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Tea or Books? #24: careful or manhandle, and The Love-Child vs Lolly Willowes

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? , , 18 Comments


 
Tea or Books logoI have forced two topics on Rachel – firstly, are you careful with books, or do you manhandle them? (It will all make sense in context.) And then two books that were lynch pins of my doctoral thesis – The Love-Child by Edith Olivier and Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Prepare yourself for hearing lots about my research, partly because it’s the first time since my viva that anybody has sat down and listened to me talk about it.

(Btw Great British Bake Off recap coming SOON, promise, but it takes longer than putting this episode up and I didn’t have time tonight!)

It feels like ages since we recorded, so it’s really nice to be back. We’ve missed it! Do let us know what you’d pick in each category, and any topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes. Listen above, via a podcast app, or at our iTunes page. One day we’ll have enough ratings and reviews for them to show up on the page.

Here are the books and authors we talk about in this episode…

The Victorians by A.N. Wilson
Winnie and Wolf by A.N. Wilson
Angus Wilson
Ivanhoe by Walter Scott
E.T.A. Hoffmann
Why I Read: The Series Pleasure of Reading by Wendy Lesser
The Shelf by Phyllis Rose
The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett
Henry James
Susan and Joanna by Elizabeth Cambridge
Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benson
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Present Laughter by Noel Coward
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Henrik Ibsen
Winifred Holtby
The Witch-Cult of Western Europe by Margaret Murray
Sarah Waters
Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
Mr Fortune’s Maggot by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Summer Will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner
William Maxwell
Dwarf’s Blood by Edith Olivier
The Seraphim Room by Edith Olivier
The Venetian Glass Nephew by Elinor Wylie
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
A Harp in Lowndes Square by Rachel Ferguson
The Haunted Woman by David Lindsay
His Monkey Wife by John Collier
To The North by Elizabeth Bowen
The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen

Tea or Books? #112: Best Books of 2022 and They Were Sisters vs The Three Sisters

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? , , 16 Comments

Dorothy Whipple, May Sinclair, and favourite books of 2022 – welcome to episode 112!

Happy new year! Welcome to the first episode of Tea or Books? for 2023 – recorded on two different days, so hopefully it’s not too awkward. In the first half, we cover our favourite reads from 2022 (so won’t be a HUGE surprise if you read my blog) and in the second half we compare They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple and The Three Sisters by May Sinclair.

You can listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts – and you can support the podcast and get early episodes (and other bonus bits) on Patreon. Do get in touch with any questions, suggestions or comments at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com.

The books and authors we mention in this episode:

Village Diary by Miss Read
Storm in the Village by Miss Read
In Chancery by John Galsworthy
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson
Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp
E.M. Delafield
Remainders of the Day by Shaun Bythell
Three Things You Should Know About Rockets by Jessica A. Fox
Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops by Shaun Bythell
Things I Don’t Want To Know by Deborah Levy
The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
Real Estate by Deborah Levy
War Among Ladies by Eleanor Scott
Lucy By The Sea by Elizabeth Strout
My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Oh, William by Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
The Home by Penelope Mortimer
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer
Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting by Penelope Mortimer
The New House by Lettice Cooper
National Provincial by Lettice Cooper
Black Bethlehem by Lettice Cooper
Desirable Residence by Lettice Cooper
On Color by David Scott Kastan and Stephen Farthing
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
Anne Tyler
Barbara Kingsolver
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
Paying Guests by E.F. Benson
Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village by Marit Kapla
Suddenly, A Knock on the Door by Etgar Keret
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
Life and Death of Harriett Frean by May Sinclair
The Brontes
Virginia Woolf
Anne Severn and the Fieldings by May Sinclair
Mr Waddington of Wyck by May Sinclair
Young Anne by Dorothy Whipple
Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell
South Riding by Winifred Holtby

Tea or Books? #109: Boarding House Novels vs Living Alone and Heat Wave vs Heat Lightning

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? 13 Comments

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

Tea or Books? #101: Rachel explores Simon’s shelves

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? 15 Comments

Rachel takes a look at Simon’s bookshelves – will she take any books away with her??

Way back in episode 70, I was in Rachel’s flat in London and took a look around her bookcases. We planned a return visit… and then the pandemic happened. But now travel and visiting is easier, we have finally got around to organising Rachel coming out to rural West Oxfordshire to look at my bookcases.

Trailing around with a mic was a bit tricky, so the sound isn’t perfect – but hopefully plenty to enjoy nonetheless.

You can support the podcast on Patreon – where, from this episode, you’ll get episodes a few days early! Find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts – and you can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com.

