Cosy, escapist, comforting books

[SeaSeeker]

I like historical stuff, I like seaside stuff, cottage-y type reads. But not really chick lit (though I have read a couple I enjoyed!) Any recommendations for comforting and escapist novels? Nothing dystopian, dark, weepy or crime related!

Authors I have loved: Susan Howatch, Elena Ferrante, Diana Gabaldon, Neil Gaiman.

Thank you: I have Amazon open right now!

What about Sara donati series of books, the first one is into the darkness

Wodehouse. Theres some really good ones on spotify.

I'm reading Mary Stewart. I'm currently on This Rough Magic, a gentle adventure thriller set in Corfu in the early 1960s. Her heroines are always bright young women, the sort who could use stockings for a fan belt and who don't run off screaming at the slightest thing. There is something comforting about them and the descriptions of the locations are lovely.

Mary Stewart, HE Bates Darling Buds and Wodehouse all very comforting reads. What a lovely thread!

@midsomermurderess I love your description of Mary Stewart's heroines, spot on! She is a very good writer, and the locations are so well portrayed - so reading her now would be literal escapism!

Personally I'm reading a lot of children's fiction. The peerless Antonia Forest, and others.

This is my favourite book of all time!

www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Rosenblums-List-Friendly-Englishman/dp/0340995661?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Books by

Harriet Evans
Jill Mansell
Katie Fforde
Marcia Willets
Cathy Bramley
Nick Alexander
Trisha Ashley
Milly Johnson
Fiona Walker
Marian Keyes
Veronica Henry

Can you tell I e been reading a lot?

Thanks for the suggestion of lark rise to candle ford , i was only talking about that to my mum yesterday . Had a look on amazon and the trilogy is selling for 99p on kindle

Seconding the James Herriot books

Rosamund Pilcher September and the Shell Seekers

I loved the Flat Share by Beth O Leary, and she’s just had another one out this week I think.

John Buchan's "John McNab" is wonderfully evocative of the interwar huntin' fishing' shootin' lifestyle, and a good laugh too": Story of a group of WW1 veterans, all members of the establishment who have a lot to lose, who want some excitement and decide to challenge Scottish estate owners to stop them from poaching. It's a great romp.

Miss Pettigrew too.

Rosamunde Pilcher's Under Gemini is a good comfort read about twin girls separated at birth who meet up and one has to take the place of the other, set in a Scottish village on a loch.

A Little Love Song is a YA novel /romance by Michelle Magorian (goodnight mister tom fame), about 2 girls evacuated to the seaside in WW2 who end up fending for themselves and mixing with unsuitable but lovely men.

Eva Ibbotson's YA romances are rather lovely and comforting too.

The Cazalet books have a similar feel.

PG Wodehouse especially the Blandings series.

Yes to Cold Comfort Farm and I Capture the Castle too.

Also DaddyLongLegs and Dear Enemy, set in an orphanage and ladies college in either late 19thC or early 20thC America.

Anne of Green Gables

Rose in Bloom

Also, most of Garrison Keillor's work - Lake Woebegone Days and Radio Romance. They are hilarious small town tales of a minor radio station.

I have such a long list now, thank you everyone! Think I'll start with those Cazalet Chronicles