Recommendations for comforting reads please

Yes to;
Georgette Heyer
Jam Herriot (I’m hoping to visit the museum in Thirsk next year)
Bill Bryson
84 Charing Cross Road

Children’s classics -
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Ballet Shoes
Charlotte Sometimes
Little Women and the rest of the series

Others not yet mentioned
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Tuesdays with Morrie

I second Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher, and it's a lovely book to read in the run up to Christmas. It's one of the books I like to reread.

As a Christmas season book, The Twelve Days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley is also a great favourite.

some wonderful suggestions on this thread. If I’m looking for gentle, well written novels I often pick up an Anne Tyler or Barbara Pym.

Try the Myrtlewood Mysteries by Iris Beaglehole. There are 9 books in the series and 5/6 books in the companion series, The Crones of Myrtlewood.

They are cosy, witchy books and are absolutely fantastic to read. It's probably classed as fantasy but I don't like fantasy and loved these. I've read both series in the last 8 months - the characters draw you in.

You do need to read them in order and they're all available on kindle.

@Winterbluuse Have you been to the World of James Herriot in Thirsk?

It's a museum in a little bubble of time-gentle, quiet and unassuming in the house where he lived and worked.

If you do find yourself in that part of the world, pop in.

They've been mentioned already but I love James Herriott books and have re-read multiple times. So gentle and humorous. Highly recommend.

The first one is, Queen Lucia, where we are introduced to Mrs Emmeline Lucas.

It is set in Riseholme and Lucia's husband is still alive.

Georgie is there and Lucia's social rival-a more hapless rival than Miss Mapp of Tilling-is Daisy Quantock.

I envy you starting the series with fresh eyes. They are old friends to me now but I wish I could step back and meet them newly spun for the first time!

Ps. Riseholme is based on Broadway in Wocestershire and Tilling, where they later move to, is based on Rye in Sussex.

@OneBookTooMany
Which book is the first in the Mapp and Lucia series?
I remember the tv series of yore and loved it!

In times of trouble, I always return to Georgette Heyer, sep The Grand Sophy, Frederica, or Venetia. Everything is right in the end - even the baddies are dealt with carefully, and it’s all just lovely. But also well written

I loved Anne of the Green Gables.

Another vote for Maeve Binchy - I re-read her books all the time.

I love the Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill.

Terry Pratchett
James Herriot - endlessly comforting
Gerald Durrell
Still Life - it's a warm read.
brideshead revisited, it's evocative and I find it calming, that evocation of a lost world.

Yes, I'd second P. G. Wodehouse

Nothing compares to P. G. Wodehouse. As Evelyn Waugh said, he re-created Eden. I think Douglas Adams said the same thing – that Wodehouse succeeded where Milton failed (i.e he described paradise and made it believable). Not only a superlative stylist, and very funny, but endlessly joyful.

Patrick Fermor is another comfort read. He's not for everyone, but I find his travel book A Time of Gifts an utter joy. In the main it's because he's such wonderful company. He was one of those people who sees the best in everyone and everything.

Other writers I reach for in the winter nights: Bill Bryson, C. S. Lewis (yes, I love the Narnia books, and yes I am a full grown adult), Bertrand Russell (his essays and journalism weirdly cheer me up; again, like Fermor, he was a naturally happy man, and that gets into his writing). I'd add Roald Dahl, Stephen Fry, Jane Austen, Dickens, and Douglas Adams to the list.

Yes, I've read them!

@MagdaLenor

Check out the two Mapp and Lucia novels by Tom Holt. I resisted these for a long time, thinking they would be some dreadful pale imitation but they're not-they're great!

Maeve Binchy was my first thought.

Just read ‘One Snowy Day’ by Sharri Low which had a feelgood factor to it as well.

Marian Keyes books are always wholesome and cozy even if they are sometimes about less nice things or people’s problems. You need a good family saga !

Rosamund Pilcher's Winter Solstice is a complete comfort read for me at this time of year. Her other books The Shell Seekers, Coming Home and September are wonderful as well.

All the children's classics -
E Nesbit
Arthur Ransome
Enid Blyton - I give the Famous Five a miss these days, but I still like The Faraway Tree, The Wishing Chair, Malory Towers and the Adventure series
The Chalet School

If you like cosy crime, Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver. Very undemanding.

All the above are available on fadedpage.com

Plus Georgette Heyer. Romance, but also wit and humour and great secondary characters. She also wrote a few crime novels in the Golden Age period.

Oh I love those books and re-read them often! Very witty and amusing. I have the dvd of the original series with those actors and it's an absolute joy!

The Bridgerton books are a very easy read. I also love all the old Jane Green books from the 90’s.

Oh I came here to suggest Miss Read! My Mum knew her - she was the headmistress of a school near where we lived in Berkshire.

The Children of Green Knowe - L M Boston