'Old Lady' Christmas Book

[PiratePenguin]

On the 1st December we all have a Christmas book. This year it's my turn to buy them. My mum is 84 and I have no idea what book to get her. She's not that in to mysteries so can anyone recommend a book that she'd like? She watches Call the Midwife and read lots of Catherine Cookson 'way back when'. Village / gentle style books is kind of her style. Any suggestions welcome - along with many thanks!

I'm completely off murder series with the troubled cop fighting his/her own demons - nearly always involves a horribly murdered female.

Has anyone mentioned nature books quite uplifting and interesting too.

The Life and Times of Cockshutt Wood by John Lewis-Stempel
Wilding by Isabella Tree

Edmund Crispin does a good murder.
There's nowt like a good Gervase Fen mystery. You hardly even know there's BEEN a murder, they're so gently done - just eccentric Oxford professors being mildly silly all over the place.

For the 13 year old you might want to look at francis hardinge's books. Lovely writer, teen and young adult fantasy type books.

Some people on this thread (Persephone) sound like insufferable bores.

This might be too late but people upthread have mentioned both Diary of Provincial Lady and a D E Stevenson. I suggest a kind of combination of the two D E Stevenson's Mrs Tim of the Regiment (and sequels). The fictional diaries of Hester Christie, army wife. First published in 1932.

There's also Barbara Pym of course but your mum is probably familiar with those.

It is a children’s book, but The Dark is Rising is a Christmas book, and is a well written story that I find just as appealing as an adult as I did as a child.

What's The Dark is Rising actually about? DD didn't like it (understatement) when she had to read it for school but never actually told me what it was about.

@EerilyDeleted that’s both the title of the series of 5 books, the first one is “Over Sea, Under Stone”, and of the individual second novel from the series which your dd probably did in school?

They are broadly a mid-20th Century Arthurian adventure - in the first book a family of siblings going to Cornwall for the holidays to stay with their mysterious Great Uncle, and end up involved in a centuries old quest for the Holy Grail, involving treasure maps and the forces of light against darkness. The second book Is set at Christmas time and introduces another main character Who finds out on his 11th birthday he is the last of the “Old Ones” who protect the grail and must find various items of power to fulfil his destiny. It draws on a whole range of English and Celtic myths.

They are great adventures and wonderful for the way they weave together all the different bits of the legends she uses, but i loved them most as a kid for the atmosphere they conjure up. I wanted to be in that world as a kid, especially at Christmas time.

Thanks, DD gets a book from school to read every school holidays and this was the first one I'd never heard of. Two years later she is still saying how much she hated it, she
loves Greek/Roman mythology but not ours it seems.

@Walkacrossthesand

Mrs palfrey at the Claremont, by Elizabeth Taylor (no relation) is another lovely gentle but well observed story.

I agree with your description, I have just read it, thanks to the recommendations on here and enjoyed it.

But I don’t think it would be a very cheering read for an 84 year old. 😢

@TrickyD I also just read this thanks to recommendations on here and found it incredibly depressing! Was hoping for something heartwarming but it's just really sad

@Nowisthemonthofmaying', I saw that a film version was on Netflix, and thought it would be good to watch. I quickly changed my mind when I reached the end of the book.

No-one has yet suggested Lucy Boston's Children of Green Knowe series. The first is a magical Christmas story. www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/07/winter-reading-children-of-green-knowe

OP, your Mum sounds very like my darling late Mum and she loved Trisha Ashley’s Twelve Days of Christmas, mentioned upthread. It’s an undemanding but really cosy and engaging read that I think your DM will enjoy.

Any joy, OP?

Have a look at the British Library Women Writers series; there's one called Tea is So Intoxicating that would be worth it just for the title.

Anything by EH Young; William is lovely.

The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff, another lovely, gentle book.

Family Roundabout by Richmal Crompton. In fact, have a look at Persephone Books because they publish lots that would fit the bill.

Diary of a Provincial Lady or Mrs Miniver.

A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. (I read this every year.)

Heavens, don't buy Mrs Palfrey - it's like a one-way ticket to Dignitas!

Penhaligons Christmas scented treasury of verse and prose

@tobee Oh yes to Pym!! I know all of her books are the same (curates, tweed, garden parties) but I love them! Warm, humorous, great domestic details.
I've re-read my Mitfords over the past few weeks. The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate are favourites. Now reading Don't Tell Alfred. Looking forward to December when I can brush the dust off Christmas Pudding.
OP, I definitely second Pym, and other such writers- Mitford, Thirkell, Dellafield. I also yearn for comfort and warmth at time like these.
To the PP, isn't it a good thing we're not all 'like you'? Each to their own, and all that...

*Delafield

People's Friend Annual.

Not Miss Palfrey at the Claremont. A lovely book but with an incredibly sad ending and a bit too close to home at the moment.

Dilly Court is a good bet. She's got a couple of Christmas ones.

The call the midwife books by Jennifer worth are excellent.

Definitely Rosamund Pilcher. And Elizabeth Jane Howard.
If she's happy to read on a tablet, Bookouture is a good imprint for historical fiction (they publish a lot of novels set in and around WWs 1 and 2) and they have the odd Christmas-set romance/saga type book too. But they are digital-only.

@IntermittentParps

Definitely Rosamund Pilcher. And Elizabeth Jane Howard. If she's happy to read on a tablet, Bookouture is a good imprint for historical fiction (they publish a lot of novels set in and around WWs 1 and 2) and they have the odd Christmas-set romance/saga type book too. But they are digital-only.

OP was asking about this before last Christmas. She probably found something.

Last year I read The Woolworth Girls, can't remember author but it sounds the sort of thing she might like. I only started it as my nan worked there when I was young and I think I got it for my mum but it was a nice safe story set in war time at Christmas.

I've just seen on The Works site, two Christmas stories based around Emmerdale and Coronation Street that I have picked up for DM this year only £2 each