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.

Jason Isaac narrates the Jackson Brodie books on Audible and does a brilliant job.

I love he Dandy Gilver books! They're a real comfort read for me.

This thread is BRILLIANT, thank you to all contributors!!

She's one of my favourite current authors. I'm also seconding (thirding?) Barbara Trapido, and I don't know if anyone's mentioned that Catriona McPherson, who writes the Dandy Gilver series, also has several excellent standalone mystery/detective novels.

@Dappy777 I think for a lot of people it will be their preference to watch things on TV because it is predigested and simplified. It is quite shocking how attached people are to their screens.

Although people seem happy to watch TV dramas I find most of them painfully drawn out. They seem to spread plot dialogue etc very thinly over several episodes. I am a very fast reader, actually I don't like audiobooks because they read much slower than I would! And that pleasure in picking up where you left off in a book and diving back in, you don't get that with the TV.

Sadly agree about the publishing world at the moment.

@Hephebe sorry cross posted thanks for your contributions. I didn't intend to disparage audiobooks though, I know a lot of people use them where bookreading is not possible eg my postie. I just gallop through things.

Nice to have some more feedback about Catriona McPherson, she is moving up my list!

You won't regret Dandy Gilver, OP! Although also worth me tipping that if speed of narration is the main thing putting you off Audiobooks, you can choose your own speed! Or at least you can on Audible. I love having one on in the background when I'm tidying or sorting, or in the car.

I've thought of another author you might enjoy - Laurie Graham. She wrote The Unfortunates and lots of other good stuff - generally between-the-wars comedies of manners, essentially. She has an excellent knack for very pithy and funny dialogue. Actually thinking about it, I've just realised that's who Nina Stibbe's writing reminded me of a bit, although I've only read one of hers.

Ooh thanks @Hephebe I'll be searching her out! I know what you mean about the author's voice. Some seem like an old friend even on first reading. A sort of spark of recognition that here is a compatible person.

Interesting about the extra speed on Audible. Years and years ago we had one of the early DVD player/recorders and it had a similar function for playback audio. I would definitely consider it if need be!

Some great PP suggestions! Outside of a British context, I also like Lee Goldberg novels (Eve Ronin, Sharpe & Walker), Harriet Steel’s Inspector de Silva mysteries, Abir Mukherjee’s Wyndham & Banerjee and
Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano.

All the Diary of a Provincial Lady books by E M Delafield are absolutely hilarious and in the same vein as Stella Gibbons, Angela Thirkell etc.

I adore Laurie Graham! Gone With the Windsors is particularly good but I've devoured everything she's written.
A friend of mine actually wrote to her begging her for more books! 😁

As you might expect from my reader name, I absolutely agree with a PP who recommended the Mapp and Lucia books. There is also a fabulous 1980s television adaptation of them (Nigel Hawthorne, Prunella Scales and Geraldine McKeown.) Avoid the more recent one.

William Boyd's masterpiece, 'Amy Human Heart' is just that...a masterpiece.
John Boyne's 'A Ladder to the Sky' and 'The Heart's Invisible Furies' are engrossing, full of emotion and beautifully written.

I recently read 'The Rapture' by Claire McGlasson- a wonderful book based on the real Panacea Society, formed of mostly women who followed a female prophet and believed that Bedford was the true Garden of Eden.

They're all dead now-the last member died fairly recently-but the Panacea Trust website is very interesting.

Claire McGlasson writes wonderfully, so I followed it up with her, 'The Misadventures of Miss Margaret Finch' centred around the true story of a padre who was eaten by a lion and the Social Observation scheme. It's set in Blackpool and I can commend it to you.

One thing I have learned is to avoid books with pictures of houses on the cover!

I wrote to her too and she replied saying she was finding it difficult to get published.

Appalling, when so much tripe is fanned our way.

Thank you dear one. One must concur with you about the 1980s adaptation. Obviously 😊

I find that absolutely shocking about Laurie Graham. Maybe if she called her next one 'The Cornish Midwife's Wartime Teashop' it would be snapped up 🙄

I think you've nailed it @Howyoualldoworkme -especially if it was owned by one of the Bennet sisters.

Anyway, must go-My Major Benjy is about to shout, 'Quai-hi! at Withers and the paper is once again is wuthering on Lucia's munificence. I don't think they work her hard enough.

I read DE Stevenson and Elizabeth Goudge for comfort. Also Georgette Heyer and Neville Shute.

I should also have mentioned Dorothy Whipple. She is published by Persephone and I think she is their best selling author. I like all her books but, 'They were Sisters' is my favourite.

Made a good film too

I didn't know that! I shall hunt it down. Thanks @Howyoualldoworkme

Cracking cast too!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Were_Sisters

Found it on YouTube! Should I watch it now? No, it's nearly 1 in the morning.
I shouldn't. Maybe just a few minutes.

Thank you so much @Howyoualldoworkme

Thanks for these suggestions. Loved the Montalbano novels.

They are fab, I have loads in my book hoard!

Because I'm really ancient I was able to find loads of prewar books for pennies in the 1970s. The pleasures of secondhand book shops, even barrows full wheeled outside every day. I know you can get secondhand books online etc but nothing beats a good browse. Moving to big cities after growing up in the sticks with only a WH Smiths was like dying and going to heaven, there were so many book/junk shops.

I bought a lot of early detective fiction too, some once popular authors, now out of print, like R Austin Freeman and HC Bailey.

Exactly, and as pp have remarked, it's the publishers who make more money out of rubbish. It's like only being able to buy chlorinated chicken and turkey twizzlers.
Those pastel covers with a house on! So true.

Great authors, I agree. I have a shelf of Georgette Heyer for a rainy day. Even got DH hooked! Although his go-to is Wodehouse.

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

I'm sure I heard this quote yesterday at the Persephone Day in Bath.

I had a great day surrounded by you people. Have come home inspired to step up my reading for next time.

Lydia Fellgett (who used to run the Persephone bookshop in London), Celia Brayfield (who wrote the preface to They Were Sisters and lectures at Bath Spa university) and Joanna Bobin (Lady Cowper in "Bridgerton") were on a panel discussion about some of their favourite Persephone books. This talk was really good, the panelists really knew their stuff as did the audience!
The talk about Family life was from younger novelists without the advantage of decades of reading.