First of all, I'm pleased to tell you that I found a copy of 'The Enchanted April' in my local secondhand bookshop (I probably would have passed it over if not for your post). Secondly, I've had 'The Tortoise and the Hare' sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read for months. And I'm definitely keen to read Sayers. Somehow I never have. All very good stuff, Ann. Look forward to following along (as best I can - I am, as always, bookishly over-committed!).
Serendipity, Tash! Very pleased. I do understand about being overloaded reading-wise, and that's partly why I want to keep it low commitment... but glad you have both of those books to hand. I have only discovered Elizabeth Jenkins pretty recently, and The Tortoise and the Hare is definitely worth waiting for.
Olivia Manning's Fortunes of War trilogy, hands-down. I also own, but haven't yet read, Helen MacInnes's Above Suspicion--I saw the 1943 film a long time ago but this post may have inspired to bump it up on the TBR pile.
‘Lolly Willowes’ is wonderful - I raced through it and loved it years ago so I think I must read it again … I’m also a huge Barbara Pym fan.. but someone who doesn’t get so much of a mention is Barbara Comyns, who is on my re-reading list this year. I read all of them about 25 years ago - they are strange and surreal and her writing is so surprising. For a 1950s focus she would be perfect.
Thanks for this Sarah! I hear very good things about Comyns so I think she would definitely have to feature in a postwar fiction special along with Pym.
I very much enjoyed *The Enchanted April* but I really, truly, greatly loved von Arnim's semi-autobiographical book, *Elizabeth and her German Garden* (though that may be 19th C? not sure). She also wrote a novel I've just started called *The Pastor's Wife*. Perhaps I ought to follow that with *The Rector's Daughter* :) The RC Sherriff book sounds intriguing too. Other amazing 20C authors I've discovered far later than I ought include Barbara Trapido and Penelope Fitzgerald. And I inevitably re-read at least one Barbara Pym every year.
Brilliant suggestions Leslie, I am saving those and will add Trapido and Fitzgerald to my growing wishlist! Will be diving back briefly into von Arnim this week, not enough to do justice to her long writing career of course – and it would be good to do a series on clergymen's wives/daughters...
The Lonely Life of Judith Hearne left me utterly shredded ... god, the interiority, the loneliness he depicted. I bawled and bawled through it. I read it years ago but the feeling has stayed with me.
I remember that sadness, Stephanie, and hesitated to suggest it to readers for just that reason! But reading it again, knowing more about Brian Moore's background, I could appreciate it more in a way. So I was glad to have the chance to write about it.
It's worth adding that it's also funny, Leslie! Probably the first novel I read as an impressionable teenager that had an unreliable narrator. Now I would question more Moore's assumptions about the awfulness of a spinster's life, and I think Lolly Willowes will be a good corrective!
I adored Gaudy Night--it's definitely time for a revisit. My mother foisted it on me one summer when I was 17 before I went to school in England and I was thrilled. Other reads I'm turning to as a balm in these terrible times... Barbara Pym's Excellent Women, almost anything from Persephone Books in Bath, and then lost American classic--Laurie Colwin--Happy All the Time and Another Marvelous Thing are among her best. All are stories in which to cocoon from the world.
Delighted and impressed you enjoyed Gaudy Night aged 17, Alisa! Your mother had good taste. I did wonder if it might be a little too long as a novel, but I loved reading about it, and Sayers, in Francesca Wade's Square Haunting. I agree with you about Excellent Women and Persephone books, what a gorgeous bookshop it is. And I really want to read more Laurie Colwin this year. She's just so good.
She is--her understanding of grief and simple joy is so nuanced. I don't think Gaudy Night is too long! All feisty mums should foist chunky novels on their restless daughters. :) Francesca Wade's Square Haunting looks wonderful!
Yes, I think I had more willingness as a teenager to embark on longer fiction... I did enjoy how Francesca Wade organized her book, connecting the different women's creative lives across time.
Such a great selection! I love the RC Sheriff and, of course, Lolly Willowes. But must mention "The Woods in Winter", by Stella Gibbons too. How about Rosamund Lehmann , "The Weather in the Streets" and "Invitation to the Waltz" or Dorothy Edwards "Winter Sonata"?
Very glad to have that Stella Gibbons suggestion, and I feel I must have one of Lehmann's. I don't know Dorothy Edwards's work, look forward to finding out more.
Gaudy Night is one of my favorite books ever. So much fun that you’re picking it up!
