Escapist novels where (importantly) nothing bad happens!

[Vinopoly]

I just want to escape to somewhere else and get lost in fluffiness with no peril whatsoever. Have you ever read something that meets this criteria and is also good? I need cheering up!

I'd recommend Gil McNeil's trilogy about a lady who leaves London with her children and takes over her Granny's wool shop in a seaside town. She's recently widowed (and there's a sad back story but I don't want to give away any plot points). But for the most part, they're lovely, cosy books which follow the family as they settle in a new location and start to make friends. The first book is 'Divas Don't Knit'. They're very well written. I've been considering re-reading them myself.

Ralph's Party by Lisa Jewell; her first book.
How about Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee?
I don't think there is any peril in either of those..

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Beautiful read.

The Mapp and Lucia series by EF Benson

Christmas Pudding or Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford

Karen Swan

Seriously embarrassing if you’re caught reading them, but as fluffy and escapist as anything.

There might be a tiny bit of peril there, but it’s gentleman shaped.

I actually love reading travel and nature writing for gentle non-threatening escapism. I just read a wonderful one called Coastlines by Patrick Barkham, love Patrick Leigh Fermor and all that lot as well.

Georgette Heyer, Gerald Durrell, Elizabeth Goudge - City of Bells is delightful.

Heidi Swain-although several of them are Christmas-related. I also love all of Elizabeth Cadell's books; they have recently been re-issued in paperback, Kindle and Audible.

Yet another vote here for the Mapp and Lucia novels of E. F. Benson.

Mike Gayle's novels might fit your brief - they're essentially chick-lit but a male version - funny with plots about romantic frustration, family life, getting older and so forth, and none of the designer brand name-dropping, blether about make-up etc. you often get in chick-lit.

Alexander McCall Smith
The No1 Ladies Detective Agency series

Barbara Pym - any book, really, but preferably read them in order of publication (then you’ll have the pleasure of discovering crossover characters) so start with Some Tame Gazelle.

Gervase Phinn The Other Side of the Dale (and the rest of his Yorkshire school inspector memoirs)

Steve Haywood (Narrowboat books)- Fruit flies like a banana, Narrowboat Dreams

If you’re going to try Jilly Cooper then I suggest sticking to the ones with girls names. The fatter books have some quite distressing content in amongst the fluff.

Placemarking!

Katie Fforde

Has just finishing reading a couple of hers and have bought new ones.

Will have a look and list the titles later.

God, there are so many amazing suggestions, I'm excited! I like the look of Sarah Addison Allen, and the E Nesbit, and the Miss Read, and the Elizabeth Goudge trilogy. I've never read Durrell before either and the Corfu trilogy looks lovely

Debbie Johnson - Sunshine at the comfort food cafe

Katie Fforde - Highland Fling

Fiona Gibson - The woman who upped and left

Milly Johnson - The perfectly imperfect woman

Katie Fforde - A Rose petal summer

Jenny Colgan - The bookshop on the shore

Milly Johnson - The Magnificent Mrs Mayhew

Katie Fforde - A country escape

Lucy Dillon - Unexpected lessons in love

Definitely Nancy Mitford's novels! I can't believe I was in my forties before I read them. They're very amusing and perfectly escapist.

Darling Buds of May plus the sequels by HE Bates.
Miss Read
Agatha Christie (just a bit of murder )
Chalet School
Corduroy Mansions and the sequels by Alexander Mccoll Smith

Oh yes, HE Bates! The Darling Buds of May is luscious, a really entrancing story. Much better on the page than on the screen.

I like mrs miniver asa comfort read, but there is the small issue of the war happening as a backdrop.

Miss Pettigrew lives for the day is fun and heartwarming.

Nancy Mitford biogs too - all of them. Lush fluff with clothes and food and houses to die for.

Snobs, and the other Julian fellowes novels, The Rosie Project, the 7 sisters series by Lucinda Riley (chic lit, but benign) and I second Gerald Durrel's Corfu trilogy.

Yes to Mapp and Lucia.
Was going to say 'I Capture the Castle' (recommended, a young adult book I suppose, but works on a good few levels and is quite unusual).