📚The Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group - All welcome to join📚

[MotherofPearl]

Welcome to the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' Book Group, where we read and discuss 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.

Previous posters 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 read one book a month. Our first book, that inspired the original thread, was The Road to Lichfield by Penelope Lively. We have been going for about 18 months now, and each new book gets its own discussion thread, started on the first of the month.  

Our March 2024 book is Penelope Fitzgerald's The Bookshop. We will begin the discussion of this on 1 April.

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 hope Antarcticant, who started the last thread, won’t mind that I’ve started this new one.

[Partridgewell]

Thank you so much. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying being on this thread of like-minded women. Only read a couple of chapters of The Bookshop. Enjoying it so far.

[FuzzyCaoraDhubh]

Checking into the new thread. Thank you @MotherofPearl!

[FuzzyCaoraDhubh]

I would like to say how much I love this bookclub, but I might gush and be an embarrassment to myself.

[MotherofPearl]

I love it too. I've been introduced to so many interesting books and authors on this thread, and feel I've learnt so much from all the contributors.

I think my favourite books we've read so far are Margaret Kennedy's The Feast, R.C. Sheriff's The Fortnight in September, and more recently, Monica Dickens's The Fancy.

[Terpsichore]

Thanks for the new thread, @MotherofPearl 😊

[StellaOlivetti]

Hello, everyone. I too feel I might gush, so I won’t say how much I love our Rather Dated book club. I have discovered writers I’d not heard of, and read others I’d always wanted to read, and it’s wonderful. I’m on holiday in the Canaries at the moment, happily reading through the first Dorothy Whipple I brought with me. Discovering her has brought me so much joy.

[SmugglersHaunt]

ooh I love the sound of this!

[FuzzyCaoraDhubh]

Enjoy your holiday Stella. I'm going to look up what we have read so far to see what my favourites were, but one of them is the Dorothy Whipple we read, 'Someone at a Distance'.

[ChannelLightVessel]

Thank you @MotherofPearl - and to everyone else who has made threads/suggested books. I love this book group <gushes embarrassingly>

[ChessieFL]

Thank you for the new thread MotherofPearl. This is a great book club. I don’t always read every book suggested but I have found some wonderful ones - The Fortnight in September, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont have all been particular favourites.

[olderbutwiser]

Good morning everyone. Just catching up and have downloaded March.

Future suggestion - have we done any E M Delafield? Diary of a Provincial Lady? I’d love an excuse to read it again.

[Terpsichore]

We’ve very recently done a Delafield, @olderbutwiser - not Provincial Lady though; Messalina of the Suburbs.

[olderbutwiser]

Ah I missed that one - have some catching up to do, goody! Amazon here I come…

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Very glad to see this thread, as I fell off the old one. I’m currently working my way through the Cazalet Chronicles. Do they count as dated, I wonder?

[MotherofPearl]

@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud

Very glad to see this thread, as I fell off the old one. I’m currently working my way through the Cazalet Chronicles. Do they count as dated, I wonder?

I loved the Cazalet Chronicles. I think we have read an Elizabeth Jane Howard as one of our Rather Dated books.

[TheGander]

This thread made me discover Dorothy Whipple, so I’ll always be grateful. I’ll seek out The Bookshop.

[TheGander]

@ComeIntoTheGardenMaud

Very glad to see this thread, as I fell off the old one. I’m currently working my way through the Cazalet Chronicles. Do they count as dated, I wonder?

Hmm it’s like vintage clothes. I remember the shock I felt when someone referred to 1990s clothing as vintage. EJH must be on the cusp!

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

Yes, she’s quite late 20th century, although the Cazalet Chronicles somehow feel older (or, at least, they do to me).

[ChessieFL]

It depends which of her books you’re talking about! The Cazalet Chronicles were largely written in the 1990s (the last was written in 2013) but her first novel was published in 1950 (A Beautiful Visit, which is the one we read for this club).

[ComeIntoTheGardenMaud]

I am talking about the Chronicles. I’ve not read any of her earlier work.

[ChessieFL]

I was just saying it’s not really correct to call her a late 20th century writer when her career started mid 20th century.

[tobee]

For Anita Brookner fans I'm copying this from my post on the Horribly Let Down by Rebecca thread:-

I see BBC4 has shown Hotel du Lac, the film version of Anita Brookner's novel, starring Anna Massey. It's available on BBC iPlayer, listed under the Screen Two title, series 8.

[tobee]

@tobee

For Anita Brookner fans I'm copying this from my post on the Horribly Let Down by Rebecca thread:-

I see BBC4 has shown Hotel du Lac, the film version of Anita Brookner's novel, starring Anna Massey. It's available on BBC iPlayer, listed under the Screen Two title, series 8.

The other film in series 8 is Momento Mori from the Muriel Spark book Rather Dateders.

[RogueFemale]

When is the next month's book announced? I'm interested but don't have time to read the March book by 1st April.

[HenryTilneyBestBoy]

Thanks for the heads up @tobee even though I've yet to read Hotel du Lac despite owning two copies 😅

@RogueFemale Based on my experience (having only joined in Jan...) while discussion threads start at the beginning of the month, people contribute whenever. Also, The Bookshop is short (and not in a dense parse-every-sentence-three-times-to-disentangle-it way).

However, it does seem a good idea to start discussing the May book:
Elizabeth Cambridge, Hostages to Fortune?
Something by Barbara Comyns? (selfishly, would prefer not OSCFW)
Is it time for a Token Male Author? (if not Sheriff again, who?)
Other suggestions?