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Original poster

best comfort books

56 replies

poppy34 · 04/06/2007 20:42

Votes for

Gerogette heyer -any but esp grand sophy
Jilly cooper (rivals and polo being particular favourites)
Katharine -anya seton
gone with the wind - margaret mitchell
the pursuit of love - nancy mitford
the course of honour- lindsey davis

any other ideas (as always open to more esp in run up to summer holidays)

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AnnainNZ · 12/06/2007 09:07

Definitely the Lord Peter Wimsey ones with Harriet in - especially the one where they get married (Busman's Honeymoon) and of ocurse there's a dead body in their honeymoon cottage. And Gaudy Night where she finally agrees to marry him.

The L Shaped Room trilogy - Lynne Reid Banks
Little House on the Prairie books
Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
Any of the stories with the Glass family in by J D Salinger
And my ultimate comfort book, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith - have read it about a zillion times

katelyle · 06/06/2007 22:36

The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
The Lord Peter Whimsey ones that have Harriet in them
The Chalet School

janeite · 06/06/2007 17:14

Jane Austen - all of them. I re-read them every year at least once.

Famous Five books! After a really busy day at work I love to lie in the bath with lavender oil, a candle and The Fab Five!

Nigella Lawson - especially "Feast" but any will do.

Children's books like "Ballet Shoes", "Goodnight Mr Tom" etc but especially "Tom's Midnight Garden".

Bill Bryson - especially "A Walk In The Woods"- I love reading about grizzly attacks and hyperthermia whilst relaxing with a hot chocolate!

AnneJones · 06/06/2007 12:20

A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute

Also agree about GWTW & Cold Comfort Farm. I also really like Antonia Fraser & Alison Weir's historical ios - esp the 6 wives of Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots & Elizabeth I. Love to re-read and re-absorb.

BaffledByBabyTights · 05/06/2007 23:19

middlemarch, and any bill bryson

merlotmama · 05/06/2007 23:18

Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 'Sunset Song' or indeed the whole Scots Quair trilogy. That's my most read over the past (ahem!) 30 something years.

I also like to dip in and out of 'True Tales of American Life' edited by Paul Auster. Heartwarming, heartbreaking, amazing, poignant, funny...everything's there. Highly recommended.

slayerette · 05/06/2007 16:53

poppy34 - Grand Sophy is my absolute fave. That and These Old Shades. Georgette Heyer is my ultimate comfort read.

Lilymaid · 05/06/2007 16:42

Another vote for a Jane Austen - Emma.
I've also enjoyed the Cazalet Chronicles.
Also Cold Comfort Farm, Pursuit of Love and The Warden (Troloppe, 1st Barchester novel).

mummydoit · 05/06/2007 14:45

I've never heard anyone else apart from me use the phrase 'comfort books'. I am so impressed!!! My personal ones are any by Dick Francis. Love him, got and read everything a dozen times but find them so easy to slip into. An easy read and can rattle through one in a couple of days.

hannahsaunt · 05/06/2007 14:42

Any of the Adriana Trigiani books

Angeliz · 05/06/2007 14:38

Wuthering heights was an all time favourite.
Celestine Prophecies by James Redfield.

maisemor · 05/06/2007 14:36

Till We Meet Again by Judith Krantz.

Sunshinemummy · 05/06/2007 14:19

Agree with lots of these but also The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough and Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susan.

MadLabOwner · 05/06/2007 14:17

Keep being reminded of others! Thanks to bakedpotato for reminding me of the Cazalet Chronicles

Mercy - I've read a couple of the Miss Read books, were there lots of them or am I getting confused? Loved the first one anyway, sort of similar to Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson.

For years my favourite book was Precious Bane by (I think) Mary Webb.

Earthymama · 05/06/2007 10:03

Georgette Heyer is my ultimate comfort read, though I also like to read gardening and cookery books if I'm feeling blue.
Nora Roberts (I know they are formulaic)
Dorothy L Sayers
Three Men in a Boat
P&P
Terry Pratchett

Any police procedural set in the countryside, with a detective who lives on his own and drinks too much while listening to music, as police work has ended his family life. His Sarge is an attractive, ambitious good-looking woman, who shares smouldring glances with our hero. His other side-kick is a working class Jack the Lad,who learns to challenge himself through the example of our hero.
The crime is committed by either incomers or toffs!

bakedpotato · 05/06/2007 09:52

Mariana, Monica Dickens
Dusty Answer, Rosamund Lehmann
Brideshead
Franchise Affair, Josephine Tey
Just William
The Cazalet Chronicles, Elizabeth Jane Howard

MrsJohnCusack · 05/06/2007 09:03

oh yes and KM Peyton. LOVE her books

and also Barbara Pym

OhNo40 · 05/06/2007 09:00

Frenchman's Creek and/or The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier.

MrsJohnCusack · 05/06/2007 09:00

oh yes. so many favourites her - I Capture yje Castle, Talers odf the city, jilly copoper, school books (I also read pony books), Nancy Mitford

also Majorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk

scusutyping one habd only

moopymoo · 05/06/2007 08:53

oh i love john irving purple widow for one year fab, all on my comfort list actually.
have sneeky liking for bill bryson when want no brainer comfort.
absolute fave comfort stuff though is garrison keillor -all lake woebegon ones

purplemonkeydishwasher · 05/06/2007 08:48

rosamunde pilcher - especially Coming Home and Winter Solstice

prayer for owen meany
the english patient
the power of one - bryce courtenay
pride and prejudice

...i'm sure there's more (i need LOTS of comforting!)

hatrick · 05/06/2007 08:44

This reply has been deleted

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FrannyandZooey · 05/06/2007 08:41

haarpsichord sounds Scottish to me

you have gone all Scots in Pruni's honour

yorkshirepud · 04/06/2007 23:28

Little Women, P & P, Trilby by George Du Maurier.

MrsCarrot · 04/06/2007 23:13

The year of the cornflake

Ewes and I

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