What to read after Stella Gibbons and Nancy Mitford?

[MsMarple]

I've been immersed in a happy time-warp recently with Cold Comfort Farm and Love in a Cold Climate, and I'm not ready to come back to the real world yet!

I have some Barbara Pym books at the ready, but what else can I try that is early 20thC and funny?

The camomile lawn is a favourite of mine.

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

London Belongs to Me - Norman Collins
(I adore all the Patrick Hamilton books but they are rather bleaker than Mitford. And obviously all the Orwell novels)

I'd second the Diary of a Provincial Lady (and EM Delafield's other books) - they absolutely tick the Cold Comfort Farm box for me.

Just putting a good word in for The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim - really lovely novel, suitably time warpy and life affirming but with a thread of great observational humour running through it. Von Armin has a similar wry humour to Gibbons/Mitford. Am currently on holiday in Italy, and our choice of destination was partly inspired by this book!

Some of my absolutely favourite books listed on here:

Diary of a Provincial Lady (hilarious)
Diary of a Nobody (hilarious)
London Belongs to Me (comic & tragic in a Dickensian way)

And what about Three Men in a Boat?

Antonia White's Frost in May is my most read book ever. Not funny but so compelling.

Not early 20thC, but definitely funny and not-the-real-world - what about When Steeple Sinderby Won the FA Cup by JL Carr? (And also What Hetty Did / Pollocks Crossing etc - basically all his not-tragic ones.)

BTW am I the only person who loves Cold Comfort Farm / Provincial Lady et al but can't abide Miss Pettigrew?

Lovely thread! I prob read cold comfort farm once a year at least. I also really liked "the lost art of keeping secrets" by Eva rice. More recent but similarly lovely. And of course the lovely georgette heyer.

Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan.
I also enjoyed George Orwell's Down and Out in London and Paris- bleak but utterly fascinating....

Ah - always nice to find people of similar interests. I found Angela Thirkwell on holiday and am now reading through hers. Again 1930s - also keep being surprised to find myself in 2016. I started with Wild Strawberries. Some of the observations/ humour about parenting were spot on.

Perspicacia - you are right it is High Risings that I was thinking of with the parenting observations. Glad to see someone else thought it absolutely captured little boys.

Sadik - you're not alone in not liking Miss Pettigrew. I read it after seeing it recommended on MN but it didn't do anything for me. I didn't warm to Miss Pettigrew as a character and disliked the several anti-semitic comments made by characters. You could argue that it was of its time but it still made me feel uncomfortable - an unpleasant jolt in what was otherwise intended to be a lightweight and life-affirming novel.

Marking my place for more recommendations for elegant and amusing 1930s novels. Off to get Diary of a Provincial Lady now :)
Seconding recommendations for Persephone Books - I buy them whenever I see them in second hand bookshops :)

No I didn't like Miss Pettigrew either. Don't know why. I found it silly which in itself is silly as many of my other favourites are stilly.

Oh yes love JL Carr books too - more wry than hilarious. And Month in the country is lovely, although not funny.

Sadik I agree re Miss Pettigrew, I know it's meant to be positive but found it a bit twee and she wasn't very likable. I think we have similar tastes :)

Another recommendation, although completely different from most on this thread, is JG Farrell Troubles, which is set in 1920s Ireland - there are extremely funny bits and it helped shed a light for me on confusing Irish history.

Also, anything by Elizabeth Bowen - not really funny but incredibly well-observed, her short stories are particularly good.

Ooh, have found my people! Adore E F Benson and EM Delafield. Angela Thirkell is a recent discovery too - it's not just the small boys, she's also good at older adolescents and the agonies they put themselves through.

Also have my reservations about Miss Pettigrew - especially the bit at the end where she's enjoying being dominated by the male character. Much prefer Barbara Pym's wry musings on whether you really want to be washing up for this man for the rest of your life.

For some reason I don't find Molly Keane funny - too bleak.

A Month in the Country by J L Carr was the highlight of my reading last year.

Another though - if you enjoy the Mitfords, read Hons and Rebels by Jessica Mitford. Also the Mitford letters are fun - I loved In Tearing Haste: letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor.

A bit different, but you might like Scoop by Evelyn Waugh.

I also have a bit of a soft spot for J B Priestley's The Good Companions.

Oh, yes, The Good Companions. I recommended that on another thread. I loved it.

I really like Miss Pettigrew.

Yes to Waugh - Vile Bodies, A Handful of Dust, Scoop and The Loved One in particular.

Very early 20th century, as in Edwardian- short stories by Saki (penname of Hector Hugo Munro). Humour about life amongst the upper classes, somewhat in the style of Oscar Wilde.

Ohhhhh, has anyone else read the golden age crime thrillers of ECR Lorac/Carol Carnac? They are wonderful...quite hard to find and often wildly expensive, but so worth it.

Also thrillers by Pamela Branch and Christianna Brand (the woman who wrote the Nurse Matilda/Nanny MacPhee books) are really good.

If you read and enjoy In Tearing Haste then the diaries of Paddy Leigh Fermor are great - when he goes about assessing ancient houses for adoption by the National Trust. Enormous old freezing houses, frightfully grand and impoverished people, petrol rationing...just lovely!

If people like 'I capture the castle' then I'd recommend 'The lost art of keeping secrets'

Similar in style and very cosy

For E F Benson fans, a recent book that melded Mapp and Lucia with a parody of Under the Tuscan Sun is Tuscany for Beginners, by Imogen Edwards-Jones. I thought it was hilarious.

(Just checked goodreads and the reviews aren't great as the reviewers don't like the main character, which seems to me to be missing the point somewhat).

Rumer Godden's autobiographies, House with Four Rooms and A Time to Dance, No Time to Weep are real period pieces. Monica Dickens autobiography is also excellent. J L Carr's A Month in the Country is one of my favourite books - a tiny perfect creation of beauty and melancholy.

On a side note (not boasting, honest!) I've just ordered Persephone's whole catalogue. My beloved Dad died earlier this year, and I thought using the money he left me to buy these beautiful books would mean every time I read one I would remember him.

Elizabeth Taylor.
Angela Thirkell: very snobbish but very funny, particularly the early ones.

That's a lovely idea, soupplate. What a lovely legacy.