📚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 )

Looks like I have the same edition, @ChannelLightVessel

I think that's my favourite Elizabeth Taylor book so far!

My copy is, presumably, a relatively recent reprint (?) but I like it because it's quite old school design in itself; reminds me of a children's book cover somewhat confusingly

The hardcover they are selling on Amazon is a bit Tamara de Lempicka in 70s fashion!

Here:-

I've been through the original 'rather dated' thread and collated all the books and authors who were mentioned, so we can think about future book choices and people can look out for copies in charity shops and so on. Apologies if I have missed any, please re-add to this thread if so.

Authors and Novels:

Penelope Lively - The Road to Lichfield
Andrea Newman - Bouquet of Barbed Wire
Sue Townsend - (Early) Adrian Mole Diaries
Lynn Reid Banks - L-Shaped Room Trilogy, An End to Running
John Braine - Room at the Top
Alan Sillitoe - Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
Margaret Drabble - Radiant Way Trilogy, A Summer Birdcage
Elizabeth Jane Howard - The Long View
Stan Barstow - Vic Brown Trilogy, Ella Palmer Trilogy
Susan Meissner - As Bright as Heaven
Iris Murdoch - The Sandcastle, A Fairly Honourable Defeat, An Accidental Man
Susan Howatch - Starbridge Novels
Jane Gardam - Old Filth
Beryl Bainbridge - Sweet William
David Lodge - Nice Work
Pamela Hansford-Johnson - The Holiday Friend, The Honours Board
Emma Woodhouse AKA Cynthia Harrod-Eagles - On Wings of Love
Susan Hill - I’m the King of the Castle
John Mortimer - Rumpole series
Barbara Pym - An Academic Question, Excellent Women
AS Byatt - The Frederica Quartet
Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm
Libby Purves - A Long Walk in Wintertime
RC Sherriff - The Fortnight in September
Dorothy L Sayers - Gaudy Night
Edna O’Brien - The Country Girls

Other Authors:

Nan Maynard
Elizabeth Taylor
Anita Brookner
Muriel Spark
Mary Stewart
Jilly Cooper
Rosamund Pilcher
Mary Wesley
Monica Dickens
Penelope Fitzgerald
Margaret Forster
PD James
Dick Francis
Olivia Manning
Joanna Trollope
Robert B Parker
Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine
RF Delderfield
Mary McCarthy
George Orwell

Imprints:

Virago/Virago Modern Classics
The Women’s Press
Persephone
Furrowed Middlebrow

Made a start on my kindle edition today and am thoroughly enjoying it. As I read, I'm "translating" it into modern day parlance/situations (I find doing things like that fun ).

@Antarcticant Can I add to your very good list -

Elizabeth Jenkins - The Tortoise and the Hare

Penelope Mortimer - Daddy's Gone A-Hunting and perhaps The Pumpkin Eater

and possibly as well as/instead of Cold Comfort Farm for Stella Gibbons, one of her many other excellent novels, perhaps Westwood (which I’ve just looked up to check the publication date and seen described as 'somewhat dated' - BINGO!)

Marghanita Laski - The Village; Little Boy Lost

Rosamond Lehmann

Elizabeth Bowen

Winifred Holtby

I'm sure more will come back to me!

I'm in :)

I'm in too! Just downloaded it :)

Thanks that's great work @Antarcticant.

Ooh I'm in too! I'm obsessed with Iris Murdoch at the moment so this will be right up my street!

It's great to see so much interest in this book group, thank you to all who have signed up.

Thank you for your excellent additions @Terpsichore . I was reading 'Dusty Answer' earlier this summer (such a perfect book to read outside on a sunny day) and had had it in mind to read more of Rosamond Lehmann.

I listened to the podcast You’re Booked with Daisy Buchanan recently with Lucy Mangan as a guest and they talked a lot about these sort of books. Worth a listen.

How long do we all think it will be before there's a "dedicated to the 20th century books" blog and podcast? Best make it a good one folks!

