📚The Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group - All welcome to join📚

[Antarcticant]

Welcome to the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group, where we will be reading and discussing fiction from the 1930s to the 1990s that would have been described as 'contemporary' in its day.

The best introduction to the 'rather dated' concept would be to read the wonderful thread which inspired this group:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/4596284-rather-dated?reply=119670989

To summarise, a number of posters expressed disappointment that literature of the 20th Century is often dismissed as 'rather dated' because society has moved on from many of the values and lifestyles described.

We decided to create a reading group where the literary merits of such fiction can be appreciated, with any 'rather dated' elements being a point of interest rather than a reason to dismiss a novel.

We will be reading one book a month. Our first book, for September, will be the book that inspired the original thread:

The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively

Please do join the thread whether you want to take part in the discussion or just place mark to follow it.

Fellow Rather Dated people, please add anything important I might have missed!

(With huge thanks to ImJustMadAboutSaffron for the original thread and idea )

Marking place to join

Thanks I'm still interested to see them. Mine's the current paperback btw, that others have posted.

My copy - a clue to the age of this edition can be found on the back cover, where it has dual pricing in readiness for the change from imperial to decimal currency.

That's fabulous, Antarcticant.
Thanks for posting it.

I'm on Chapter 12 and enjoying it so far.

Oh I love all your hard copy covers! I'm afraid I'm reading it on my Kindle so difficult to show the cover effectively.

I have the hard copy of @MotherofPearl kindle version

My Mum loves Anita Brookner and I appear to have quite a few! I remember reading mum's copy of Hotel du Lac and recognised Brief Lives from the article @frustratedacademic linked to but have no memory of reading the other two, although to be fair it was over 30 years ago. In my early 20s they didn't particularly appeal so I'm keen to reread now to see if my opinion has changed with age (I'm now older than Mum when she read them!).

I will post my cover @tobee just as soon as I’ve worked out how you do it. Embarrassingly awful at technology. I like the sound of any of those 5 Anita Brookner titles, I’ve only read Hotel du lac so far.

I remember the trail for the tv version of Hotel du Lac (1986) and I still sort of expect Anita Brookner to look like Anna Massey

I have the same Kindle cover version as MotherofPearl. Anita Brookner - as soon as someone mentioned the name I recalled reading Hotel du Lac but can't remember anything about it at all unfortunately!

I am also well behind on the reading, but have some time off work so hoping to catch up with both the Road to Lichfield (which I haven't finished) and Black Narcissus next week.

I've managed to read chapter 1 of Black Narcissus so far 😬

There was a certain resemblance, now you mention it, tobee

I’ve only read one Anita Brookner before, and really didn’t get on with it - maybe it’s time I had another go.

Well @Terpsichore, it was the same for me, till I'd had a few disappointments in life such that reading about Anita Brookner's heroines' disappointments became more reassuring than depressing.

And my Brookner covers off the list of five

@frustratedacademic Maybe I just couldn’t cope with being reminded about my own many disappointments! Anyway, I’ve bought A Start in Life now so I’ll have to see how it goes…

I would like help straightening out the nuns, please. So, Sr. Clodagh, Sr. Ruth, Sr. Philippa, Sr. Briony, Sr. Blanche also known confusingly as Sr. Honey and Sr. Laura. She was there early on in the book but seems to not be there any more. Am I missing anybody?

Is A Start in Life what we've settled on as our next book? OP - your call.

Hmm I looked at the IMDb photos of the Powell/Pressburger film to get them straight as that's how I know BN.

This is my copy

Would you/anyone be able to link the thread please?

I'm very happy with A Start in Life if everyone else is - I haven.'t read it yet

Beautiful!

It sounds good to me.

Yes, that’s it, @IsFuzzyBeagMise - Sister Laura went to inspect the Palace at Mopu with Sister Clodagh, when they meet Mr Dean for the first time, but that was a flashback at the start; she isn’t with the group who eventually settle there, she goes back (presumably) to wherever they came from. So the remaining ones are the ones you name.

Grand job, @Terpsichore thank you. All nuns present and accounted for so :)