Books you thought no one else has read

[tweetysylvester]

It's so fun to find rare books to read, or just look up or hear about less known books, so thought I'd start a thread about this. Nostalgic novels, YA books, current titles you discovered very randomly...

It’s not her financial dependence, it’s that her anonymous benefactor abuses his position by courting a very young and incredibly vulnerable orphan without telling her who he is, while, casting him as her family (never having met him or getting a reply) she writes naive letters describing how much she likes the man she knows as her aristocratic roommate’s uncle — up to the point where said uncle proposes to her!

It’s impossible to read this as anything other than an unpleasant abuse of power. Even if we leave aside the things he does to make it impossible for her to meet other suitors (he forbids Judy to accept her friend’s invitation to spend the summer with them because her eligible Princeton brother likes her, and has his secretary tell her she has to go to her usual farm, where he can visit her for weeks at a time because it’s owned by his old nurse), you’d still have to ask yourself why a rich, 40something bachelor chooses a penniless, naive teenage orphan who has no one in the world but him as a wife.

I mean, the novel doesn’t tell us this. It’s like reading Jane Eyre past the age of fifteen, and thinking similarly about a rich employer proposing to his penniless, orphan employee because she has no one in the world to discover his existing marriage, or come after him with the law once Jane has been ‘ruined” on her honeymoon.

@Springtimefordaffs
i love the Irish R.M. stories.
As you probably know, Edith Somerville (Somerville) and her cousin Violet Martin (Ross) co-authored their books and after Violet Martin died in 1915, Edith Somerville continued to write the books under both authors names as she claimed to get through to Violet on the Other Side.
In my opinion, the quality of the books decline after Violet died, though The Big House at Inver is very enjoyable.
The Real Charlotte is my favourite of their books - it’s brilliant.

The Irish RM stories of Somerville & Ross. People watched the TV series with Peter Bowles but no one I know read them.

And him from under the patio in Brookside.... I can't remember if I read the book before or after seeing the tv series, but I think the book was much funnier.

My mother was very fond of the Somerville and Ross books. I have never got round to reading them yet, but it's only a couple of months since I first read RF Delderfield, whose work I'm aware for similar maternal reasons.

@Seeline and @Fernticket - I still have all of the Sue Barton books - I might ask dh to retrieve them from the top shelf of the book case so I can reread them!

Oo this thread is the gift that keeps on giving!
Hostages to Fortune- I was thinking of another one that I think was called Hostage (singular) to Fortune? Was it Joan Lingard?? It was one of a trilogy about Sadie and Kevin who were a teenage couple in Northern Ireland. I think Kevin was Catholic and Sadie Protestant? They eloped to England and it followed their story.

Also, the trilogy about Maggie who was a teenager in Glasgow and her boyfriend James who was quite posh - they met in a Scottish glen somewhere? It was on tv in the 80s. Was that Joan Lingard too?

That was Joan Lingard - Kevin & Sadie quarter and the Maggie ones (a trilogy?). Also loved The Gooseberry by her & lots of others!

Has anyone come across Penny Plain by O Douglas? It was published in the 1920s, and I only read it because a scruffy old hardback copy was on my Auntie’s bookshelf when I was young.
The heroine is Jean Jardine, a very sensible lass living in a lowlands Border town with her younger siblings. Glamour and romance enter her life when a Lady comes to stay in the town and brings her friends and connections. It’s very sweet about small town characters and romantic without being saccharine. She’s sort of a Mrs Miniver predecessor..
I’ve just seen from Wiki that it’s a trilogy..

Yes I read O. Douglas a long time ago. Similar to D.E. Stevenson. I did find all the Scottish dialect rendered phonetically a bit wearing after a while. Not the dialect itself, but the way it was written.

Did you know O Douglas was John Buchan's sister?

@marthasmumI loved those! Across the Barricades and Into Exile - Kevin and Sadie.

For some reason that reminded me of Brat Farrar. Also Fair Stood the Wind for France - both unrelated but I read them around the same age.

Brat Farrar was thr Classic Serial on R4 a couple of weeks ago.

@MissRoseDurward not until much later. I haven’t read any John Buchan, but DH has. I wonder why she felt the need to change her name?

Oh I loved this book and have never revisited as an adult because I’m scared it won’t be as good. It’s the first book I remember crying when I finished because I was just so sad there wasn’t anymore to read. I instantly started it again. You’ve made me tempted to read it.

we had this on audio book together with the follow up The Witches Revenge. It remains one of the things my brother and I still quote and the witch terrified both of us! We’re now 47 and 44.

I wonder why she felt the need to change her name?

To avoid comparison with her brother, I suppose, and any suggestion that she was trading on his name.

Did anyone read The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren as a child? I'm sure some have. An absolutely devastating, heartbreaking book in places.

The Brothers Lionheart, The Silver Chair and Charlotte Sometimes really affected me at the time. Quite emotionally gruelling.

Talking of CS has anyone read A Castle of Bone or William and Mary also by Penelope Farmer? Another one where I'd go to the library as a child and ask at the desk "have you got any Penelope Farmer?" And they'd go "Penelope Lively we have! But not Penelope Farmer."

Yes, I was similarly devastated by the Brothers Lionheart

Yes I have read both Castle of Bone and William and Mary. Particularly fond of W and M. Also The Summer of the Birds which is a sort of prequel to Charlotte Sometimes.

Actually it’s The Summer Birds. Penelope Farmer is still alive I’m happy to say.

I have read the Brothers Lionheart, but only as an adult- recommended by a Swedish colleague.

The Summer Birds and Emma in Winter are same series as Charlotte Sometimes.

Madeline Brent - read all her* books as a teenager but no one else seems to have heard of her.

(*author was a man with a pseudonym).

I can recommend The Listeners and An Angel In The Corner especially. There was one about a young man who has plastic surgery on his face which was very compelling, can't for the life of me remember the title!

Children/young adult:

Lizzie Oliver and Lizzie's Luck both by Catherine Robinson about a teenage violinist from Cornwall. I loved classical music and Cornwall, and read these books again and again.

Thursdays Children by Rumer Godden (about a family where the daughter is into ballet and mum is pushy dance mother type but the unwanted (by pushy mum) son turns out to be way better at ballet than the daughter

Ladlass by Bette Paul (didn't know much about type 1 diabetes before reading this)

Cora Ravenwing and The Whisper both by Gina Wilson about girlhood friendships.

I was very into The Kingscote school books by Antonia Forest featuring the Marlowe sisters especially the twins Nicola and Lawrie. Apparently there are other books about the Marlowes not set at Kingscote, they cost a lot to buy on ebay, but I must read them one day!

Elfrida Vipont, The Lark in the Morn. Meant a lot to me.

Falling into Glory and The Kingdom By The Sea both by Robert Westall and set in beautiful 1940s Northumberland. The first one is semi autobiographical . They both have a lovely sense of place as well as gripping stories.

I remember The Pennington books about a young aspiring piano prodigy and his girlfriend Ruth. I seem To recall there are four of them, the third one they have a baby together, and the fourth one is when they are a bit older. For the life of me the authors name escapes me.

Madeline Brent - read all her books as a teenager but no one else seems to have heard of her.*
(author was a man with a pseudonym).*

I remember Madeline Brent. Quite good romantic suspense with likeable characters. I owned several of them and reread them frequently. Heroine has often lived somewhere very remote or otherwise has an unusual background.

I can't remember the man's name, but he was the author of Modesty Blaise.

Mary Jane Staples was another bloke with a female pseudonym. I did spot him because 'her' writing style was so similar to other books he had published under a male name.