📚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.

Side note about another rather dated book - Barbara Pym's Excellent Women. I'm a bit late to the party (!), but really enjoying it. Sharply observed and hilarious in bits. The scene in Mrs. Bone's drawing room had me laughing out loud.

I didn’t get on with Barbara Pym. On paper she’s everything I should enjoy but I just didn’t. Perhaps my expectations were too high.

Excellent Women was my gateway drug into Pym. A friend chose it for our book club and my heart sank, as I’d passed over her for years thinking it wasn’t for me. I absolutely devoured it and promptly read pretty much everything by her in the ensuing year.

I agree about Barbara Pym. I read her first as a twenty something and didn’t get it … rediscovered her in my forties and adore her. I think Excellent Women or possibly Crampton Hodnet are my favourites.

Another Pym fan here. I obsessively worked my way through all her novels a few years ago.

I know that Nicola Beauman, founder of Persephone Books, is decidedly not a Pym fan. I heard her mention this at a talk but now I can’t remember her objection. I think perhaps she said she found Pym a bit too moralising.

I really enjoyed the recent (ish) biography of Pym by Paula Byrne.

I first read the whole of Pym, plus her letters and diaries, when I was about 19, and living in a house - as a mother’s help - that had them all in the library. Then u got the Paula Byrne book and realised I’d forgotten too much, so was forced to read them all from start to finish again! Loved them just as much the second time around. Maybe more!

I finished Westwood last night. I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on it. I'm going on holidays next weekend so my posts may be a bit scrappy. * *

I’m about halfway through it Fuzzy. It’s very enjoyable so far.

Hello! I'm going to do a quick read through again before we start our discussion.

Thanks Fuzzy. I finished it last night so am ready to discuss when you are. Looking forward to hearing what everyone thought.

We can start chatting about it now if you like MotherofPearl! I'm only jogging my memory.

I’ve finished it too.

Looking forward to joining this group!

You're very welcome :)

@FuzzyCaoraDhubhshall I start a thread for Westwood? I can’t see one but maybe you have already done it?

Could you start a thread @MotherofPearl please? I'm away from home at the moment.

I'm trundling through a reread and am nearly finished.

I’m not the best with links but I’ve set up the thread and opened the chat:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5349455-rather-dated-june-stella-gibbons-westwood?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

Thank you MotherofPearl! I've seen your post and I will be along soon. I'll finish the reread tonight.

Pym's Quartet in Autumn is outstandingly good...

Any Antonia White fans on this thread? Sorry if she's been mentioned, I haven't rtft, but it is massive.

I’ve read Frost in May, @AInightingale but I’m afraid I couldn’t call myself a White superfan. I did however live for a while in the street where she was born, in the house very nearly opposite!

That's fab @Terpsichore. I was a teenager when I read them, one after the other. They were the old Virago classics in forest green and our library was full of them, I miss libraries like that!

Hello Rather Dated People! What shall we read next? 📚

I was wondering this, Fuzzy!

Fellow fellow RD fans. Yes, I’m keen for us to choose a new book too though am running low on inspiration. I’m off on holiday in a couple of weeks so would like to have some good reading lined up.

One of my favourite books we’ve read was The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, so what about another one of hers? The Constant Nymph?

Haven’t we read The Constant Nymph? (Possibly not as my brain is not what it was!) but I definitely read it within the last couple of years.