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

277 replies

Antiqueanniesmagiclanternshow · 12/06/2021 10:29

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?

OP posts:
theotherfossilsister · 12/06/2021 14:17

@Avocadowoman

Trennels, Freudesheim, the one in the Cazalet Chronicles, Lord Peter Wimsey’s house in Piccadilly….
yes, home place, with the chilly bathrooms, and Zoe using all the water.
SilenceOfThePrams · 12/06/2021 14:19

@Serpenta the one she grew up in, in A Country Child.

Antiqueanniesmagiclanternshow · 12/06/2021 14:19

Those of you who fancy the school house in Fairacre, would you have Mrs Pringle come in and give it a good bottoming once a week?

OP posts:

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FreezerBird · 12/06/2021 14:20

The Moomin House.

Adam Dalgleish's flat high above the Thames, smelling of spices.

The Lovegoods' house in Harry Potter.

Talboys. (Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane's country farmhouse).

TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 12/06/2021 14:21

Has Mistlethwaite Manor been taken? I love the moors and it has a nice walled garden...

PurpleRainDancer · 12/06/2021 14:21

Flambards 🐎

TheYearOfSmallThings · 12/06/2021 14:21

Maybe every 4 weeks so she could be properly appalled by the quantity of crumbs down the back of the sofa.

GloriousMystery · 12/06/2021 14:21

[quote SilenceOfThePrams]@Serpenta the one she grew up in, in A Country Child.[/quote]
I love the descriptions of the house in A Country Child -- as a child I loved that Susan had winter and summer bedrooms.

HandforthParishCouncilClerk · 12/06/2021 14:22

Ooh yes. Mine have all been mentioned already - green knowe, the cazalets, the chamomile lawn….

Also, the farm in the Enid blyton farm books!

NotMiranda · 12/06/2021 14:25

So many of them!

Rumer Godden is great at houses - China Court in the novel of the same name comes to mind.

When small I was obsessed with Malcolm Saville's Green Dolphin Adventure, and wanted to live there. Some family friends who we often visited helpfully moved to an ex-inn (the Old Angel in Bury St Edmunds) which was full of little up and down stairs, wonky floors, etc - exactly right, though I never did find the secret smugglers' passage.

Trennels, so long as the heating and hot water were modernised, definitely, ditto the Cazelets' house. And a non-fictional one, but which is part of fiction: Asthall Manor, the middle one of the Mitfords' childhood Big Houses.

Serpenta · 12/06/2021 14:52

@NotImpossible, I'd graciously allow the cats to stay too, and Gog and Magog on the mantelpiece. Aunt Jimsie would have been a lovely person to have about, preparing hot drinks when you came in late from a recital Grin

SilenceOfThePrams · 12/06/2021 14:56

@Antiqueanniesmagiclanternshow yes. And I’d want Mr Willets to do the garden too.

Not sure it would be a case of letting Mrs. Pringle do anything though, I can’t see you stopping her!

TheChippendenSpook · 12/06/2021 14:58

[quote ScottishNewbie]@TheChippendenSpook you just gave me the biggest smile. Those were some of my favourite books growing up. The absolute magic of their world consumed me as a child. Thank you![/quote]
Aww no, thank you Smile. I adored them as a child and I've read them to my two sons as well. I'm glad I made you smile Smile

Antiqueanniesmagiclanternshow · 12/06/2021 15:02

Mr Willet is fabulous. I love the way that he and mrs willett can turn their hands to absolutely anything. From gardening to sewing to baking .
Lovely.

I would also like Miss Read's workload instead of my own. I always laugh that she heads over to the school at 8.45 and never seems to do much marking, data, planning etc

OP posts:
Antiqueanniesmagiclanternshow · 12/06/2021 15:03

I'd very much like to live in 28 barbary lane. With the view across the bay and a cupboard full of Fiesta ware plates.

OP posts:
Rainbowsew · 12/06/2021 15:04

Kirrin cottage or any other famous 5 property.
Green Knowe.
Pemberley.
Katy Carr's house.
I loved the sound of the Cider with Rosie house too.
And loads from American films like Home Alone.

Rainbowsew · 12/06/2021 15:10

I always liked Victoria Plum's house in the tree trunk or Ernest owl's tree house or the Nibbles' burrow in Blackberry farm when I was very young.

JasmineTeacup · 12/06/2021 15:12

Granny Weatherwax's cottage. After Tiffany has moved back to the chalk for good. I'm all for a simple life.

Laaaaa · 12/06/2021 15:13

One of Jane greens book somewhere in Nantucket

sluj · 12/06/2021 15:18

Green Gables is where Enid Blyton lived and Kirrin Cottage is where George lived (near Kirrin Island). Both sounded perfect

BestIsWest · 12/06/2021 15:19

Cameron Cooke’s house in Rivals always appealed to me. And the house Octavia visits from the barge. I’d like one of Jilly’s English country gardens too,

Amdone123 · 12/06/2021 15:25

The house in Hansel and Gretel. Without the witch.

Serpenta · 12/06/2021 15:26

I think Enid Blyton's own house was called Green Hedges. Which isn't a very inspiring name! Grin

SarahAndQuack · 12/06/2021 15:27

@NotMiranda

So many of them!

Rumer Godden is great at houses - China Court in the novel of the same name comes to mind.

When small I was obsessed with Malcolm Saville's Green Dolphin Adventure, and wanted to live there. Some family friends who we often visited helpfully moved to an ex-inn (the Old Angel in Bury St Edmunds) which was full of little up and down stairs, wonky floors, etc - exactly right, though I never did find the secret smugglers' passage.

Trennels, so long as the heating and hot water were modernised, definitely, ditto the Cazelets' house. And a non-fictional one, but which is part of fiction: Asthall Manor, the middle one of the Mitfords' childhood Big Houses.

OMG, I was going to say China Court! I love that. Especially with Ripsie's lovely garden.

Also Thackers (which is real, but I would rather live in the one in my mind really) from A Traveller in Time.

Maireas · 12/06/2021 15:34

Aunt Betsey Trotwood's House.
The Vicarage in Children of the Vicarage.

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