - they are hilarious! Just skim the sex scene if on tube and come back to read it later

seeker · 17/09/2011 21:54

Has someone suggested Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers?

Original poster
bigkidsdidit · 17/09/2011 20:39

Just catching up with the recommendations. I love a bodice ripper - could I read Clan of the Cave Bear without a city boy reading it over my shoulder and sniggering?

I am SHOCKED that Vile Bodies and Brideshead are not Proper Books! If Charles Dance is in the film version it's a classic as far as I'm concerned

OP posts:
Original poster
bigkidsdidit · 17/09/2011 20:03

I'm going to be kept busy till Christmas :) these books sound great! Am stuck into Diary of a Provincial Lady now and LOVING it

OP posts:
Haberdashery · 17/09/2011 18:44

The Herb of Grace is excellent. I have a lovely old hardback copy.

SuePurblybilt · 17/09/2011 17:36

Jan Struther - Mrs Miniver. Nothing like the film.

seeker · 17/09/2011 14:46

Elisabeth Jane Howard

seeker · 17/09/2011 14:45

Have you read Thendara House by Marion Zimmer Bradley?

seeker · 17/09/2011 14:44

Oh, The Herb of Grace!!!! I didn't think anyone had heard of it but me! I love it so much.

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