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Original poster

If I like Nancy Mitford, Jilly Cooper, Barbara Pym...

87 replies

bigkidsdidit · 13/09/2011 21:08

who else would I like?

A few months of biographies, feminist book group books and Serious Tomes and I need some fun (but not crap) books for the tube journey to work.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

thanks :)

OP posts:
meditrina · 13/09/2011 21:09

Georgette Heyer - the Regency ones and the murders.

meditrina · 13/09/2011 21:10

And EF Benson Mapp and Lucia series.

LoveInAColdClimate · 13/09/2011 21:11

Barbara Trapido.

cleanandclothed · 13/09/2011 21:13

Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Howard. Josephine Tey.

cjbartlett · 13/09/2011 21:14

Fiona Walker is very good and very horsey and sexy like Jilly Cooper

MmeLindor. · 13/09/2011 21:14

Nora Roberts - her Chesapeake Bay trilogy, or any of the other trilogy.

if you like suspense, then her JD Robb series is good.

icapturethecastle · 13/09/2011 21:14

Possibly Kate Morton -The House at Riverton, Forgotten Garden the Distant Hours. Kate Morton has said Nancy Mitford is one of her favourite authors. I love both.

Original poster
bigkidsdidit · 13/09/2011 21:16

ooh thanks everyone! I've never heard of any of these! Going to go mad on amazon!

I love horsey stuff and suspense. And crime fiction too but not too gory - Barbara Vine not Val McDermid

OP posts:
cjbartlett · 13/09/2011 21:17

have you read the Alexander Mccall Smith series?

stleger · 13/09/2011 21:17

Mavis Cheek. And Barbara Erskine. And Kate Atkinson who is quite gory but only in tiny bursts.

DoubleDegreeStudent · 13/09/2011 21:20

Oh, oh, oh - in the summer I was introduced to Rosamond Lehmann. Dusty Answer is the one I read - I'd put it between Pursuit of Love and Brideshead Revisited (ie. you might not boast about reading it, but you get totally swept up, the prose is beautiful and you aren't embarrassed to be reading it)

CrackerFactory · 13/09/2011 21:22

Sophie Kinsella especially "Twenties Girl" - absolutely amazing!

meditrina · 13/09/2011 21:22

There's always PG Wodehouse!

And if you want "nice" crime, try the Diasy Dalrymple books by Carola Dunn and the Lord Edward Corinth ones by David Rogers, and of course, the wonderful Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters.

Original poster
bigkidsdidit · 13/09/2011 21:24

I have read Alexander McCall Smith (and I have my own Bertie!) and love them. Not such a fan of Sophie Kinsella, although I have read a few. Love Wodehouse!

Oh I'm so excited about all these! Lovely new books.

OP posts:
EightiesChick · 13/09/2011 21:25

Laurie Graham - wrote Gone With the Windsors, The Future Homemakers of America. Very funny.

AnyoneButLulu · 13/09/2011 22:00

The Diary of a Provincial Lady - EM Delafield, very Mumsnet. My copy has a preface by Jilly Cooper, who is a huge fan.

SybilBeddows · 13/09/2011 22:01

I was going to say E.F. Benson.

SuePurblybilt · 13/09/2011 22:03

Rafaella Barker

LoveInAColdClimate · 13/09/2011 22:10

Great thread, thanks for starting it.

Francagoestohollywood · 13/09/2011 22:18

I second The diary of a provincial lady

stleger · 13/09/2011 22:53

Oh I love Laurie Graham! And Deborah Moggagh.

gethelp · 14/09/2011 13:19

Elizabeth Taylor - not the film star! Rachel Cusk is good, but you should try Persephone Books, their shops are in London but also on the internet.

steamedtreaclesponge · 14/09/2011 13:38

Dorothy Sayers is great for not-too-gory crime fiction - Lord Peter Wimsey is a wonderful creation and her books are very clever. If you like Agatha Christie you'll probably love her. Would also second the recommendations of Georgette Heyer and Rosamond Lehman, and Elizabeth Peters.

Have you read Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day? That's one of my favourites - really brilliant and good fun. It's published by Persephone who do a lot of great books, all by women writers and mostly published in the first half of the 20th century.

Sophie Kinsella is quite fun but very very silly - I find her characters too annoying to read but I know they are very popular. TBH the only chick-lit author I can read without wanting to kill myself is Marian Keyes.

steamedtreaclesponge · 14/09/2011 13:39

X-post with gethelp there!

Original poster
bigkidsdidit · 14/09/2011 13:50

Thanks so much everyone!

I have been to Persephone a few times, I bought my mum some books there for Mother's Day. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is WONDERFUL. One of my favourite books I've read in years. The Persephone books are so beautiful, too. There's a branch right by my work, I should pop by more.

Marian Keyes I like too but the older stuff more than the recent books. Aside from Keyes I don't like chick lit with weak women characters spilling things down themselves when they meet the man of their dreams etc like Jennifer Aniston films. Much prefer Hermione Harefield Grin

Anyway, I've just gone mad at amazon and bought:
Diary of a provincial lady
Dusty answer by Rosamund Lehman
A perfect life by Rafaella Barker
The grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
House at Riverton by Kate Morton
My cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier, which popped up as a 'other people who bough Kate Morton also bough this'
and Perfect meringues by Laurie Graham.

All for £40. I cannot WAIT now, so excited to get cracking.

thanks :)

OP posts: