Lord Peter Wimsey Novels - pick one for me to read please!

"Busmans Holiday" or "Nine Tailors"

Nice easy reads, devilish who dunnits.

Lovely to see this thread. I think Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon are my favourites but I can't think of one I don't like - they're all wonderful.

I used to work at an Oxford College and it used to make me smile when I read the bits about the Fellows commenting on the students' lack of 'umpf' (as it were) as it's a discussion which was often heard at High Table now as then!

Oh, I do love a gentleman detective. Adam Dalgleish, Alan Grant, Roderick Alleyn, Gervase Fen- I love them all!

Oh good, I've just bought that, thanks GnomedePlume.

I quite like the Jill Paton Walsh books but they do require some suspension of cynicism, especially - as Seeker says - the way Peter and Bunter and their families evolve from master and servant to all jolly good mates.

Have been a fan for years. If you have a Kindle there is a fully annotated version of Whose body? (pre HV book). The notes are really helpful for understanding social and literary references:

www.amazon.co.uk/Complete-Annotated-Whose-Body-ebook/dp/B005HM8FAI/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1336758372&sr=1-2

I liked Thrones, Dominations, but the others were much weaker. And the ones where Bunter has become a first name terms sit down at the table family friend are awful!

The third JPW is a good book but I think it's quite different in tone, as it is the only one without any DLS input (A Presumption of Death was partly based on some fictional letters DLS did between Harriet and Peter).

I would actually start with Murder Must Advertise but am excited to hear how OP got on with her choice!

Yes the first sequel (Thrones, Dominations) was very good, i think parts of it were written by DLS and it was finished by Jill Paton Walsh. The second one was also pretty good I seem to remember...maybe not quite as good as the others but still enjoyable (A Presumption Of Death). Through Googling I've just discovered there is a third JPW one I didn't know about .

I came on the thread just to say what almost everyone else has said...I love the ones with Harriet Vane in . Busman's Honeymoon is probably my favourite with Have His Carcass next (despite it's rather unbelievable murder plot). I would recommend reading them in order though.

If you want more of Peter and Harriet in later years, try the Jill Paton Walsh sequels

You migut like to have a look at this thread, perhaps after you've read Gaudy Night but before the book club meets.

Clouds of Witness is the first Wimsey book. Murder Must Advertise is possibly my favourite.

But I'd recommend all four of the Wimsey/Vane books here: in reading order, Strong Poison, Have His Carcass, Gaudy Night, and Busman's Honeymoon.

I did go to Oxford, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news for romantically inclined 17yos, but it wasn't quite like in the Wimsey/Vane books. Unfortunately I did not spend my time being pursued by rich-yet-surprisingly-feminist lords quoting poetry at me.

I was even more disappointed not to be recruited into a spy ring by a seedy tutor bearing mid-morning sherry. (I'd read my le Carre, I was prepared for this). Oxford had many good points but it didn't quite live up to the novels.

Lucky you! I buy old editions of these if I see them at bargain prices, just for the sheer joy.
I wanted to say that they often have dramatised versions on BBC iplayer or R4extra. I really enjoy them.

I think you've had enough advice - any PW good choice for a book group I'd have thought - they operate at various different levels.

(agree good idea to start with Strong Poison but Gaudy night was the one which sprang to mind first)

I so wanted to be Harriet Vane ...

I'd recommend The Nine Tailors myself - but only because I don't think of the books with Harriet Vane in as Peter Wimsey novels,they are filed in a different part of my mental bookshelves.

I love Gaudy Night,it is one of my favorite books,wish I could've gone to Oxford! I do sometimes wonder why DH bears so little resemblance to either Peter Wimsey or Francis Crawford of Lymond,my teen crushes...

No I didn't get in. I read too much Golden Age detective fiction and not enough history!

I feel so much better, seeker.

I fancied Peter Wingfield as a teenager to (he was in Medics at the time) and wondered if I had a thing about men with the initials "PW". I think I thought too much as a teenager (and not about anything useful).

Did you get in, seeker, and if so, did it live up to it?

Murder must advertise is a great stand alone. And I love 5 red herrings.

My dd is going to try for Oxford. I daren't tell her this is one of the reasons I'm encouraging her....

Or that it is the main reason I applied all those years ago. I suspect it might have been apparent to the interviewers though..........!

If I had been bright enough I would have applied to Balliol, Oulucky. Is that sad? Perhaps I shouldn't admit to it...