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Miss Hargreaves! Finally! But also illustrations and a novel by Rachel Malik.

In the first half of this episode, we discuss whether or not we want illustrations in our books – taking a little venture to graphic novels on the way. In the second half – only four years after the podcast started – we finally read my favourite novel, Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker. We compare it to the similarly-named Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik, and discover that that’s about all it has in common.

Fun! Please get in touch if you have any topics – or any questions to ask or advice you’d like us to give! We’re at teaorbooks@gmail.com. And you can support the podcast at Patreon or find us on iTunes. We appreciate all your reviews and ratings so much.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
A Shooting Star by Wallace Stegner
Fair Stood the Wind For France by H.E. Bates
Dark Hester by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
The Old Countess by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Sylvia Plath
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Edith Olivier
Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen
Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words by Boel Westin
Enid Blyton
The Making Of by Brecht Evens
Panther by Brecht Evens
The Wrong Place by Brecht Evens
Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Little by Edward Carey
Alva and Irva by Edward Carey
Country Matters by Clare Leighton
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Agatha Christie
Curtain by Agatha Christie
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Before I Go Hence by Frank Baker
I Follow But Myself by Frank Baker (autobiography)
Mr Allenby Loses The Way by Frank Baker
The Shooting Party by Isobel Colegate
Beneath the Visiting Moon by Romilly Cavan
Wine of Honour by Barbara Beauchamp

Lots of perspectives or a single narrative, and two 19th-century childhood memoirs – here we go!

In the first half of this episode, we discuss multi-narrative novels and whether or not we prefer them to single narrative novels. In the second half, we turn to memoirs of 19th-century childhood – Molly Hughes’ novel A London Child of the 1870s vs Gwen Raverat’s Period Piece.

You can rate and review the podcast wherever you download your podcasts (and we love it when you do!) You can also visit our Patreon page and explore the various options there, and see our iTunes page. I never quite know what the link does, but when I missed it out people noticed!

Do get in touch with ideas for future topics – and the books and authors we mentioned in this episode are:

Lonely City by Olivia Laing
To The River by Olivia Laing
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
On the Other Side by Mathilde Wolff-Monckeburg
Walter Scott
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Speaking of Love by Angela Young
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
How To Be Both by Ali Smith
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Girl on the Train by Paul Hawkins
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
Barbara Comyns
Blue Remembered Hills by Rosemary Sutcliff
Vanessa Bell by Francis Spalding
A London Girl of the 1880s by Molly Hughes
A London Family Between the Wars by Molly Hughes
A London Home in the 1890s by Molly Hughes
The Runaway by Elizabeth Anna Hart
Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Simon visited Rachel – so naturally took a look around the shelves. Come for the tour!

In a change from scheduled programming, we do a slightly different episode. I was staying with Rachel in her beautiful flat while I was at a conference – and we thought it would be fun for me to take a tour of her shelves, discussing the books that caught our eye as we went around. We’ll be back to normal service next time – and hopefully I’ll be able to return the favour with my shelves at some point.

We don’t usually record quite this haphazardly, so fingers crossed the audio is OK. And, don’t forget, you can support the podcast at Patreon, see us at iTunes, and please do rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. And do get in touch if you have any ideas for future episodes – particularly for the first halves.

We’re gonna mention a LOT of books and authors in this podcast, so ready yourself for a super long list:

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Mrs Christopher by Elizabeth Myers
Littleton Powys
A Glastonbury Romance by John Cowper Powys
Wolf Solvent by John Cowper Powys
A Baker’s Dozen by Llewellyn Powys
Mr Weston’s Good Wine by T.F. Powys
The Letters of Elizabeth Myers
Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
Greengates by R.C. Sherriff
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Loved and Envied by Enid Bagnold
The Squire by Enid Bagnold
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Henrietta’s War by Joyce Dennys
Alva & Irva by Edward Carey
Little by Edward Carey
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
Crossriggs by Jane and Mary Findlater
The Green Road by Anne Enright
The Boat by L.P. Hartley
Seasoned Timber by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
A Perfect Woman by L.P. Hartley
News of the World by Paulette Giles
Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
Four Hedges by Claire Leighton
Rosamund Lehmann
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
The Green Leaves of Summer by Oriel Malet
Marjory Fleming by Oriel Malet
Letters from Menabilly by Daphne du Maurier
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Four Days’ Wonder by A.A. Milne
Nancy Mitford
The Happy Tree by Rosalind Murray
Marilynne Robinson
Dorothy L Sayers
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Elizabeth Taylor
A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark
Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray
The Country Child by Alice Uttley
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Lisette’s List by Susan Vreeland
Sarah Waters
Evelyn Waugh
The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
Stoner by John Williams
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Edith Wharton
Dorothy Whipple
All the Days and Nights by William Maxwell
A Gathering Light by Jennifer Donnelly
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Noel Streatfeild
Finn Family Moonmintroll by Tove Jansson
E.M. Delafield
Jane Austen
Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton
St Clare’s series by Enid Blyton
Miss Read
Little House on the Prarie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Provincial Lady Goes Further by E.M. Delafield
Mazo de la Roche
How Like an Angel by A.G. Macdonnell
England, Their England by A.G. Macdonnell
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Goodnight, Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian
Teaching Grammar Through Literature by Rachel Fenn (!!) and Anna McGlynn
Happily Ever After by Susannah Fullerton
The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
The Road to Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
Virginia Woolf by Alexandra Harris
Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light
Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne
The Path Through The Trees by Christopher Milne
The Other Day by Dorothy Whipple
Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
A Very Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Bluestockings by Jane Robinson
Knole and the Sackvilles by Vita Sackville-West
The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood
The Long Weekend by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge
The Houses of the National Trust
The Illustrated Dust Jacket 1920-1970 by Martin Salisbury
Station to Station 
Britain’s Lost Railways
A whole bunch of railway books that I couldn’t find the titles for. I just can’t.
Period Piece by Gwen Raverat
A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes

Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Rosemary Sutcliff, and the scope of the books we love. Happy February!

In the first half of this episode, we discuss small world vs wide world in novels – do we like small communities or novels where characters move around a lot? In the second half, we find out what the other thought of our recommendations. I thought Rachel would love Blue Remembered Hills by Rosemary Sutcliff; she thought I’d love Seasoned Timber by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Did we get it right?

You can support the podcast on Patreon, find us on iTunes, and rate/review us in your podcast app. We love it when people do – many thanks, sloutro, for your recent review! Do let us know any topic ideas you’d like us to discuss. And here is my LibraryThing catalogue, as mentioned!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Crimson and the White by Michel Faber
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
The Book of William by Paul Collins
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare by Bill Bryson
Contested Will by James Shapiro
Emma by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Shirley Jackson
Barbara Pym
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Charles Dickens
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Everything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Larchfield by Polly Clark
Bleaker House by Nell Stevens
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Four Days’ Wonder by A.A. Milne
The 39 Steps by John Buchan
The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
The Great Western Beach by Emma Smith
The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Cinderella Goes to the Morgue by Nancy Spain
Look Back With Love by Dodie Smith
Period Piece by Gwen Raverat
A London Child of the 1870s by Molly Hughes