Could we add the following to the possible list:
Nancy Mitford (now comes with a warning for the views expressed)
EM Delafield The Diary of a Provincial Lady
Iris Murdoch The Bell (we might need to have a discussion about which Murdoch)
Are we sticking to British authors? Some of the early Margaret Atwoods like The Edible Woman might fit or Carol Shield's novels
Beryl Bainbridge The Bottle Factory Outing or An Awfully Big Adventure.
Has Anita Brookner been mentioned? My Mum loved her novels in the 80s, I thought they were dreadfully boring but am probably old enough to appreciate them now?
It's probably YA but what about I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith?

Ann Bridge would be an interesting addition to the list. My mum loved her books and so do I, but although she only narrowly lost a big book prize to EM Forster in the early 30s, she is forgotten. She was a diplomat's wife who kept her family afloat financially by writing novels, and much younger was the climbing companion of George Mallory who died climbing Mt Everest trialling the use of oxygen at altitude.

I just posted this on the other thread, so I am copying it here!
I’d like to join you please, I love books from the 1930s - 70s. The Olivia Manning trilogies are wonderful, I have read them and I second whoever mentioned Dorothy Whipple. I discovered her via Persephone books , she wrote in the 1930s - 50s, but curiously her books don’t seem at all dated. I particularly recommend “Someone at a Distance “ about a woman realising her husband is having an affair, and “ They were sisters”. Also Patrick Hamilton, who writes about the underside of life in London in the 1930s - 40s. I am in 2 book groups, but they mainly want to read whatever is in the best-seller charts, or classics.

I'd like to join you all please, if I may.

This is serendipitous timing for me because I've recently been making a list of authors I need to get around to reading/read more of, and 20th century women crop up a lot.

I've just read through both of the threads and am feeling very contented just thinking about all these lovely books ahead of me.

I just wrote an answer to this; also on the wrong thread. Possibly. They're much of a muchness at this stage!

Iris Murdoch The Bell (we might need to have a discussion about which Murdoch)

I think we will find ourselves spoilt for choice with many of the authors who have been suggested! The Bell is an excellent suggestion; if we are looking at changing societal attitudes, the life and career of Michael Meade could hardly be a better illustration of these. It's another of my favourite 'summer' reads (though I'm always happy to re-read any Murdoch at any time). Of course, if interest in the group lasts long enough, we can do more than one novel per author.

Doubleraspberry Thank you for the podcast recommendation.

I just wrote an answer to this; also on the wrong thread. Possibly. They're much of a muchness at this stage!

Any and all contributions welcome, but if we want to avoid future duplication, perhaps we could use this thread for book group specific discussions/recommendations, and ImJustMadAboutSaffron's original 'rather dated' thread for more general 'rather dated' chat.

XingMing Thank you for introducing a 'forgotten' author, I think it would be good to have a mix of well- and lesser-known writers.

More sterling work with your lists of books and authors, @Antarcticant

Just wondered if this would be usefulPlatinum Jubilee Big Read, as a way of finding good books written in English outside the U.K.

I know there's already a lot of author here, but Winston Graham and Daphne de Maurier are both brilliant, both writing somewhat earlier than most of those mentioned.
Susan Howatch Starbridge novels are mentioned. I much prefer her recreations of medieval and Roman history set in more modern times, especially the Wheel of Fortune.
I have also just read a Patricia Highsmith novel and she fits with the criteria.

Some American writers I would recommend are Eudora Welty and the earlier works of Anne Tyler and Gail Godwin (their later works are good, too, but not so "dated."

A particular favorite of mine is Father Melancholy's Daughter (1991) by Gail Godwin.

Been reading The Road To Lichfield and it's lovely and warm and fluffy so far. This hot on the heel of reading one of my old pony books.

My vote for other dated books is the Miss Reed (Thush Green series) My mum got me into those as a teenager! Old before my time, and relishing it!

Absolutely Yes to Patrick Hamilton. Twenty thousand streets under the sun is wonderful and so evocative of the time. That wartime seediness, no one captured it like him.