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📚The Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group - All welcome to join📚

997 replies

Antarcticant · 01/09/2022 16:44

Welcome to the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group, where we will be reading and discussing fiction from the 1930s to the 1990s that would have been described as 'contemporary' in its day.

The best introduction to the 'rather dated' concept would be to read the wonderful thread which inspired this group:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4596284-rather-dated?reply=119670989

To summarise, a number of posters expressed disappointment that literature of the 20th Century is often dismissed as 'rather dated' because society has moved on from many of the values and lifestyles described.

We decided to create a reading group where the literary merits of such fiction can be appreciated, with any 'rather dated' elements being a point of interest rather than a reason to dismiss a novel.

We will be reading one book a month. Our first book, for September, will be the book that inspired the original thread:

The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively

Please do join the thread whether you want to take part in the discussion or just place mark to follow it.

Fellow Rather Dated people, please add anything important I might have missed!

(With huge thanks to ImJustMadAboutSaffron for the original thread and idea Flowers)

OP posts:
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MissHavershamReturns · 30/11/2023 09:34

I read it as a child, so to me she was like the strict, somewhat unpredictable but steady and fair older teachers I had at school, who could be making you write lines one minute but then be so kind if your pet had died.

MissHavershamReturns · 30/11/2023 09:33

I love that MP in the book is so flawed. It keeps you on your toes as a reader and adds to the enigma and unpredictability

ChessieFL · 27/11/2023 06:40

I have, and all the sequels. I love the books but yes they are very different from the film (which I also love). I just think of them as two separate things.

APurpleSquirrel · 26/11/2023 22:38

Hello - new to this thread.
I'm currently just over halfway through Mary Poppins by PL Travers (1943).
I'd bought it for my DD (9) but she hasn't shown any interest in it, so decided to read it myself as I haven't before.
And... it's not good. I'm so disappointed. Mary Poppins is an awful character (so far), she's mean, rude, pompous & so utterly vain. It's really off putting.
I know filmmakers/screenwriters will adapt & change certain things from a book, but bloody hell - if they'd made MP in the film the same as MP in the book that film would have been awful.
Anyone else read it?

MotherofPearl · 22/11/2023 17:52

And welcome @mynameisnotmichaelcaine. Always good to have new joiners.

MotherofPearl · 22/11/2023 17:51

My copy has arrived but I'm yet to start reading. Given that it sounds as if we're all a bit behind, perhaps we can delay the discussion thread for a week or two!

mynameisnotmichaelcaine · 22/11/2023 17:32

Hello all,

I think I have found my people! I absolutely love to read and recently worked my way through pretty much everything Ruth Rendell ever wrote. Looking forward to getting involved - will order the book from the library now 😊

Terpsichore · 22/11/2023 15:47

I can’t find my copy 🥴 I suppose I’ll be sending off for one soon….

tobee · 22/11/2023 15:15

I've just ordered mine too! Plot summary sounds like a rainy afternoon old black & white film in book form. Excellent!

StellaOlivetti · 22/11/2023 14:50

My copy has just arrived - I bought it as my library didn’t seem to have a copy.

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 22/11/2023 09:48

I'm still waiting for The Fancy from the library. Another reservation* *came through instead. I was slightly disappointed when I arrived to pick it up that it wasn't it.

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 10/11/2023 21:46

I have reserved a copy of 'The Fancy' on the online library system, so hopefully it will arrive soon. I don't think anyone else is looking for it!

StellaOlivetti · 10/11/2023 20:02

Great, I have also ordered a second hand copy (hope it’s not the same one as @MotherofPearl . I read a précis and it sounds just my cup of tea.

MotherofPearl · 10/11/2023 19:06

Okay @Terpsichore let's go for Monica Dickens' The Fancy. I've spotted a copy on WOB for £3.49 so am ordering it.

Let's hope I read this faster than the last one!

Terpsichore · 10/11/2023 17:33

I’d be very happy to read The Fancy again @MotherofPearl - it’s literally years since I first read it. Though I do remember the main character breeds pedigree rabbits, hence the ‘Fancy’. If anyone’s a rabbit-phobe it might not suit!

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 09/11/2023 20:06

Welcome Stanislas! 📚🍵🍪

MotherofPearl · 09/11/2023 19:53

Welcome @Stanislas and you're never too old for the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' book club.

I haven't read any Monica Dickens and feel bad suggesting something that one of you has already read. I like the sound of The Fancy, but am happy for those who know her back catalogue to decide for us.

I'm still slogging through The Last September, embarrassingly, but am reading it alongside a pretty recent memoir, so that's my excuse. I'm afraid I won't be reading anymore Elizabeth Bowen. Blush

StellaOlivetti · 09/11/2023 19:50

No, I don’t think I have @Terpsichore

Terpsichore · 09/11/2023 18:22

Oops. On train with dodgy WiFi, apologies for double post

Terpsichore · 09/11/2023 18:22

Welcome @Stanislas ! Everyone very much encouraged to join us here to discuss a good book 😊

Terpsichore · 09/11/2023 18:22

Welcome @Stanislas ! Everyone very much encouraged to join us here to discuss a good book 😊

Terpsichore · 09/11/2023 18:18

I love One Pair of Feet. Have you read Thursday Afternoons @StellaOlivetti? That’s another one with a medical setting iirc.

Stanislas · 09/11/2023 18:03

May I listen in? I’m really too old for Mumsnet these days but I read many that you’ve mentioned in my earlier years though this was in the days before I could afford books and my extravagance was ordering library books for a small amount. Loved Monica Dickens and struggled a bit with Eliz Bowen. My. Covid reading was British Library Crime Classics and I read a good deal on the Archive Internet for out of print stuff. Persephone books is a blessin especially their catalogue which I tick off.

StellaOlivetti · 09/11/2023 17:42

I agree, I’d be more than happy to read one of hers. I loved One pair of feet when I read it. (I’m a nurse, and I recognised echoes of her training in mine, even 40 years later). Our local library has quite a few of her novels so I may get lucky with what we choose!

FuzzyCaoraDhubh · 09/11/2023 16:56

I only heard of Monica Dickens, so I'll be happy to go along with any one of them, so long as I find it!