📚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 )

I don’t see why not, she’s a very unimaginative writer.

I first read Summer Bird Cage about 30 odd years ago. I love Drabble.

Come on over to the Anita Brookner, A Start in Life thread when you're ready. Lots of interesting comments already.

And here's an image of my copy of A Summer Bird-Cage (but I daren't start the thread for this one, after I made such a hash of creating the last one 😬). For the bibliophiles, this is the Penguin 1967 edition of the book, which first published in 1963.

Just wondering if were going to fit in a Christmasy book after A Summer Birdcage? Technically I suppose we're due to start talking about A Summer Birdcage on Christmas Day!

If we can't fit in a Christmasy book are there any Rather Dated Christmas books anyone can recommend? Not Winter Solstice

I've got quite a good one, The Long Shadow by Celia Fremlin, a domestic noir. Quite a nice cover too!

Ooh I like the look of that @tobee ! I read her Ghostly Stories and loved them.

Thanks tobee! I like the look of The Long Shadow.

Good idea @tobee - I nabbed that on Kindle a few years ago when for some reason they had a Fremlin sale and everything of hers was about 99p…I went a bit mad! 🫣

Any other recommendations then?!

Thanks for the recommendation, never tried Celia Framlin, I have ordered it from Amazon 👍🏼

This is my copy too, only I bought it when it came out in paperback…..I’ve still got it.
I have quite fond memories of this book, which I think I read last about ten years ago.

I tend to feel more in harmony with the earlier novels, The Millstone and The Garrick Year ‘ for example than the later ones, where she seems to become almost a caricature of a Hampstead ‘ satellite’ intellectual. Everyone seems to be so supportive of her characters’ difficulties and misfortunes, which may be the case amongst the privileged but which perusal of these boards indicates is far from the case in most people’s experience.

So counting up, I first read this when I was eighteen , and waiting to go up to Oxford. I was in awe of her congratulatory First.

Yes, @Allthegoodnamesarechosen Drabble's middle years were a bit too self-satisfied, but I quite like the late ones, such as The Peppered Moth.

As for other suggestionsfor our next read, something Christmas related, how about Elizabeth Jane Howard's first novel, The Beautiful Visit?

"Bored to the point of despondency, the young protagonist of the book is invited to visit some distant relatives of her mother's for the Christmas holidays: two weeks in the holiday at a 'jolly' country house with a large family and interesting, attractive guests. The repercussions of this visit then play out through the rest of the novel." (From Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1820054.TheBeautifull_Visit)

I tell you what is fascinating is Elizabeth Jane Howard’s autobiography - Slipstream: A Memoir and her biography - A Dangerous Innocence by Artemis Cooper. If you haven’t read them, worth asking Father Christmas for.

I might re-read those in conjunction with The Beautiful Visit.

I love Elizabeth Jane Howard so always up for reading more by her.

I remember crying a lot over The Beautiful Visit, but can’t remember anything else about the plot. I would love to read it again. And yes, Slipstream and the Artemis Cooper biography well well worth reading.

Yes she's such a good writer

I read her biography and totally agree

Read Moon Tiger too

It was ok but preferred the Lichfield Road book

Afternoon folks, we seen to have gone quiet on both threads. As a way of trying to revive interest, here's a great interview with Penelope Lively: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00173zl?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile on BBC This Cultural Life.

And as for this month's choice, Is anyone interested in starting a thread for A Summer Bird-Cage?

I've not lost interest @frustratedacademic and am planning to start A Summer Bird-Cage in the next few days. I wondered if we should consider changing the date for starting our discussion of it as the 25th, our usual date, will be Christmas Day? I'm hopeless at starting new threads but will join any threads on the books that others start.

PS. Thanks for posting the interview with PL. I'm going to settle down with a glass of wine to read that shortly.

Ok, I'll start the thread on the Drabble book in the morning, with a new date of 1st month for the January one (I think we're agreed Howard, The Beautiful Visit).

Just started A Summer Birdcage, have read it before but can't really remember it. It isn't one I have reread like The Garrick Years and The Millstone but enjoying it!

Will check out The Beautiful Visit and The Long Shadow too.

Although I am also trying to read The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout.

Come and post on the shiny new December thread dedicated to Margaret Drabble's first novel, A Summer Bird-Cage whenever you're ready,📚 http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/4690488-rather-dated-december-margaret-drabble-a-summer-bird-cage

I have tried, and failed, to keep up with this thread as I have to reserve books from the library and the system has been very slow recently! I have ordered today EJH The Beautiful Visit and hope that it arrives in time.