Your favourite cosy, autumn-wintery, curl up by the fire books?

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I put this in Adult Fiction but I'd be happy with recommendations for memoirs or children's books or whatever, as well. Just has to be the sort of book you love to sit down with on a cold autumn day and read from cover to cover. Bonus points if you come up with suggestions for good Christmas reading for later on.

Doesn't have to be set in/evocative of autumn and winter, just books you feel you'd want to read at this time of year.

Thank you.

The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies. Though I'd be hard put to it to get it read cover to cover in one day.

I liked The Discovery of Witches and the sequel. They are definitely cosy page turners. Not amazingly well written as far as I remember and a fair bit of repetititive use of adjectives, but not annoying enough to make me stop reading!

Another good historical one is Legacy by Susan Kay. It's based around Elzabeth I. It was written years ago and I had to track it down second hand but it appears it has been re-released.

I have to say, I was slightly disappointed by all Anya Seton's other ones. None lived up to Katherine for me. Green Darkness is the best of the others.

As an afternoon is not oodles of time, what about poetry? Darkening Autumn afternoons always pull me back to T.S.Eliot's Wasteland, then usually on to the rest of his poems. Or Keats' The Eve of St Agnes with its wonderful contrast of the richness of the lovers' room and the cold outside.

Looking ahead, I re-read A Christmas Carol every Christmas, just don't feel n the mood until I've read that! I know you expressed a distaste for Dickens upthread so, if you can't read the whole novel, just read the description of the party at Scrooge's nephew's house where they are all playing Blind Man's Buff - it's so beautifully described, so good-humoured, so jolly, so funny, that you can't help feeling like one of the guests yourself!

If you want un-put-downable/young people's/fantasy-sci-fi type stuff, I recently read Patrick McNee's Chaos Walking trilogy which was all of those things and, also, a lot of Robert Swindell's books can be read in an afternoon; my favourite is Daz 4 Zoe.

Its all about witchcraft in my house at the moment. Precious Bane by Mary Webb is a brilliant evocation of 19th century rural life and the description of the seasons is lush. I'd also add Susan Fletchers Witch Light which has great depictions of cold Scottish moors and windswept mountains. Perfect for feeling cosy

rosa - oh, yes, I love to read poetry. And I agree about the Wasteland, or Four Quartets. I'm sorry about my anti-Dickens stance ... it just leaves me cold. Including Christmas Carol TBH. I don't hate CC, but I don't love it either. I will look for the others, however.

scarlet - thank you! I will look. I didn't know Susan Fletcher's book and I loved Eve Green and liked Oystercatchers by her, so it would be a good bet for me.

LeQ - thanks! I don't mind samey-samey for a bit, really - I can just read until I get bored.

I love these kinds of books! I'm currently living in Russia so using the cold weather as an excuse so spend hours curled up under a blanket with my kindle.
My favourite is The Mists of Avalon, I was utterly hooked from the first page, everything about it drew me in (Arthurian, female characters who do more than just simper, slightly woo). Every time I read it I get the urge to paint myself in woad and move to a commune.
Adore Neil Gaiman, especially his short stories and American Gods. I'm currently rereading The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks, and each winter I end up reading The Secret Garden for the millionth time. Bliss

LaQueen - I would happily drop everything and become one now, if Viviane turned up and asked me to do so

rosamund pilcher are the best for feeling cosy.with twist,family drama,saga.emotional.hilarious.witty/.i love them

How about some Tove Jansson - her Moomin books, especially Comet in Moominland, Moominpappa At Sea and Moomin Valley Midwinter. Or The Summer Book and The Winter a Book. Stunning, beautiful and a little bit sad, lonely and desolate feeling.

Daphne Du Maurier - Rebecca, The House on the Strand (man takes drugs and time travels/has a trip to 14th century Cornwall), Jamaica Inn etc

The Daylight Gate - Jeanette Winterson. English witch trials in 1600s

I loved those books, too. Wish I could remember the names. In the early 1980s, I saw a house for sale that was the setting of the book..Mum and I read them them in the 1960s Was it 'Seal Morning"?