old fashioned gentle books

[mumwon]

Talking on another topic 2 of us mentioned "Mrs Harris goes to Paris" a lovely uplifting old fashioned book - ia there any books that other people like - either as a child or as an adult that you can suggest & tell us about them - briefly!
Mrs Harris is about an old fashioned char who saves & goes to Paris to buy Dior dress
& "Family at One end Street" children's story about a family with several dc before the ww2

Up to and including the Chadwick Trilogy.

Glad to see fans of Mary Stewart. I re-read her romantic books like Airs above the ground, Madam will you talk, Nine Coaches Waiting every few years.
Her Merlin trilogy is brilliant, but I wouldn't call it gentle and old-fashioned, it's bursting with passion. Her Merlin is the best Merlin in modern literature.
Whistling woman (Appalachian Journey) by CC Tillery and C Hunter has an original, endearing main character. The setting, the period detail is fascinating. It's the story of the authors' great aunt.

I love reading the books about the pioneers, and they often have that old-fashioned feel, not necessarily gentle, as life was very hard, but there are no gratuitous sex and violence scenes.
Lauraine Snelling - An Untamed Land and actually the whole series of Red River of the North is riveting.
Linda K. Hubalek Butter in the Well: A Scandinavian Woman's Tale of Life on the Prairie (Butter in the Well Series Book 1)

Patrick Leigh Fermor's books "A Time of Gifts" and "Between the Woods and the Water" about his walk from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople, capture a long lost Europe, as he drifts from aristocratic estates to shepherd's huts across a pre war landscape.

If you enjoyed "Eagle of the Ninth" look out for Rosemary Sutcliff's "The Silver Branch" "The Lantern Bearers" and "Swords at Sunset" all linked by the emerald ring.
"Knight's Fee" is another lovely RS story.

Eva Ibbotson's YA books

The Secret Countess
The Morning Gift
A Song for Summer

Really charming books which follow a formula but avoid being overly mawkish due to Ibbotson's lightness of touch. Perfect escape reads for when you're feeling under the weather.

Oh yes, Patrick Leigh Fermor's books are great, and very erudite. Laurie Lee's As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning is also lovely; it was written at about the same time when the author was a similar age but his experience was quite different. PLF has plenty of introductions to European aristocracy and stays in some wonderful places, whereas LL was travelling very much in poverty.

Eve Chase writes lovely novels, Black Rabbit Hall is a delightful and moving read.

I must re read the Laurie Lee, it's so many years since I read it.

Their experiences are very different, Laurie always looking for work, Paddy making his way to the next money order. They both received generosity and kindness in vast quantities throughout their travels.

(Have you read Artemis Cooper's PLF biography Boiledeggandtoast or "Ill met by Moonlight" the story of the capture of the German general on Crete? Both interesting reads, though not gentle ones)

AdaColeman No I haven't, but many thanks for the recommendations. (I remember reading a review of a book about his long-term partner and later wife, Joan, who also sounded very interesting. Have you ever come across it?)

That will be “Joan” by Simon Fenwick Boiledeggandtoast it’s on my to be bought list, I’m hoping to spot it in a Book People sale!

heavens....my library reservations fees are going to be extortionate

Mine too

I loved the Mary Wesley novels, LBOCS2. Still got them.

Anything by Barbara Park. I love her books, especially Excellent Women.

AdaColeman You're way ahead of me! I hope you manage to secure a copy, I seem to remember it had a very good review.

Excellent Women is by Barbara Pym.

Madeleine StJohn wrote The Women in Black. You'll love it.

Yes that’s right @mumwon - the Lorna Hill series. I was (and am still) wildly in love with them.

Mr Golightly's Holiday, by Salley Vickers.

The tiger who came to tea.

I am American, and a set of books I loved were the Betsy, Tacy and Tib books by Maud Hart Lovelace. I don't know if they were ever sold here.

it's a series of romanticized tales of three immigrant girls who came from different countries to Minnesota at the end of the 1800s, from when they meet about the time they start school until they finish college and get married. They are along the lines of Anne of Green Gables, and based on incidents in the life of the author and her childhood friends. But what first brought them to my attention as a child was the illustrator, Lois Lenski. She was an author in her own right as well and I probably read everything she ever wrote and/or illustrated.

I'm not sure if you can still get them, but the Doreen Tovey books about her Siamese cats - 'Cats in the Belfry' etc. A couple more of hers, 'Life with Grandma' and 'Roses round the door' are great too, you don't have to be into cats to enjoy them.

The Trebizon books.

Also love the Paddy Leigh Fermor books and read Joan recently too.

They have already been mentioned but Trollope wrote some wonderful stuff (see my username) and a lot of it is very funny. I still remember the lines in The Last Chronicle of Barset where Mr. Crawley says "Peace Woman!" to Mrs Proudie and Bishop Proudie leapt to hear the wife of his bosom thus addressed.

I know the title makes it seem a bit creepy but it really isn't - Daddy Long-legs is another charming read with a lovely intelligent heroine.

I discovered Eva Ibbotson about 2 weeks ago and am loving her adult novels - just charming.

Norah Lofts isn't a gentle read by any means but is a somewhat forgotten but fantastic writer of historical fiction.

I bought my first Mary Stewart just now because of htis thread and am reading Pastoral on kindle - love Nevil Shute (he was a favourite of my dad's) but hadn't come across this one before. I love A Town Like Alice - fantastic story.

I thought this thread was moving to Books section. I will ask for it to be moved.
Has anyone mentioned Penelope Mortimer - her autobiography is very good About Time, she won the Whitbread prize in 1979. I think I heard of it on A Good Read on Radio 4.

Mention of Lois Lenski brings back memories of 'Cowboy Small'.
Thank you for that, 1moremum

If it moves to Books, there won't be as many posts, Chat is a much more popular and watched page.

It's probably not going to receive many more posts so better filed away in the Books section and can then be easily found for reference. Don't threads in Chat get deleted after a certain amount of time?