📚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 )

Welcome, @WinterFoxes. Please do join us.

My copy of Miss Pettigrew has arrived, and I'm looking forward to starting it. Unfortunately my Dorothy Whipple addiction means I'm currently in the middle of Greenbanks, but hopefully I'll be able to juggle reading both novels.

My copy of Miss P has also arrived, but I too am immersed in another Dorothy Whipple, in my case We Were Sisters. Did anyone see Rachel Joyce’s review of Someone at a Distance in the Times? Was a couple of weeks ago, I think.

Please may I join? This is absolutely my kind of writing.

Thank you. That's a very tasteful copy of Miss Pettigrew. The one I saw in Waterstones was very gaudy.

@Antarcticant Please can we add Fay Weldon and Barbara Trapido (Brother of the More Famous Jack/Juggling etc) to the list of potential authors.

This group is GREAT!

I've created the March thread to discuss Miss Pettigrew when we're ready. I'm not sure I've done such a seamless job as @frustratedacademic but hopefully it will be okay:

'Rather Dated' March: Winifred Watson's 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/4753690-rather-dated-march-winifred-watsons-miss-pettigrew-lives-for-a-day

Thank you, @MotherofPearl . I haven’t finished it either … in fact I haven’t even started because I have had one cold after another with a short break in between for a bout of covid, so only now gingerly able to concentrate on anything harder than silly thrillers. Planning to start tomorrow. If my health permits.

I didn't know this whole section existed!

I LOVE Persephone books my grannie is a Persephone writer, hers is number 18!

And I adore Dorothy Whipple!

I LOVED Barbara Trapido!

What about:
Jean Rhys
Olivia Manning - Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy
Antonia White - Frost In May
Rosamond Lehmann - Dusty Answer and Invitation to the Waltz
Colin McInnes - Absolute Beginners

Welcome @TragicMuse, and thanks for those great suggestions. Perhaps we could select one for our April book? I'm off to check which Persephone book is no. 18!

I hope you are now fully recovered @StellaOlivetti. I'd have thought some rather dated novels would be just the thing as you convalesce, to use a rather dated term.

@TragicMuse if you're a fan of the Balkan Trilogy, you've slightly over a week to catch up on the fabulous Fortunes of War on BBC iplayer

I must do that! I remember it fairly well, but haven't seen for years.

Olivia was my grannie's BFF...

If you do end up watching, join the Telly Addicts conversation over here (I'm looking for backup for my opinion that the series is brilliant ): Fortunes of War re-run BBC 4 - does the BBC help invent a Britishness that never existed but we now think it did? www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/4734144-fortunes-of-war-re-run-bbc-4-does-the-bbc-help-invent-a-britishness-that-never-existed-but-we-now-think-it-did

I love Persephone 18! The prose is incredible.

Isobel English.

I'm thrilled that we have the relative of a real Persephone writer with us.

Oh my goodness, I'm SO pleased!

Thank you!

I do remember The Balkan Trilogy being on and watched some of it. I started reading the book on holiday and was really enjoying it but then had a lot of rl stuff going on that distracted me; must get back to it!

I'm not sure about watching the TV again; although I think they were quite well cast, sometimes Branagh & Thompson give me the pip (to use rather dated terminology!), especially at the time of their marriage and Emma's show Thompson which had a lot of lovey cringe. 😬

I was toying with starting a thread on this and then thought I'd ask on here.

Doesn't anyone enjoy reading Graham Greene? I read a few in my twenties and found them a great read at the time; especially the entertainments.

But I read The End of the Affair a couple of years ago and I'm now re reading (or this time listening to) Brighton Rock. I think it's such a great read, so disturbing. The Attenborough film is one of his best roles imo. But I'm finding the Catholicism hard to take. I don't remember finding it so hard when I was younger. I'm an atheist but that shouldn't necessarily make any difference. Graham Greene is one of my df's favourite authors and df is atheist too. I don't know, I just don't want to become more intolerant as I get older. Ahhh!

Perhaps we could have The Balkan Trilogy as our April book? I'd be interested to read it.

My grandmother was always saying things gave her 'the pip'! Haven't heard that for ages.

I've recently re-read Travels With My Aunt @tobee which was a lot of fun in places (though ultimately rather sad).

@MotherofPearl I'd really like to read some Olivia Manning at some point as I haven’t ever got round to her before, but I feel a bit daunted by almost 1,000 pages of the trilogy!

Yes Travels with My Aunt was one of the ones I read in my twenties @Terpsichore. Should read it again.

Brighton Rock is incredible. Also The Power and the Glory if you can cope with the Catholicism!

Yes I enjoyed Graham Greene, End of the Affair and Brighton Rock which I also found pretty disturbing! I do remember him being very catholic. I should read them again as an older reader.

@Terpsichore I hear what you're saying - I selfishly thought a long read in April would be good for me - we're headed off to a very remote part of the Scottish Highlands for a week in April, and other than going for walks (and I'm very lazy in that respect), there's nothing whatsoever to do there apart from read! But 1000 pages is a lot, I agree.

I'm happy to go with any suggestions really - though first need to finish Miss Pettigrew.

God, your holiday sounds idyllic. Nothing to do apart from walk and read… <sigh>