For recommendations — a book from that period that I’ve come across relatively recently and loved (though perhaps I have mentioned it before?) is “Miss Mole,” by E.H. Young, also from Virago: https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/e-h-young-5/miss-mole/9780349014135/. It’s clear-eyed without being dark, and I was so happy to have read it.
I’ve read four of the six but am eager to read another Elizabeth Taylor novel. I just read Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. Devastating and not a whiff of sentimentality. How about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark?
Definitely getting encouraging interest in Muriel Spark, whose novels I love, and I agree with you about Mrs Palfrey, Susan! What did you think about Joan Plowright in the film?
You’ve sold me on this list! I am in for some rereads and some new reads a thank you. And I concur with many suggestions: Spark, Trapido, Manning, Pym, etc.For consideration another time: I’m rereading Carol Shields and some Anne Tyler this year and I am a forever Highsmith fan.
Wow, I think you must win the prize for most-well read subscriber, Claire (or perhaps that our book choices coincide so well!). Will definitely be adding Spark when we get to the postwar section.
Three of my special favourites are in the current list: The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins, Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers and perhaps best of all and unforgettably, The Fortnight in September by R C Sheriff). I would love to re-read them with others. The other three listed I haven’t read yet. Muriel Spark, mentioned by Ollie, is a delight and rich with possibility. I wonder if others would be interested in Elizabeth Bowen? Perhaps The Death of the Heart….
Thanks for being so positive Hilary, and impressed you have read 3 of my suggestions. Also glad there's another vote for Muriel Spark! I love her dark humour. Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart is terrific, I agree, and the early part made me weep.
I would love to see Mary Webb’s novels gain a wider audience again. They would sit well alongside Lolly Willowes although they’re from a slightly earlier period
Thank you Jaimie, I'm interested that Precious Bane was published in 1924, the same year as F.M. Mayor's The Rector's Daughter, and Mary Webb was also considered to be an underestimated genius. I'll look for that BBC adaptation, and the Virago Classics edition (usually good introductions).
(Rebecca Beattie’s (Substack - Musings of a Nature Mystic) PhD dissertation was about Mary Webb and her book ‘Nature Mystics’ includes essays about Mary Webb, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Elizabeth Von Arnim).
I’ve ordered The Rector’s Daughter today and I’m really looking forward to reading through your book club list!
That's brilliant, Jaimie and thanks so much for your encouragement. Great to have that recommendation of Rebecca's Substack, which I hadn't heard about, and her work sounds very much up my street. I do hope you enjoy The Rector's Daughter!
Gone to Earth definitely but Precious Bane too. The BBC did a wonderful adaptation of it starring Janet McTeer in 1989 that was recently available to watch again.
You may want to hear the podcast by Medicine Unboxed where two books are discussed, both of which feature female doctors.
”Bodies of light” by Sarah Moss
“Dirty work” by Gabriel Weston
Sarah talks about how few women in the UK were allowed to study medicine, and how even though they excelled in their exams, were not allowed to graduate from medical school.
I recently attended the Norwich City of Literature weekend 2 weeks ago and heard Sarah Moss being interviewed on her new book Ripeness. I loved the depth and breadth if her thinking and look forward to reading her books.
Gabriel is a female surgeon and also provides background of what it was like during her training.
Thanks for those excellent suggestions. Both books sound wonderful and it's an area I'm very interested in (researching the medical Bonnerjee sisters currently).
First of all, I'm pleased to tell you that I found a copy of 'The Enchanted April' in my local secondhand bookshop (I probably would have passed it over if not for your post). Secondly, I've had 'The Tortoise and the Hare' sitting on my bedside table waiting to be read for months. And I'm definitely keen to read Sayers. Somehow I never have. All very good stuff, Ann. Look forward to following along (as best I can - I am, as always, bookishly over-committed!).
Serendipity, Tash! Very pleased. I do understand about being overloaded reading-wise, and that's partly why I want to keep it low commitment... but glad you have both of those books to hand. I have only discovered Elizabeth Jenkins pretty recently, and The Tortoise and the Hare is definitely worth waiting for.
I envy you getting to read Dorothy Sayers for the first time. What a treat! I reread her quite often.
Barbara Comyns - Sisters by a River. Or any Comyns really.
Elizabeth Jenkins -Harriet.
Any Barbara Pym.
Josephine Tey - The Franchise Affair.
Muriel Spark - The Girls of Slender Means.
EM Delafield - The Diary of a Provincial Lady. Thank Heaven Fasting.
Vita Sackville West- All Passion Spent.
Celia Fremlin - Uncle Paul.
