Tea or Books?

 
Historical fiction and books-about-books are the themes for episode 22 of Tea or Books? – and we have a LOT to say on these topics. And we hope you do too! Let us know your thoughts for each category. And I hope you enjoy the little moment that I left in before the theme tune… sorry, Rachel, I couldn’t resist.

You can visit our iTunes page or download via your app of choice. WHY NOT even rate and review us, if you’re looking for a way to pass the time. And you can now even follow Rachel on Twitter, as she has joined us all on social media!

Here are the books and authors we talk about in today’s episode. (Btw, if the episodes are generally too loud or quiet, let me know and I’ll see what I can do with audio adjustments.)

The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett
London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins
Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Mrs Harter by E.M. Delafield
Virginia Woolf
Stella Gibbons
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Zadie Smith
The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp by Eva Rice
A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair
Regeneration by Pat Barker
Sarah Waters
When We Were Alive by C.J. Fisher
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Middle Window by Elizabeth Goudge
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
The Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff
Q’s Legacy by Helen Hanff
Arthur Quiller-Couch
Letters From New York by Helene Hanff
Marilynne Robinson
T.S. Eliot
Roald Dahl
Iris Murdoch
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
Counting My Chickens by Deborah Devonshire
Jane Austen
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill
Stet by Diana Athill
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
When I was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
The Shelf by Phyllis Rose
My Year of Reading Proust by Phyllis Rose
Browsings by Michael Dirda
The Love Child by Edith Olivier
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

 
Agatha Christie and curious titles come together in perhaps my favourite episode of the podcast yet. And also the first one where we’re both in our 30s, guys. And also one of our most bizarre. In the first half, we look at titles and discuss whether we prefer them fancy or simple – yes, those are the categories – and quickly realise what a tangle that is.

On safer ground, we turn to Dame Agatha Christie in the second half, pitting her two most famous detectives against each other. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple – who will come out on top? The answers, as they say, might surprise you.

Listen above, via iTunes (rate! review!), or your app of choice – and let us know which you’d pick from each pair!

Here are the books and authors we mention in this podcast – it’s a lot this week – and, if you’re a fan of films, do give Colin’s podcast The C-Z of Movies a try.

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
The Years by Virginia Woolf
The Lost Europeans by Emanuel Litvinoff
Eudora Welty
Christina Stead
Emma by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym
Dear Life by Alice Munro
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Pin to See the Peepshow by F Tennyson Jesse
Messalina of the Suburbs by E.M. Delafield
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
[could not find the particle physics novel title!]
The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley by Diana Petre
William by E.H. Young
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Acroyd by Agatha Christie
Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
Samson Agonistes by John Milton
Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
Andrew Marvell
Alexander Pope
A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie
Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
The Majestic Mystery by Denis Mackail
The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot by Anne Hart
The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple by Anne Hart
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

 
Letters! Diaries! Oscar Wilde! We’ve got it all – well, those three things – in episode 17 of Tea or Books?, which has taken a bit of time to arrive, for which I apologise. But we are as rambling and bookish as ever. Do let us know which you’d choose in each category, and any suggestions you have for great collections of letters of diaries.

Ooops for the moment where I said Virginia Woolf when I meant Jane Austen. Sorry Jane.

Next week we’ll be getting into all things Agatha, pitting Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot against each other. That one should be fun. Do, do, do let us know any suggestions you have for future episodes – we love getting them. Listen above, or visit our iTunes page (or use your podcast provider of choice). You can even rate us on iTunes if you so please.

Here are the books and authors we mentioned this week:

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
It’s Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty by Judith Viorst
The Small Miracle by Paul Gallico
Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
The Prose Factory by D.J. Taylor
The Years by Virginia Woolf
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
The Lost Europeans by Emanuel Litvinoff
What There Is To Say, We Have Said by William Maxwell and Eudora Welty
The Element of Lavishness by Sylvia Townsend Warner and William Maxwell
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters ed. Charlotte Mosley
The Letters of Elizabeth Myers ed. Littleton Powys
A Well Full of Leaves by Elizabeth Myers
More Was Lost by Eleanor Perenyi
The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Sylvia and David: the Townsend Warner/Garnett Letters
Bloomsbury’s Outsider by Sarah Knights
Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
The Letters of Virginia Woolf
The Letters of Jane Austen
A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf
Nella Last’s War by Nella Last
A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt ed. Simon Garfield
A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip ed. Alexander Masters
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare