Houses in books....where do you want to live ?

[Antiqueanniesmagiclanternshow]

Just reading the thread about homes and somebody mentioned no food smells in the kitchen.
This made me think of Penelope Keeling's house in The Shellseekers.
She has a huge basement kitchen with French doors into the garden, there is a scrubbed pine table with a jug of flowers on it and a delicious smell of garlic and herbs. She has shelves full of books and lots of records and silk indian throws on the sofa and omg! I want to live there!

Which fictional house do you want to live in?

You can actually go and visit the real Green Knowe . It is the oldest house in England to have been occupied continually.

@Arbadacarba

Trennels, from the Antonia Forest novels.

YES!

@Tlollj, I saw the Home Alone house as it is today, online somewhere. All done up and modernised to recent trends.
Looks fab.

The snag with Trennels is that you'd have Karen, uptight, periodically violent Edwin, and their offspring alongside in the Tranters' house...?

Ah, but the farmhouse is tied to Trennels, so you could kick the Dodds out and rent it to whoever you liked!

People have said Pemberley, but I'd like to live at Longbourn. More manageable, and the gardens are beautiful.

I'd hate to live somewhere like Pemberley. Not exactly cosy, is it?
I think I'd go for somewhere like the sort of houses in a Joanna Trollope novel, or maybe Jilly Cooper.

Michael Pollan wrote a book about building a study in the garden of his home. It's a very calming read and the result is so attractive. It's not exactly a house, but I want it.

Most of the houses Anne lives in in the Anne of Green Gables series.

The lovely blossom tree at Green Gables is very attractive to me.

Atlantis from the seven sisters series. Or Mandalay before the fire. Any of the houses in Big little lies.

Longbourn would be lovely. If you needed something doing in a hurry you'd just need to squawk 'HILLLLLLL' really loudly and she'd come scuttling, whereas in Pemberley it's probably a mile from below stairs to whichever of the 57 reception rooms one might be sitting in.

Either:
Damerosehay in the Elizabeth Goudge trilogy,
or "the nice white cottage with the thatched roof" in the Milly Molly Mandy books!

Some great choices already

I second Damerosrehay and Trennels.

Lowering the tone RCBs house in Penscombe sounds lovely. Or The Priory. (Without Maud)

Ingleside in the Anne of Green Gables series. Great thread thank you.

@TheMarzipanDildo

Most of the houses Anne lives in in the Anne of Green Gables series.

The lovely blossom tree at Green Gables is very attractive to me.

The Snow Queen if you don't mind!

It is interesting that so many of these are from children's books. I wonder if this is because the idea of home is strongly associated with childhood? Or because children's authors give detailed descriptions, often with detailed images.

I wish adult books still had illustrations or picture plates. I'm reading one of the Thrush Green books and the line drawings add so much.

I would also like to live in the schoolhouse at Fairacre.

Either the Vestrit house in Bingtown from Robin Hobb's Liveship trilogy, or Rivendell. Both of those are illustrated by John Howe so perhaps I should just get him to design me a house

I read Red Roofs by Enid Blyton as a child and wanted to live there. I still want to!!

The first romantic novel i read was Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier and I loved it, and i love Cornwall too.
So i thought about Manderley before the fire but decided the atmosphere would be too cold and lonely.
I found this holiday cottage, though, and i'd love to book it, just for a fortnight, as it's definitely not large!
www.landmarktrust.org.uk/search-and-book/properties/frenchmans-creek-7584/#Overview

[quote ScottishNewbie]@DigOutThoseLemonHandWipes

Yes!!![/quote]
You are welcome to join me but baggies Anne's room.

As someone else has said there a number of houses from the series I would cheerful inhabit.

The Durrell's house in Corfu would be nice I think.

There's a book I can vaguely recall from my youth where a young couple lived in a flat in Hampstead with a grand piano. I always remember that and think it sounded lovely. (I'm sure it's a well known book from the 1960s...)

The Larkins' farm in The Darling Buds of May has always appealed - bit ramshackle, assorted animals and piles of children everywhere. Close enough to walk to the train for London, day trips to the beach, town nearby, but in glorious countryside. And the apparent simplicity at odds with the considerable wealth of the owner.

Miss Honey's cottage in Matilda. Love the simplicity.

I do actually live in a little stone cottage but it is cream not white washed.

Finmory House from the Jinny and Shantih books by Patricia Leitch. I love these books so much and still read them as an adult

@HelenHywater 101 Dalmatians? I'm sure they were in Hampstead and a piano rings a bell.

[quote DigOutThoseLemonHandWipes]@HelenHywater 101 Dalmatians? I'm sure they were in Hampstead and a piano rings a bell.[/quote]
That was my first thought too!