📚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.

That’s the edition I've got too; a lovely cover. Can’t make a start yet as I’m away from home, frustratingly!

Here's the endpaper in the Persephone edition - a printed silk dress fabric designed by George Sheringham for Seftons, Belfast 1920. Found in the V&A.

I'm 60 pages in, fire lit, Cornwall still 100% humidity.
Enjoying the humour and the detail.

The Crowded Street is fine by me. I seem to recall reading South Riding ages ago. For a future month, has anyone read Georgina Hammick? I love love love her short stories, but haven’t read her novel ? The Arizona Game. I’m not sure she’d count as sufficiently rather dated though.

I would like to join - I have just finished The Crowded Street (Kindle copy).

I liked the local government parts of South Riding, but was less taken with the doomed personal relationships.

Hi Benvenuto! I finished The Crowded Street on Sunday. I thought it was a very good, engaging read.

I’m afraid it’s a DNF for me, although that may say more about me than it does about the book. I just couldn’t care about anybody.

Has anyone read Mrs Ames, by EF Benson?

I picked it up in an Oxfam bookshop last week, and it’s wonderful.

Oh why am I so slow? I’m always the last to finish our books. The only time I generally have to read is an hour or so in bed at night, so that probably explains it.

Fuzzy do you want to start the discussion thread? Or if you’re happy to wait I will do it but probably not until the weekend. I think my Kindle says I’m 75% of the way through The Crowded Street.

I’ve just read a little about this and it does indeed sound wonderful. We could read it as our next book if others agree? I can’t remember if we’d already something else up?

I haven’t finished it either, @MotherofPearl !

There's no rush! The earliest I could start a thread would be Friday.

OK, let’s hold fire then. Hopefully I will be finished by the end of the week.

Hurry up ! 😁 You've only had since 1924 to finish it.

Don't rush it, although that is, no spoiler, one of my observations, that it felt a bit quick towards the end. I would have quite happily had another 100 pages on the last chapter.

Even I’m not quite that old, @BookEngine ……

You’re not the slowest, @MotherofPearl . That accolade belongs to me. I picked up my copy from the library this afternoon (it only arrived yesterday). Just finished Accidents In The Home by TessaHadley. It was great writing, but I don’t think would qualify as rather dated. I’ll get on with Winifred tomorrow.

I finished it last night, so will create our discussion thread this evening and post the link. I'm afraid I got so caught up the story that I disregarded @BookEngine's advice and raced through the last part, staying up until well past midnight last night to get to the end. I think that tells you that I loved it!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5499993-rather-dated-book-group-winifred-holtbys-the-crowded-street?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

I’m loving it! Should be finished over the weekend. I’m surprised how much I’m enjoying it because I read South Riding long ago and didn’t really like it. Did anyone see the piece about Beryl Bainbridge in today’s Times? They bracketed her with Dorothy Whipple and EJ Howard and Barbara Pym. Perhaps we could. Try a beryl Bainbridge at some point?

I’m definitely up for that, @StellaOlivetti - although I must say I’m extremely surprised by those comparisons!

Here’s the article if anyone fancies reading it…

archive.ph/VLYVJ

We (mum and I) said exactly the same, @Terpsichore . Barbara Pym, maybe, just maybe, but couldn’t see the likeness to Dorothy W or EJH.

Loving this thread! I've been going through taking a note of books I want to read. Is there a list of books you've already read in this club?

Is a book planned for this month?

We need to decide on our next book.

No, we don't have a list, CrochetGrannySquare. Sorry about that!

@CrochetGrannySquare I've made a list! I think I've included everything. We've read a lot!

The Road to Lichfield - Penelope Lively
Black Narcissus - Rumer Godden
A Start in Life - Anita Brookner
A Summer Birdcage - Margaret Drabble
The Beautiful Visit - Elizabeth Jane Howard
Someone at a Distance - Dorothy Whipple
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day - Winifred Watson
The Fortnight in September - R C Sherriff
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont - Elizabeth Taylor
The Feast - Margaret Kennedy
One Fine Day - Mollie Panter-Downes
The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim
An Academic Question - Barbara Pym
High Wages - Dorothy Whipple
The Last September - Elizabeth Bowen
The Fancy - Monica Dickens
The Messalina of the Suburbs - E M Delafield
The Rector’s Daughter - F M Mayor
The Bookshop - Penelope Fitzgerald
Saplings - Noel Streatfeild
The L-Shaped Room - Lynne Reid Banks
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths - Barbara Comyns
A House in the Country - Jocelyn Playfair
The Country Girls - Edna O’Brien
The Inn at the Edge of the World - Alice Thomas Ellis
Jill - Philip Larkin
Lady Living Alone - Norah Lofts
The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden
Westwood - Stella Gibbons
The New House - Lettice Cooper
Dusty Answer - Rosamond Lehmann
The Lark - E Nesbit
The Crowded Street - Winifred Holtby

Bravo, @Terpsichore 👏👏
I think that's everything.
We've read thirty-three books!