any books about village life?

[lemisscared]

any recommendations? have read some rebecca shaw but actually they are pretty poorly written. happy to pick up in charity shops but full price on kindle? no thanks

i like the idea of books about naice villages. nothing sad though.

not that im fussy or anything

The Thrush Green books by Miss Read are lovely and gentle and all about village life. Possibly quite dated now (haven't read them for years), but I enjoyed them.

The Agatha Raisin books b MC Beaton are quite good on village life (but with murders) Also Agatha Christie, and of course Jilly Cooper!

lol not sure im ready for jilly cooper :) murders are good

The Aunt Dimity books are lovely: www.aunt-dimity.com/aunt-dimitys-death.html

Welcome to the Burracombe series by Lilian Harry... I inhale them like crack... all set in a postwar idyll. The Bells of Burracombe is the first.

The jack Sheffield teacher series?

The Ngaio Marsh books aren't really about villages, but they're of their time. They're mystery / crime books which start in the 1930s and go on through the War and into the 50s. I'm loving reading them at the moment.

If you don't mind American books, I enjoyed jan Karon's series about Mitford

lots of recommendations. thanks.

I used to love Miss Read too. And I was going to say Jilly too. Joanna Trollope wrote some village ones too. Mapp and Lucia? Beverley Nicholls?

There's another author I'm trying to remember. Will have to google.

I love Trisha Ashley, all northern villages, often with a brooding, gruff love interest, corny maybe but I can't wait for the next one.

oooh forgot about joanna trollop. read those in my teens

It depends how 'quaint' you want your read. One I read recently was village life amongst the toffs in Bucks "The Deaths" by Mark Lawson www.tripfiction.com/novel-set-in-england-beau-monde-buckinghamshire/ Interesting, funny, readable, in the main, for the clever and astute prose, but can be over clever at times.

I love Agatha Raisin! Easy to read and follow,and don't waffle on for pages and pages.

i downloaded "agatha raisin" the other night.i think im going to like her! she reminds me somehow of "vera" and is the antithesis of that rather irritating isabel dalhousie woman (how smug is she??)

Another Agatha fan here!
(was sadly disappointed in the tv version though - "my" Agatha is brown haired and a good deal of a batteaxe, not a glamour-puss!)

it was on the telly?

Was on Sky 1 just after Christmas - Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death. Not great drama/acting but passed a couple of hours quite pleasantly.

Try Louis de Bernières' Notwithstanding - it's a short story collection, and they all take place in an idyllic English village. Also, South of the Lights by Angela Huth is at times sad, but overall, very calm, and often very funny.

Mrs Fytton's Country Life - read that ages ago and remember it being funny.

Obviously there's the standard Cranford, Emma etc.

The Flavia de Luce series is about a girl solving mysteries in a village in the 50s, lost of vicars and bicycling etc.

I enjoy the Lucy Dillon books. She's not written many, but a few of them are set in the same village, focussing on different people each time but you do get cross-overs which I like.

Chick-lit, but not as silly as some.

PigeonPie and BestisWest I have just finished re-reading my Miss Read trilogy - lovely stuff. Never really could get in to Thrush Green as much as Fairacre though.

ElephansAndMiasmas I tend to think of the Mrs Fytton book more as a rather splendid revenge on the ExH than a chronicle of country life!

MrsCurrent Glad there is another Trisha Ashley fan. I keep meaning to draw some kind connections map to show all the liks between the various villages (Middlemoss etc) and the characters involved. I love Trisha World. Do you follow Skint Old Northern Woman by any chance?

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee is a superb read. You really must!

I loved Mrs Fytton's Country Life. Due a re read of that I think.

Lark Rist to Candleford is a nice read too.