Stella Gibbons "She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple."

[TeaAndStrumpets]

I think this quote pretty well describes my literary taste these days. However the books churned out for light reading are often so dire. Who buys them? Had to bin The Thursday Murder Club, and that awful one about a very naive female whose name I have mercifully forgotten (sorry, can't recall...think she was meant to have autistic traits but it was laid on with a trowel.)

I thoroughly enjoyed Of Mice and Murder. I love Jasper Fford. I read a lot of 1930s fiction over lockdown, Angela Thirkell and also Miss Silver for light relief. There is probably a lot of Golden Age detective stuff I could read, but I have worked my way through loads of it over the years. I would really like to see what modern fiction has to offer.

What do you read which is enjoyable and doesn't annoy you? No dead children, mutilated women, etc etc.

Hilary McKay writes very satisfying contemporary children's fiction. Her two recent historical novels are brilliant.

@GrumpySparkler so true. They were so beautifully written. I love Frances Hodgson Burnett and I often reread The Making of a Marchioness, a sweet little book.

I can read pretty much anything while eating an apple, but I eat a lot of apples. However, I like to read modern 'literary' fiction (Ali Smith, Hilary Mantel, etc.), but I think comfortable light reading doesn't tend to be as good any more. So I would actually go back to golden age detective fiction as being better quality than more recent 'cosy crime' stuff - I've just finished re-reading all my Dorothy L. Sayers (didn't write enough) so I'm working my way back through Ngaio Marsh, who luckily wrote loads. But for me the ultimate cosy-crime-ish comfort reads are Mary Stewart's romance-thriller novels written in the 50s and 60s.

Yes Barbara Pym looks up my street, good suggestion. I really don't know why I've never read them. I avoided Angela Thirkell for years and when I finally read them they were a real hoot.

I'm posting to remind myself to come back to this thread for the recommendations since I share your criteria OP!

@BarnacleBeasley yes Dorothy Sayers never fails me. I have several favourite authors on rotation but it would be nice to find a great new light fiction author. All those books churned out every year, I find it hard to believe it can all be unsatisfactory.

I suppose you know where you are with a murder mystery, but nobody seems to have Sayers' wit.

Have you tried Eva Ibbotson? (Sorry, I realise she is also not recent)

These are my feelings exactly - but what is it about modern light fiction that is so annoying? Something in the style, for me, but clearly people don't mind it ...

OP I hadn’t heard of Angela Thirkell so now I am going to seek out her books. Thank you for the recommendation!

She is wonderful! I also like Diana Wynn Jones. Such genius.

I posted on the Kindle Unlimited suggestions thread. I can heartily recommend Beth Brower The Uncollected Journals of Emma M Lion. The books are set in a not-quite-real Victorian London. Very hard to describe but quite magical.

The first chapter of the first book had me snorting with laughter. Enjoy!

May I recommend the Rumpole novels by John Mortimer? They are delightful.

I'm not sure, but I think it may be that 'light' fiction is not taken as seriously these days, or maybe that what would have counted as light fiction in the 1950s is taken more seriously? So that in the past, genuinely talented writers thought it worthwhile to write popular fiction and these days they might be considered more literary than they thought themselves at the time. Or, alternatively, women writers were not taken that seriously so they stuck to 'women's topics' like romance and domestic novels and did them really really well, whereas today there's not the same stigma so really good women writers can write 'difficult' books and get them published.

Also, I think more books get published in general these days, and if something does well, lots of imitations get churned out. Even if it's not to your taste, I think Bridget Jones's Diary is actually quite clever and well-written, but then publishers rushed to commission lots of things in that style by less competent writers. Same goes for Georgette Heyer - obviously now quite a long time ago, but there's still a fairly lively market in new Regency romances written in her style but much less well.

Not easy to get hold of all of them, but Elizabeth Taylor (not that one) might suit.
www.literaryladiesguide.com/book-description/elizabeth-taylors-novels-where-to-begin-which-to-reread/

Oh - if you like Diana Wynne Jones, try Jo Walton and Katherine Addison.

Have you read any PD James? I like her later Dalgleish novels, although some aspects can be irritating. I think my favourite is The Lighthouse.

@BarnacleBeasley Very true about the Georgette Heyer wannabe writers. I have tried quite a few on Kindle Unlimited and they are mostly unreadable. I feel embarrassed for the authors...I think some of them are actually copying previous writers who were copying previous writers etc etc. I do recommend Jane Dunn but she is a rare exception, she is a proper writer and as pp mentioned, it really shows.

If you enjoy Georgette Heyer Stella Riley has done an extensive series of novels based on the characters from These Old Shades, slightly changed but very recognisable. My goodness the melodrama! If you were eating an apple while reading, it would definitely go brown. I give her credit for a cracking read. I don't think it was meant as a satire, and there is no humour that I remember but I was entertained by it.

Thanks will seek them out.

Yes read them all at the time, they were excellent.

Interesting to realise that the majority of books suggested on here are older ones. Who is writing now that could be classed alongside PD James or indeed Dorothy L Sayers?

Finally thought of a more recent author I think fits the 'cosy but not irritating' bill: Nina Stibbe?

Thanks, have not read her.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far!

Another thing I have noticed (prompted by mention upthread of the Josephine Tey continuations) is the huge number of novels about every single character in Jane Austen's books. I wonder if people are more willing to read another version of a familiar character than try something different? Maybe that is a comfort read.

If you're on Facebook there's a group called Undervalued British Women Novelists 1930-1960.
Some great discussions and suggestions there.

I just listened to CCF on audible, loved it - very witty. Have you read “I capture the castle” By Dodie Smith ?

Thanks I don't use Facebook but that is a good suggestion for others on the thread.
They are wise to restrict it to 1930 to 1960 or the group would be enormous. I imagine there have been quite a lot of Undervalued British Women Novelists over the years!