Recommend me something gentle please

[Horseswithnotions]

I am really struggling with mental health at the minute and just want to get out of my own head for a while. I have kept as busy as possible all day but anxiety attacks have just bubbled under the surface and I am exhausted but too keyed up to sleep.

Any recommendations for nice, gentle, easy podcasts/books would be welcomed.

Tia

Louis Theroux Grounded. If you like words there's Something rhymes with Purple.

Adrift is a great podcast.

I read the most marvellous book recently- the Skylark's War by Hilary McKay. It's a children's book about WWI.

It does have a mother dying in childbirth but it's so sweet and Enid Blytony.

I hope you get something to help

Poor you. I hope you feel better soon.

What about Sue Townsend’s “The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 and three quarters”? It is set out as a daily diary so easy to dip in and out..

It’s the first of the Adrian books, they are all hilarious.

"Fortunately" with Fi Glover and Jane Garvey. It's like having a chat with a couple of funny and wise friends.

The whole of the Railway Children is free as an audiobook on BBC Sounds.

Great Lives is another nice BBC podcast - nice to think about someone else’s life for half an hour at a time.

Adrian Mole is a great suggestion. If you have an Audible subscription (or want to take out the trial that they often advertise) then you can get the audiobook. Might be worth downloading if your current mental health difficulties make it hard to focus on reading (my mum's a bookworm but has times when she can't manage a book so I'm assuming it's the same for some other people).

James Herriot? Works a treat for me, the books are v gentle and completely takes me out of normal life

My comfort reading during lockdown:
The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
Never the Bride - Paul Magrs
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
The Secret Countess- Eva Ibbotson
Venetia - Georgette Heyer
Plus anything by PG Wodehouse

@Patup5 I re-read Adrian Mole recently and was amazed that it still had me in stitches!

The Chronicles of St Mary's series of audiobooks by Jodi Taylor are really good for losing yourself into another world for a while.

The are are loads of them to get through, plus short stories that fill the backstories of some of the main characters, so it could last you a good while. The narrator is fantastic and really brings the characters to life. I feel some of them are old friends now.

There are some perilous situations and encounters with various baddies along the way but nothing graphic or distressing.

I'm envious of someone starting the St Mary's journey from scratch, I'm awaiting the next book to be released in about a years time!

I've really enjoyed Adam Buxton's podcast and 'Off Menu' with james acaster and ed gamble. They cheer me up.

great thread here

For me always wodehouse + The Wind in the Willows

Also Jarvis Cocker's Wireless nights- very sleepy

Thank you all xx

I've just re-read my way through all the Anne of Green Gables books. Very soothing and available on Kindle as a set.

I'd forgotten Wind in the Willows. Just checked and that's also on BBC Sounds. Another lovely gentle listen.

I'm envious of someone starting the St Mary's journey from scratch

YES! Sorry to digress but we had the first one as my Book Club pick a while back and practically every member went on to read more of the series. I was so as I'd binged them a few years back but just wonderful, escapist, comforting stuff!

Second Fortunately - I'm working through all the old ones as they're just what I need/can handle right now. Highly recommend.

Watch The Repair Shop on BBC iplayer. Its wonderfully soothing to watch experts fixing fiddly little things, and the reactions when people come to collect their treasured items are touching and life affirming.

@FoxgloveSummers

The whole of the Railway Children is free as an audiobook on BBC Sounds.

Great Lives is another nice BBC podcast - nice to think about someone else’s life for half an hour at a time.

Absolutely second Great Lives as a brilliant & soothing podcast. It's really well done, and you find out about all sorts of people you may never have heard of. Nihal's headliners from Radio 5 Live can be very interesting too.

If I'm having trouble sleeping, I listen to TMS podcasts. I absolutely love cricket and never miss a moment of live matches, but the podcast is so relaxing, with very gentle conversation which makes it easy to drift off. Probably even easier to go to sleep to if you don't actually like cricket.

Gawd I hate Adrian Mole. Not funny. Tedious annoying as fuck.

Ok, got that out of my system.

I wonder if you can find The Secret Garden on podcast somewhere. It's tinged with a trace of sadness but is overall an uplifting charming story. About people (kids) recovering from adversity.

The 1-4am shift on Radio5 (spot the insomniac writing this) is always pretty mellow & nice programming, bit of chat and music, if you just want to find any of those broadcasts, Listen Again, BBC Sounds.

I love Sarah Addison Allen's novels-really enjoyable magical realism set in the US. I'd start with 'Garden Spells'.

The Anthropocene Reviewed is a fantastic book by John Green. He started it as a podcast so you can get a taste for it and then get the book if you like it. It's a collection of essays about things in his life/his interests, which he reviews. It's hard to describe without sounding wanky but he writes in a very compassionate way and he reads his work beautifully.

The Diary of A Provincial Lady, or anything by Georgette Heyer. I especially like Bath Tangle.

The Shellseekers by Rosamunde Pilcher, the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard, anything by Beryl Kingston. Really engaging story telling, and like a nice hot cuppa in front of the fire.