Please recommend me a gentlly entertaining book

[BikeRunSki]

I'm working very hard at the moment, lots of work on. DC 5 and 8 are hard work and DH is away a lot. I'm shattered and need something nice and easy to read to relax at the end of the day. Something like the Adrian Mole Diaries, Bridget Jones or Tales of the City - easy, undemanding and interesting enough story. But not actually these series, as I've read them all 1000 times! Diary or letter format is good (but not a must) as there are frequent natural breaks...

Thank you

The Country Dairy of an Edwardian Lady.

Gently very funny.

Anything by Barbara Pym!

The Miss Read books.
Agatha Raisin.
No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.

Am presuming you've read Jeeves and Wooster...the original and best when it comes to gently entertaining! But Wodehouse also wrote a lot of short stories - Mr. Mulliner - I like a short story when I'm shattered at the end of the day. V. funny.

Also - Three Men in a Boat. Jerome K Jerome

And a second vote for Ladies Detective Agency.

I haven't read Jeeves and Wooster actually. I'll have a look.

I hated the Ladies Detective Agency. Can't remember why, may look again.

When I feel tired but want to read I usually pick up a Bill Bryson.

Deric Longden - The Cat Who Came in From the Cold is lovely gentle, northern humour. He's written a few ( though maybe miss out Diana's story as it is about his ill first wife)

Thank you, thank you
Bill Bryson is spot on, but I've also read them all a lot!

I absolutely adore Bill Bryson, though all the Babe Ruth stuff in 1927 was just too boring for me :)

Love Nina by Nina Stibbe, incredibly funny letters from an au pair to her sister about life in a posh London publishing family in the early eighties.

The two that come to mind immediately if you've not read them (both originally newspaper columns) are Diary of a Provincial Lady by EM Delafield and Letters from a Fainthearted Feminist by Jill Tweedie.

ooh - forgot I really enjoyed Diary of a Provincial Lady by E M Delafield

hah - x post with Sadik :)

Its triggering my brain now - Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day by Winifred Watson

Have you read '84 Charing Cross Road'? Easy to read and rather lovely.

The Diary of a Fainthearted Feminist sounds right up my street.

Is that the book that was serialised on BBC1 earlier this year beatrice? (Actually you've inspired me, I might just reread the Ramona books 😄)

Love Nina looks lovely !
I also love Alan Bennett - have you tried him?

84 Charing Cross Road - a delight from start to finish.
Miss Pettigrew
Daddy Long Legs or its sequel Dear Enemy
Jane Austen

Any Ladies Detective Agency books, I can feel the sun shining on my face as soon as I pick them up
I like Carl Hiassen too, completely different but lots of fun
Like Bill Bryson and Agatha Raisin too

YY to Love, Nina - exactly that type of book. I have to say I didn't like Miss Pettigrew at all, but I think I'm in the minority.

Thinking of different sorts of things I'd read in the same mood - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe kind of hits that spot for me as it just kind of carries you along with the road trip without too much effort on the reader's part.

I would describe Anne Tyler as gently entertaining.

Also how about Nancy Mitford?

By the way - I started on Alan Bennett via The Uncommon Reader , and fell in love with his writing.

I couldn't read Diary of a Provincial Lady - found it really irritating.

Anything by Gervaise Phinn