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Original poster

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

63 replies

RoastieToastieReastie · 08/01/2016 21:07

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.

OP posts:
cressetmama · 11/01/2016 16:46

Mary Stewart's novels, if she has not read them. Catherine Gaskin's novels are also lovely page turners, but they are I think OOP although available for Kindles.

Original poster
RoastieToastieReastie · 11/01/2016 15:12

Thank you all, I've decided to go for the guernsay potato book and will give it to her later this week. I've bookmarked a few of th options though as she's set for a long stay in hospital and then recovery at home.

OP posts:
bootygirl · 10/01/2016 11:36

The bridge stone gap series is a good series.

bootygirl · 10/01/2016 11:35

The geurnsey potatoe society is very good.

Quogwinkle · 10/01/2016 09:48

Has anyone mentioned Barbara Pym? I think your friend might enjoy her novels.

Bonywasawarriorwayayix · 10/01/2016 08:29

How about Jeeves and Worcester?

SenecaFalls · 09/01/2016 14:25

The Isabel Dalhousie books by Alexander McCall Smith. They are set in Edinburgh (and sometimes other parts of Scotland). Isabel is a philosopher who sticks her nose in other people's business solves things.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 09/01/2016 14:16

The Dandy Gilver books by Catriona MacPherson start just after the end of WWI. Dandy Gilver is the wife of Perthshire landed gentry. The period details seem very accurate.

LassWiTheDelicateAir · 09/01/2016 14:13

Any Kate Atkinson.

Any Catriona MacPherson (The Dandy Gilver detective series)

Monica101 · 09/01/2016 10:49

Actually depends how gentle it needs to be as there is a suicide in it. But overall not a heavy book.

Monica101 · 09/01/2016 10:47

The House at Riverton by Kate Morten might be good. Set in the 1920's. A bit of a dramatic ending but very Downton Abbey like.

Original poster
RoastieToastieReastie · 09/01/2016 10:13

So many great ideas to look into! Thank you so much. My main concern is if it's something she's already read as I know she's an avid library regular to borrow books so I might pick what are lesser known choices here.

She loves downton abbey and all those sorts of television programmes too so a gentle historical novel could be a good choice.

OP posts:
kinkytoes · 09/01/2016 09:09

Maeve Binchy? Or is that too gentle?

YouBastardSockBalls · 09/01/2016 09:05

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

Or Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day :)

ChippyMinton · 09/01/2016 09:05

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

ChippyMinton · 09/01/2016 09:03

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

CMOTDibbler · 09/01/2016 08:57

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)

Becles · 08/01/2016 22:35

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.

Roseformeplease · 08/01/2016 22:32

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

dementedma · 08/01/2016 22:17

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Themodernuriahheep · 08/01/2016 22:14

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?

WelliesTheyAreWonderful · 08/01/2016 22:06

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

MotherofFlagons · 08/01/2016 22:00

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.

Canyouforgiveher · 08/01/2016 21:54

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

Husbanddoestheironing · 08/01/2016 21:44

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.

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