Oh, so many, so many! I’ve read or reread all of these recently and heartily recommend every one.
Lolly is in my TBR pile, as is The Enchanted April.
Thanks June, for those wonderful suggestions. I am adding them to my own TBR list now – and glad you approve of Lolly Willowes!
Uncle Paul is on my list to read during the summer!
I hope you love it!
Olivia Manning's Fortunes of War trilogy, hands-down. I also own, but haven't yet read, Helen MacInnes's Above Suspicion--I saw the 1943 film a long time ago but this post may have inspired to bump it up on the TBR pile.
Excellent, Amelia! I have always wanted to explore Manning's work, and am keen to hear more about Helen MacInnes.
‘Lolly Willowes’ is wonderful - I raced through it and loved it years ago so I think I must read it again … I’m also a huge Barbara Pym fan.. but someone who doesn’t get so much of a mention is Barbara Comyns, who is on my re-reading list this year. I read all of them about 25 years ago - they are strange and surreal and her writing is so surprising. For a 1950s focus she would be perfect.
Thanks for this Sarah! I hear very good things about Comyns so I think she would definitely have to feature in a postwar fiction special along with Pym.
I very much enjoyed *The Enchanted April* but I really, truly, greatly loved von Arnim's semi-autobiographical book, *Elizabeth and her German Garden* (though that may be 19th C? not sure). She also wrote a novel I've just started called *The Pastor's Wife*. Perhaps I ought to follow that with *The Rector's Daughter* :) The RC Sherriff book sounds intriguing too. Other amazing 20C authors I've discovered far later than I ought include Barbara Trapido and Penelope Fitzgerald. And I inevitably re-read at least one Barbara Pym every year.
Brilliant suggestions Leslie, I am saving those and will add Trapido and Fitzgerald to my growing wishlist! Will be diving back briefly into von Arnim this week, not enough to do justice to her long writing career of course – and it would be good to do a series on clergymen's wives/daughters...
I love the idea of a series on clergymen's women!
The Lonely Life of Judith Hearne left me utterly shredded ... god, the interiority, the loneliness he depicted. I bawled and bawled through it. I read it years ago but the feeling has stayed with me.
I remember that sadness, Stephanie, and hesitated to suggest it to readers for just that reason! But reading it again, knowing more about Brian Moore's background, I could appreciate it more in a way. So I was glad to have the chance to write about it.
Oh dear. Thank you both for the trigger warning!
It's worth adding that it's also funny, Leslie! Probably the first novel I read as an impressionable teenager that had an unreliable narrator. Now I would question more Moore's assumptions about the awfulness of a spinster's life, and I think Lolly Willowes will be a good corrective!
I adored Gaudy Night--it's definitely time for a revisit. My mother foisted it on me one summer when I was 17 before I went to school in England and I was thrilled. Other reads I'm turning to as a balm in these terrible times... Barbara Pym's Excellent Women, almost anything from Persephone Books in Bath, and then lost American classic--Laurie Colwin--Happy All the Time and Another Marvelous Thing are among her best. All are stories in which to cocoon from the world.
Delighted and impressed you enjoyed Gaudy Night aged 17, Alisa! Your mother had good taste. I did wonder if it might be a little too long as a novel, but I loved reading about it, and Sayers, in Francesca Wade's Square Haunting. I agree with you about Excellent Women and Persephone books, what a gorgeous bookshop it is. And I really want to read more Laurie Colwin this year. She's just so good.
She is--her understanding of grief and simple joy is so nuanced. I don't think Gaudy Night is too long! All feisty mums should foist chunky novels on their restless daughters. :) Francesca Wade's Square Haunting looks wonderful!
Yes, I think I had more willingness as a teenager to embark on longer fiction... I did enjoy how Francesca Wade organized her book, connecting the different women's creative lives across time.
Amen to balms and cocoons...
I read Family Happiness by Laurie Colwin during lockdown and loved it. I've just placed a hold on Happy All the Time. Thanks for the reminder!
Such a great selection! I love the RC Sheriff and, of course, Lolly Willowes. But must mention "The Woods in Winter", by Stella Gibbons too. How about Rosamund Lehmann , "The Weather in the Streets" and "Invitation to the Waltz" or Dorothy Edwards "Winter Sonata"?
PS Thank you Deborah, for such a nice comment!
Very glad to have that Stella Gibbons suggestion, and I feel I must have one of Lehmann's. I don't know Dorothy Edwards's work, look forward to finding out more.
Dorothy Edwards had day on my shelf for years and finally read it last Christmas. It is a beautiful book.
