📚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'll go back to the start of the thread and have a look at some of the suggestions.

There were a good few mentioned.

Hello, please may I join in?

What's the next book?

Could we have something a) more recent and b) a bit lighter than the last two?
And c) not suggested by me 😅Though if no-one's got another idea, I've been wanting to reread Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop (pub 1978, set 1959, short).

The Bookshop sounds good to me. Or, if I could be selfish and suggest one of the books on my (Persephone) 'to read' pile: one is Madeline Linford's Out of the Window, and the other is Elizabeth Cambridge's Hostages to Fortune.

Welcome @HelloDarlingWhatAreYouDoingHere
Very glad to have you along with us.

All three sound good. I don't think Out of the Window is on Kindle and it's 25 pounds on WoB. Hostages to Fortune is on Kindle and so is The Bookshop. I'd like to put a vote in for these two respectively...and respectfully :)

They’re both great, in different ways. Penelope Fitzgerald can do no wrong for me. I did read it quite recently but happy to re-read.

Coincidentally, I am currently reading The Beginning of Spring by Penelope F. Very happy to read The Bookshop, if everyone agrees.

Sounds like The Bookshop it is.

I'm glad to hear it's short as I'm slogging through Demon Copperhead at the moment, so will have to hold off on starting my next book. I can't read several books at once; I get discombobulated.

Grand! Looking forward to starting The Bookshop. I may leave it close to the end of the month so it's clearer in my mind for our discussion.

I read The Bookshop towards the end of last year and didn’t love it so will leave you all to it this month and come back to see what next month’s book is!

Just went to Amazon to buy it on kindle, and apparently I already have it! I definitely haven't read it though, so that's great 😊

There was an interesting article in the Saturday Times about Barbara Comyns. I’d love to read one of hers.

@StellaOlivetti I've only read Our Spoons Came From Woolworths' which was excellent but infuriating/highly stressful. Much impotent shouting of LTB! Oh honey, NO! etc. (More sophisticated responses are available.) I'd love to read more of her books too.

Also happy to read either of@MotherofPearl 's Persephone suggestions; both new to me.

@ChessieFL I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on The Bookshop if you wouldn't mind sharing them on the book thread. My desire to revisit it was sparked by a friend with usually similar tastes, who'd recently tried and loathed it.

@StellaOlivetti @HenryTilneyBestBoy The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns is good too.

Can anyone help me identify this book from a memory I have of one single scene? Written and set between the wars. Most of it focuses on the adult life of the main character, but there is a section on her childhood growing up in a repressive house with stifling parents. There is a very sad moment when she is standing at the gate/ railings at the end of the path looking out onto the street and you just know she is most likely never escaping her narrow life. I would love to reread it, if I can find it! Could be a Persephone book. Have trawled through my kindle but can't identify it.

@ilovesushi
I think this is a Persephone book as you say! It’s a book of short stories by Dorothy Whipple ‘The Closed Door and Other Stories’. This scene is from the first story ‘The Closed Door’.

@mrssmiling Thank you! I love Dorothy Whipple.

I see we are nearly at the end of this thread. If anyone has a moment to make a new one, do go ahead. As the current maker of the threads on specific books, I am happy to make a new general Rather Dated, but won't get to this until tomorrow.

I've taken the liberty of starting a new main discussion thread. Do join me there:

📚The Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group - All welcome to join📚 http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/whatweree_reading/5029141-the-mumsnet-rather-dated-book-group-all-welcome-to-join

An entire module entitled " Women writers of WWII" was part of my Eng. Lit. degree. It would seem to fit in well here. For me however, the absolute standout was Rebecca West. Stunningly brilliant.

I ADORE Rebecca West @mrsmiawallace3 The Fountain Overflows is one of my favourite novels though I think I prefer her nonfiction overall

Well, what a treat - a novel by West that I hadn't even heard of?! We focussed mainly on her short fiction at TCD, but I'll be off forthwith to order the aforementioned. Thank you !

I read The Fountain Overflows in my early 20s and completely adored it!