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Penelope Lively, Helen Hull, boarding houses and isolation – welcome to episode 109!

In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I compare boarding houses novels and novels where people live alone – up to and including complete isolation. The blog post by Jacqui that I mentioned is on her blog.

In the second half, we pit two novels set during heatwaves against each other – Heat Wave by Penelope Lively and Heat Lightning by Helen Hull. It was hot when I read them, even though it definitely isn’t now.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with suggestions or questions. You can listen above, on Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. And you can support the podcast and get bonus content (and the podcast a couple of days early) through Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Hilary Mantel
Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
Barbara Pym
Paying Guests by E.F. Benson
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Of Love and Hunger by Julian McLaren-Ross
House of Dolls by Barbara Comyns
School for Love by Olivia Manning
The Boarding House by William Trevor
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Magnificent Spinster by May Sarton
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
Begin Again by Ursula Orange
Living Alone by Stella Benson
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay
Yellow by Janni Visman
Summer by Ali Smith
Late and Soon by E.M. Delafield
A Helping Hand by Celia Dale
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson

Books in books and Stella Gibbons – welcome to episode 107!

In the first half, we continue our ‘do we care…’ series with ‘do we care what characters read?’ By which we mean we’re looking at the books that characters read, and what that tells us about them. In the second half, we compare two novels by Stella Gibbons – The Bachelor and Enbury Heath.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with questions, comments etc. You can find us on Spotify (hopefully!), Apple Podcasts, by playing above, etc. etc. And you can support the podcast at Patreon – or by rating and reviewing where you listen, which is so much appreciated.

The books and authors we mention in this episode:

The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Provincial Lady series by E.M. Delafield
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
William Shakespeare
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Baedeker Guides
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
Michael Arlen
William Burroughs
Warwick Deeping
E.M. Dell
Gilbert Frankau
Pamela Frankau
John Galsworthy
Philip Gibbs
J.B. Priestley
Sapper
Hugh Walpole
F.R. and Q.D. Leavis
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radclyffe
Horace Walpole
Lover’s Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald
A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood
Agatha Christie
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Penelope Lively
Penelope Mortimer
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
Walt Whitman
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
Bassett by Stella Gibbons
Westwood by Stella Gibbons
Tea Is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex
Late and Soon by E.M. Delafield
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor

Penelope Lively, Margaret Laurence, thinking and feeling – welcome to episode 103!

Apologies for the unexpected delay in recording. Blame Rachel! But we are here and raring to go. In the first half, we follow a topic suggested by Mairad (topic ideas to teaorbooks@gmail.com, please!) – do we prefer books that make us think, or books that make us feel?

In the second half, two novels that ended up having more in common than we initially imagined – Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively and The Diviners by Margaret Laurence. And no, despite the lengthy break, ONE of us hadn’t finished reading the books.

You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast app of choice. Please rate and review! And you can support us on Patreon.

(This is my first episode on a new laptop, which might explain some of the weird clicking that Rachel’s side picked up? I don’t know. Sorry about it!)

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Which Way? by Theodora Benson
The Native Heath by Elizabeth Fair
Brampton Wick by Elizabeth Fair
A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair
Into the Woods by John Yorke
Emma by Jane Austen
Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple
Dorothy L Sayers
Agatha Christie
Milan Kundera
Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
According to Mark by Penelope Lively
The Heatwave by Penelope Lively
How It All Began by Penelope Lively
The Photograph by Penelope Lively
Oleander, Jacaranda by Penelope Lively
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton