To serve them all my days, Delderfield

[Cortina]

The book is supposed to be good, do I go ahead and get it?

Anyone read?

Very readable, perhaps a little old fashioned, It's a bit of a curl up with a mug of cocoa type of read IYKWIM - I think you will enjoy it.

Yes agree with kurrikurri- its a lovely read and very gentle. A little old fashioned now but a good story. I might read it again now!

I read it first ages ago. I loved ti at the time, but when I re-read it as a proper grown up I found it a bit irritating. Particularly with regards to his treatment of the female characters. I thought the same about "A Horseman Riding By" too.

Yes TFM - I think that is especially true of 'Horseman Riding By' - It's one of those ones where you just have to sort of accept the different attitudes of the time it was written. But he's good storyteller I think.

Remember watching this on TV with my parents when I was little. Nostalgia.

Definitely read! Yes, some of the attitudes described are old-fashioned, but the storytelling's great and so are the characters. I was sceptical at first (lent the book by my father-in-law, who's a bit old-fashioned himself at times), but in the end I couldn't put it down, and ended up reading a whole load more Delderfields (although this is arguably his best).

I loved it so much that I wore out the book.

But that's not it. It isn't that the characters are old fashioned. It's that he portrays supposedly strong women who are determined to work and be independent, but then in the end, what they really wanted was a baby and a nice strong (but chivalrous) man. In fact, that is the very judgement passed on one of the the female characters in To Serve Them All My Days. I am less irritated with the treatment of traditional Beth than Christine.

Oh god, the characterisation is appalling!

But I first read this when I was 16 and under the spell of my own Welsh, socialist history teacher and I simply adored Davy Powlett-Jones.

Still have my copy, now nearly 30 years later, with gravy stains on it from reading it at mealtimes under the table.

I love love love it. Buy it NOW.

Stuff the characterisation: it is a brilliant book. I won't get into an ideological argument about whether a man can write a book in 1972 about a man and his spouses in the 1920's and write the women as wanting children. What is wrong with having a spouse who is strong, nice and chivalrous?

That isn't what I said.

The treatment of women wasn't what I was referring to when I spoke of characterisation. I was thinking of the male teaching staff with their nauseating nicknames.
(Though Pow-Wow was quite clever).

It is a great book, still have it on my shelf.

I love it, but not quite as much as Delderfield's 'Diana' which is my favourite book of all time.

I read it as a student when I should perhaps having been paying more attention to my set books!

Why manic mother? Is it worth me getting hold of a copy of 'Diana'?

It may well be really sexist but I loved it - I would never have read it if I hadn't heard it serialised on Oneword radio and I just got completely hooked and had to buy it, especially as they only did the first part.

PrettyCandles Same thing here - I read my original copy s much that it fell to bits and I had to buy another. I went through a bit of a Delderfield phase when I was younger and read "The Horseman Riding By" books and "The Avenue" books but "To Serve Them All My Days" remains one of my all time favourites.

Funnily enough ManicMother I borrowed "Diana" from the library only recently and I didn't rate it at all. I was just skimming towards the end. I suppose it didn't help that I found the Diana of the story a deeply unsympathetic character.