D.E. Stevenson, Margery Sharp – and a special guest!
In this episode, we have a special guest in the form of Claire – you’ll know her blog The Captive Reader. We were delighted to have her as a guest, especially as she also came up with our topics.
In the first half, we discuss books about grief – and whether or not we are drawn to them. In the second half, we compare two novels with similar premises: Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson and Four Gardens by Margery Sharp. Both, thankfully, have recently been republished by Dean Street Press.
Get episodes a couple of days early at Patreon, and listen to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your podcast app of choice. Your ratings and reviews make a big difference, and we’d really appreciate them.
Get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com with any suggestions or feedback – we love hearing from you.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey
The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
Let’s Get Physical by Danielle Friedman
Ghosts: A Cultural History by Susan Owens
Un Noel de Maigret by Georges Simenon
Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson
Dishonoured Bones by John Trench
John Buchan
Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson
Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson
Margaret Atwood
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
Enid Blyton
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
Making Toast by Roger Rosenblatt
Let Not The Waves of the Sea by Simon Stephenson
Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
All The Lives We Ever Lived by Katharine Smyth
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
A Half-Baked Idea by Olivia Potts
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Anthony Trollope
A Magnificent Obsession by Helen Rappaport
After the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
These For Remembrance by John Buchan
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson
The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp
The English Air by D.E. Stevenson
Green Money by D.E. Stevenson
Listening Valley by D.E. Stevenson
Miss Read
Moon Tiger by Penelope Tiger
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
I’m so excited that Claire included Elizabeth Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters as portraying grief well. It’s one of my favorite novels (for many more reasons than it’s sensitive depiction of loosing someone you love), and I also love the 1999 BBC adaptation where Michael Gambon does such a stunning job at portraying Squire Hamley. Heartily recommend as a novel (and excellent adaptation) that has such a good balance of reflectiveness, humor, family and community tensions/relationships.
I tried to read Four Gardens before this episode but have only made it to the third garden (very slow reader!). So far I’m loving it and find it fascinating how different in tone it is to the only other Sharp I’ve read (Cluny Brown). The last part sounds intriguing so I’m excited to keep enjoying it!
Yes, those Sharps are pretty far apart on the Sharp spectrum – she was so good at very different things.
I can and do read books about grief but very much when I’m in the right mood. Levels of Life by Julian Barnes springs to mind, and it’s a excellent book but profoundly moving. The right book at the right time really can help and be cathartic.
Thanks for the recommendation – I have some of his non-fiction unread, but not that one.
During the podcast, you made a comment along the lines of ‘who doesn’t love a boarding house’ – which made me wonder if you’ve ever considered comparing Patrick Hamilton’s ‘Slaves of Solitude’ with EF Benson’s ‘Paying Guests’?? Both very entertaining books about boarding house communities.