📚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 )

Thanks Channel. I've certainly got my eye on the Persephone Festival.

Have we come to a decision about the next book, by the way?

I thought it was High Wages by Dorothy Whipple for September, and then an Elizabeth Bowen title (not finalised yet) for October.

That's my understanding too.

I've made a start on High Wages and am thoroughly enjoying it.

Oh good. I wasn’t sure whether High Wages had been definitively chosen, but if it has, I'll get on with it. A re-read for me. Thanks.

I'm going to move onto this as soon as I plough through finish Demon Copperhead. Looking forward to it.

I’ve just finished this. Long, isn’t it.

@ChannelLightVessel thanks for the book festival info. I'm very tempted attend and have signed up to find out more. I'm going to suggest it to my book group - would be a lovely trip.

Are you talking about DC Stella?
If so, yes it is. It's very long in the earlier part, I think.

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh
yes, sorry, I tried to link it to your message!
I did enjoy it but it was a marathon not a sprint.

No worries! Yes! I felt the same.
I'm onto the sprint bit now :)

Describes it perfectly!

I'm up for a chat about High Wages as it's one of the DW books I haven't read yet and I enjoyed the others.

I'll get onto it once I finish the first volume of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. There's a thread just now enthusing about Lymond so I thought I'd give her a go hoping to find a new series to get really involved in, but a hundred pages in and I'm not convinced.

I know DD is incredibly popular. As Abraham Lincoln (or maybe it was Miss Jean Brodie) said: "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like". Sums up how I feel.

Re the Persephone book festival, I was at a book event last night and the woman I was sitting next to at dinner was waxing lyrical about the Persephone bookshop in Bath. She didn’t know about the festival, but had visited it and come away with armfuls of beautiful books. She said it was wonderful. I wish I could go but it is literally the other side of England to me.

Right, have just picked up High Wages from library so off to get stuck in.

I have just finished High Wages.
I thought it was a really good read.
I was gripped :) * *

Are you in the glorious East too @StellaOlivetti ?

I'm in the fine city!

I am indeed in the glorious East, @TragicMuse ! Both my kids were born in the fine city (the original N and N) but we moved over the border to Suffolk twenty years ago. Love going back though.

Me too; I finished it this morning. Looking forward to chatting about soon. I'll start the thread on 1 October.

I’m hopping back on this thread. It was me that suggested Miss Pettigrew and Fortnight, but then events overtook me with my father’s illness and I couldn’t keep up. Having said that, the Cazalet chronicles kept me company during that time and I only got to know about EJH from this thread. I’ve just finished Miss Pettigrew and I like thelook of High Wages.

Welcome back @Howeverdoyouneedme Hope life is easier for you now
My copy of ‘High Wages’ is on the way from Persephone Books.

Welcome back @Howeverdoyouneedme
Looking forward to chatting with you again.

Yes, welcome back @Howeverdoyouneedme (I nearly wrote welcome home!)

"I look pretty young but I'm just backdated" The Who.
Currently reading short story from Margery Allingham.

I will try a long book next.

I've started the thread to discuss Whipple's High Wages:

📚 'Rather Dated' October: Dorothy Whipple's 'High Wages' 📚 http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/4910003-rather-dated-october-dorothy-whipples-high-wages

Next we need to decide which Elizabeth Bowen we're reading for November. Or have we decided already? I've lost track.