Houses, Miss Read, Beverley Nichols!
In the first half of today’s episode, we look at whether we prefer novels that stay in one house or those that go all over the place. In the second half, we explore two novels that contrast the countryside and the town: Beverley Nichol’s fictionalised-autobiography A Thatched Roof and Miss Read’s Fresh From the Country.
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Books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
Fidelity by Susan Glaspell
Brooke Evans by Susan Glaspell
The Glory of the Conquered by Susan Glaspell
Our Man in Havana by Grahame Greene
The City and the City by China Miéville
My Discovery of England by Stephen Leacock
The Provincial Lady in America by E.M. Delafield
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Rosamunde Pilcher
Daphne du Maurier
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson
Life Among the Savages by Shirley Jackson
Yellow by Janni Visman
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson
The New House by Lettice Cooper
Greengates by R.C. Sherriff
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart
Sarah Waters
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Ivy Compton-Burnett
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
A Regiment of Women by Clemence Dane
Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols
A Village in a Valley by Beverley Nichols
Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols
Sunlight on the Lawn by Beverley Nichols
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
Powers That Be by E.F. Benson
George Orwell
Thrush Green series by Miss Read
When I Was A Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
Simon and Rachel, thank you for the discussion! I recently was introduced to Miss Read but to The Village School series, and I would agree; she has a wonderful way of evoking the life of a small community. And the main character in that book is not nice to everyone all the time!
One book that focuses especially on one house is Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. It’s set in rural Kentucky and explores how a woman’s family eventually moves away from home and looses who they are. The house is really a central feature in the book. It’s truly lovely.
Really interesting episode! Surprised to find you reading China Mieville Simon – oddly I have this one lurking too!
I suspect we’ll all be a tad agoraphobic at the end of this strange time. I tend to often like books which range far and wide; having said that, the British Library crime classics are often in a closed space and I don’t mind that at all. So I guess I’m an omnivorous reader and it doesn’t matter as long as I love the book.
As for Bev and Miss Read – no competition for me! Bev every time! 😁
Loved your podcast as always — now I wish I had a Miss Read in the house with me on lockdown! I know I gave one away last year, unread, and now I’m regretting it. And I’d swear I saw a Beverley Nichols on the shelf at the library, though it doesn’t show up in their online catalog. Someday when they’re open I’ll go back and look for it. I think it was one of the Merry Hall books.
And I used to read a lot of historical fiction but now most of what I read older fiction, but contemporary to its time, mostly Victorians and early 20th century. I find a lot of current historical fiction to be really contrived and not very well written. I did really like the Poldark series and the Cazalet series — I don’t know if those are considered historical because EJ Howard did live through the war years so it was contemporary to her. I also loved LIfe After Life by Kate Atkinson which is just brilliant. It’s long but actually a very quick read, a lot of very short chapters so it goes fast.