📚 'Rather Dated' April: Noel Streatfield’s ‘Saplings’ 📚

[MotherofPearl]

Welcome to the Mumsnet 'Rather Dated' book club. This month we are reading and discussing Noel Streatfield’s ‘Saplings’. Please do add your thoughts when you are ready.

About the threads:

We are reading and discussing fiction from the 1930s to the 1990s that would have been described as 'contemporary' in its day. We are reading one book a month. Spoilers are permitted!

We started the chat thanks to a thread where we kicked off with a discussion of Penelope Lively, The Road to Lichfield.

Currently we have these separate threads:

November: Anita Brookner, A Start in Life
December: Margaret Drabble: A Summer Bird-Cage
January: Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Beautiful Visit.
March: Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.
April: R.C. Sheriff, The Fortnight in September.
May: Elizabeth Taylor, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.
June: Margaret Kennedy, The Feast.
July: Mollie Panter-Downes, One Fine Day.
August: Elizabeth Von Arnim, The Enchanted April.
September: Barbara Pym, An Academic Question.
October: Dorothy Whipple, High Wages.
November: Elizabeth Bowen, The Last September.
December: Monica Dickens, The Fancy.
January: E.M. Delafield, The Messalina of the Suburbs.
February: F.M. Mayor, The Rector’s Daughter.
March: Penelope Fitzgerald, The Bookshop.* *

Link to the main thread:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/what_were_reading/5029141-the-mumsnet-rather-dated-book-group-all-welcome-to-join?page=2&reply=133984693

If anyone wants another recommendation for the TBR list, I could not put down London Belongs to Me ….

@Terpsichore I read 'Doreen' and thought it was wonderful. I got a very old copy from the library printed in 1946 with the original ticket at the back listing the loan dates from when the book was new. It seems to be the only available copy too. It was excellent. Very well written and very moving. I really enjoyed it.

Really glad you enjoyed it, @FuzzyCaoraDhubh! I must re-read at some point. I too thought she handled a difficult subject very well and movingly, and without going for any easy answers (satisfying as that would have been).

Yes. Definitely! You could really appreciate the situation from everyone's perspective. She is a masterful storyteller.

Thanks, I had no idea! I found one, which was a bit too preachy for my taste but still very interesting to see another side of NF.