The cosiest book you ever read

[MellowBird85]

As autumn approaches, I’d really like to find a proper cosy book - the type that you can curl up by the fire with while the rain lashes against the windows but not too twee iykwim? I wouldn’t mind something based in the 18th or 19th century (but not essential). I went on GoodReads and found a list of “Books to Read on a Rainy Day” and all the classics were at the top of the list - Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Pride & Prejudice, etc. I’m willing to give these a go but just thought I’d get some opinions on here first. TIA

I bloody love this thread.

So does Amazon

Last book I ordered was from Waterstones......... because you still can!

OMG! How did I forget Cranford!?!

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff.

I Capture the Castle

'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink...'

Simply wonderful.

@southeastdweller - I love all of Helene Hanff’s books!

I love Alexander Mccall smith for that gentle cosy feel.

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Another vote for Cold Comfort Farm - and definitely Georgette Heyer books! Some brilliant suggestions here, think I’m going to nip over to amazon just now

Thank you for the thread.

I’m voting for The Snow Child which gave me the goosebumps.

Also, not seasonal but one of the most hilarious, absurd and absorbing books I’ve ever read is A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole. Highly recommend!

Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee

Little women ! I'm not a "classics" fan as I'm more into thrillers but I read this as a child and have read it a few times since. It's such a comforting cosy homely story . Definitely worth reading if you haven't already

Yy to The Snow Child and I’m lobbing in I Capture the Castle

Straight to Jane Eyre, re-read it every year.

I've changed my mind. Marley and Me or Bridget Jones's Diary.

I was going to suggest The Cazalet Chronicles too!

This thread has made me want to reread Rosamunde Pilcher. I'll add September and Winter Solstice to my To Read pile

Excellent thread. Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Pettigrew lives For A Day, by Winifred Watson, anything by Daphne Du Maurier (maybe less cosy but similar by the fire on a winters night..). Contemporary author I’m loving the work of is Bitter Orange writer Claire Fuller.

The shell seekers rosamund pilcher
So comforting

My two cosiest are miss buncle’s book and the magpie murders
Best authors for cosy
Angela thirkell
De Stevenson
Dorothy koomson
P d James
Kathleen tessaro
Edith Wharton
Ann granger the Mitchell and Markby series

Definitely Winifred Foley's Lark Rise to Candleford, my all time favourite 'go to' book.

The thirteenth tale

Anything by Nancy Mitford, or E F Benson.

I've never met anyone else who's read The Hills is Lonely! It's wonderful.

The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa is a lovely gentle warm book. Also Bilgewater by Jane Gardam and Moontiger by Penelope Lively. I recently read and loved the Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye by AS Byatt which is a sort of modern adult fairy tale where the 'princess' is a middle-aged English professor.

Our book group read The Hills Is Lonely, and most liked it, but apparently the people of the Western Isles were angered by her portrayal of them. They said she depicted the people as "comical half-wits" and showed her "English colonial attitudes". One resident called it "a parody of Island life, and a gross calumny" of people who had made her welcome. That certainly had us thinking.