Gaudy Night is one of my favorite books ever. So much fun that you’re picking it up!
For recommendations — a book from that period that I’ve come across relatively recently and loved (though perhaps I have mentioned it before?) is “Miss Mole,” by E.H. Young, also from Virago: https://www.virago.co.uk/titles/e-h-young-5/miss-mole/9780349014135/. It’s clear-eyed without being dark, and I was so happy to have read it.
Hurray, so pleased you also love Gaudy Night, Maria. I look forward to getting to know Miss Mole, another classic I have somehow missed!
I’ve read four of the six but am eager to read another Elizabeth Taylor novel. I just read Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont. Devastating and not a whiff of sentimentality. How about The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark?
Definitely getting encouraging interest in Muriel Spark, whose novels I love, and I agree with you about Mrs Palfrey, Susan! What did you think about Joan Plowright in the film?
You’ve sold me on this list! I am in for some rereads and some new reads a thank you. And I concur with many suggestions: Spark, Trapido, Manning, Pym, etc.For consideration another time: I’m rereading Carol Shields and some Anne Tyler this year and I am a forever Highsmith fan.
Belated thanks, Beverley! Glad you enjoy re-reading old favourites too.
What a great list. I've read 5 of them but more than happy to have an excuse to re-read.
I would suggest to add to the list Muriel Spark's The Girls of Slender Means. Set in 1945 so just post war. I think it's one of her best.
Wow, I think you must win the prize for most-well read subscriber, Claire (or perhaps that our book choices coincide so well!). Will definitely be adding Spark when we get to the postwar section.
Three of my special favourites are in the current list: The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins, Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers and perhaps best of all and unforgettably, The Fortnight in September by R C Sheriff). I would love to re-read them with others. The other three listed I haven’t read yet. Muriel Spark, mentioned by Ollie, is a delight and rich with possibility. I wonder if others would be interested in Elizabeth Bowen? Perhaps The Death of the Heart….
Thanks for being so positive Hilary, and impressed you have read 3 of my suggestions. Also glad there's another vote for Muriel Spark! I love her dark humour. Elizabeth Bowen's The Death of the Heart is terrific, I agree, and the early part made me weep.
I would love to see Mary Webb’s novels gain a wider audience again. They would sit well alongside Lolly Willowes although they’re from a slightly earlier period
Thank you Jaimie, I'm interested that Precious Bane was published in 1924, the same year as F.M. Mayor's The Rector's Daughter, and Mary Webb was also considered to be an underestimated genius. I'll look for that BBC adaptation, and the Virago Classics edition (usually good introductions).
I just checked and it’s available on YouTube now Ann. I think there are 6 episodes and this should take you to episode 1…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fGcnuFASH4
(Rebecca Beattie’s (Substack - Musings of a Nature Mystic) PhD dissertation was about Mary Webb and her book ‘Nature Mystics’ includes essays about Mary Webb, Sylvia Townsend Warner and Elizabeth Von Arnim).
I’ve ordered The Rector’s Daughter today and I’m really looking forward to reading through your book club list!
That's brilliant, Jaimie and thanks so much for your encouragement. Great to have that recommendation of Rebecca's Substack, which I hadn't heard about, and her work sounds very much up my street. I do hope you enjoy The Rector's Daughter!
Gone to Earth?
Gone to Earth definitely but Precious Bane too. The BBC did a wonderful adaptation of it starring Janet McTeer in 1989 that was recently available to watch again.
I love Gaudy Night and the RC Sherriff novels. What about a Dorothy Whipple...They Were Sisters? Or Allingham's Tiger in the Smoke?
Great suggestions Sarah, thank you! Will look into those.
You may want to hear the podcast by Medicine Unboxed where two books are discussed, both of which feature female doctors.
”Bodies of light” by Sarah Moss
“Dirty work” by Gabriel Weston
Sarah talks about how few women in the UK were allowed to study medicine, and how even though they excelled in their exams, were not allowed to graduate from medical school.
I recently attended the Norwich City of Literature weekend 2 weeks ago and heard Sarah Moss being interviewed on her new book Ripeness. I loved the depth and breadth if her thinking and look forward to reading her books.
Gabriel is a female surgeon and also provides background of what it was like during her training.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7cdhnIo1xBbgv39OqcSOia?si=JSkgTM0sRoS_pPaq3r-olg
Thanks for those excellent suggestions. Both books sound wonderful and it's an area I'm very interested in (researching the medical Bonnerjee sisters currently).