L Shaped room, a riveting read! Unwed and pregnant in a hovel!

[Sarahbee3]

I am reading this for my book club and loving it- sounded boring but she meets great unexpected people and has to deal with an old fashion dad who boots her out of the house (Mum's dead). Can't put it down!

Ooh. I know that I have read this book, but have no idea where my copy of it is....Might have to get another one...

MissM I'm very glad to find you on a recent thread as I wanted to thank you! I was browsing old threads recently looking for something to read and you'd mentioned 'The Writing on the Wall' - well I had totally forgotten about it but I LOVED it as a teenager. I managed to track it down on Amazon and am now half way through it - am loving it all over again. It's such a brilliant book and parts of it have stayed with me since I read it (about 25 years ago) not to mention how educational it was to me at the time for example, until I read the book I assumed, like Tracy, that you could take 'the pill' just as and when you needed it!!

Sorry for the slight hijak but I think anyone who enjoyed The L-shaped Room would like this too even though it's aimed at younger readers.

My next Amazon trawl will be for My Darling Villain - loved that too! Had totally forgotten about these books, even though I re-read The L-shaped Room about 5 years ago...so MissM - thank you!

Oh I have a lovely warm glow now! The Writing on the Wall was one of the most influential books in my teenage life! So so glad that someone else had/has discovered it too. I re-read it regularly and although the language is a bit dated I still think it's as brilliant as ever.

Bluejeans you are my new best friend!

Ah that's nice!

Off to bed to read another chapter (or 3)

I loved The L Shaped Room and several of LRB's other books too.

I read these as a teenager and had totally forgotten about them - thanks - will need to check them out again. Remember another teenie book by LRB - Summer of my ? ... about a middle class girl and biker boy (but decent lad despite what her parents thought) that she took up with). What's the modern equivalent of that??!!

Do you mean My Darling Villain?

Like various others, I read the L-Shaped Room donkey's years ago and remember loving it - a friend and I both chanced on it at the same time. We used to laugh over Jane's idea of making her flat a bit less grotty, though - 'gay scatter-cushions' became a bit of a catch-phrase!

There's a film of it, too - has anyone seen that? Unfortunately they changed things round by making the narrator French, which didn't really work - Leslie Caron played her. Tom Bell was Toby and Brock Peters was John. Can't remember much about it (again, it's been years since I saw it), but I seem to recall I didn't think the flat was quite as dismal as it seemed in the book. Actually, I really fancy seeing it again now....

Reminded me about this book, must seek it out again...

Fantastic book, read it thirty three years ago last week.

Welllllllllll it feels like last week.

ah i loved it !! read it millions of years ago.. thikn iwill get it out of the library and re read

Just finished re-reading 'My Darling Villain' - brilliant, brilliant book! Are any other LRB books good, apart from the L-shaped Room and its sequels, and The Writing on the Wall? A quick look on Amazon shows that her books are quite varied...

Has anyone read Children at the Gate? That is my favourite by LRB, have read several times.

Lucifera, what is Children At the Gete about? Can't find any reviews online. Thanks

I have read it. I only have a vague recollection I am afraid but its set in Isreal on a Kibbutz isnt it?

I have it in the loft somewhere. I really should read it again.

Children at the Gate - the narrator is a Canadian woman who has moved to Israel following a personal tragedy (don't want to spoil story). She's very depressed, on her own, in a mess; she's befriended by an Arab man who persuades her to informally adopt two children. It's so well-written, a real page-turner and heart-rending!

Blimey now it comes back to me! What a crap memory I have.

One to add the the list.

going off to spend a book token on the children at at the gate, thanks! I adored the L-shaped room trilogy as a teenager too. Was half in love with Toby myself!

Elliemental, please let me know what you think of Children at the Gate. Is it still in print??

Thanks for the info on 'children at the gate', sounds like my kind of thing!

The other two LRB books I've bought recently I got second hand for 1p (+£2.75 p&p!) from Amazon market place as I think they're out of print, will do same for this one

My Mum gave me this to read when I was 16 and it really opened my eyes (I had quite a sheltered childhood in a small Scottish village). It made me think differently about my future and how it may not all fall into place as you hope. Utterly brilliant.

Effjay, 'My Darling Villain' was bought for me by my mum too, when I read it first time round! (about 25 yrs ago).

Effjay my mum also gave this to me to read when I was about 16/17, and I have re read it in the last year and it is still so relevant.

I did notice the casual racism a lot more when I read it this year.