The (enormous number of!) books and authors we mention in this episode are:

A Natural History of Ghosts by Roger Clark
Contested Will by James Shapiro
A Woman of Passion: A Life of E. Nesbit by Julia Briggs
The Lark by E. Nesbit
The Life and Loves of E. Nesbit by Eleanor Fitzsimons
Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
Return to Cheltenham by Helen Ashton
The Half-Crown House by Helen Ashton
Jane Austen
Master Man by Ruby Ayres
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Elizabeth Bowen
Illyrian Spring by Ann Spring
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
The Two Doctors by Elizabeth Cambridge
Susan and Joanna by Elizabeth Cambridge
Willa Cather
Children of the Archbishop by Norman Collins
London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins
The Double Heart by Lettice Cooper
Desirable Residence by Lettice Cooper
The Rising Tide by Margaret Deland
Will Shakespeare by Clemence Dane
Catchword and Claptrap by Rose Macaulay
Virginia Woolf
Tea Is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex
The Amorous Bicycle by Mary Essex
A Child in the Theatre by Rachel Ferguson
Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson
The Brontes Went To Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons
My American by Stella Gibbons
Miss Linsey and Pa by Stella Gibbons
Told In Winter by Jon Godden
Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
Brief Candles by Aldous Huxley
The Honours Board by Pamela Hansford Johnson
An Error of Judgement by Pamela Hansford Johnson
The Unspeakable Skipton by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico
Coronation by Paul Gallico
Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico
The Hand of Mary Constable by Paul Gallico
Stephen Leacock
The Tortoise and the Hare by Elizabeth Jenkins
Harriet by Elizabeth Jenkins
Honey by Elizabeth Jenkins
Robert and Helen by Elizabeth Jenkins
Herbert Jenkins
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
The Making of Bigot by Rose Macaulay
Mystery at Geneva by Rose Macaulay
What Not by Rose Macaulay
Told By An Idiot by Rose Macaulay
Summertime by Denis Mackail
We’re Here by Denis Mackail
Greenery Street by Denis Mackail
What Next? by Denis Mackail
Ian and Felicity by Denis Mackail
The House by William McElwee
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Safety Pins by Christopher Morley
Thunder on the Left by Christopher Morley
Where The Blue Begins by Christopher Morley
An Unexpected Guest by Bernadette Murphy
Beverley Nichols
The Shoreless Sea by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Storm Bird by Mollie Panter-Downes
My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck
A Clear Dawn by Winifred Peck
Housebound by Winifred Peck
Lavender and Old Lace by Myrtle Reed
The White Shield by Myrtle Reed
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
D.E. Stevenson
Elizabeth Taylor
Gin and Ginger by Lady Kitty Vincent
Lipstick by Lady Kitty Vincent
The Benefactress by Elizabeth von Arnim
Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Happy Ending by Leo Walmsley
The Golden Waterwheel by Leo Walmsley
Love in the Sun by Leo Walmsley
The True Heart by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
Fell Top by Winifred Watson
Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White
The Wheel Turns by Ethel Lina White
The Dragon in Shallow Waters by Vita Sackville-West
The Hills Sleep On by Joanna Cannan
Three Lives by Lettice Cooper
The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
Elizabeth Berridge
Margaret Drabble
The East Window by Margaret Morrison
There is a Tide by Agnes Logan
The Dogs Do Bark by Barbara Willard
The Gothic House by Jean Ross
The Visitors by Mary MacMinni es
A Lion, A Mouse and a Motor-Car by Dorothea Townshend
Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Faster! Faster! by E.M. Delafield
The War Workers by E.M. Delafield
Mrs Harter by E.M. Delafield
The Heel of Achilles by E.M. Delafield
Tension by E.M. Delafield
The Pelicans by E.M. Delafield
Frost at Morning by Richmal Crompton
Matty and the Dearingroydes by Richmal Crompton
This Little Art by Kate Briggs
Edith Olivier
A Fairy Leapt Upon My Knee by Bea Howe
David Garnett
Sylvia Townsend Warner
Pride of Place by Patience McElwee
Miss Elizabeth Bennet by A.A. Milne
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Infused: Adventures in Tea by Henrietta Lovell
Beware of Children by Verily Anderson
Spam Tomorrow by Verily Anderson
The Three Brontes by May Sinclair
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
Katherine Mansfield
Mitford sisters
As It Was and World Without End by Helen Thomas
Edward Thomas
Love, Interrupted by Simon Thomas
Leaves in the Wind by Alpha of the Plough
Wintering by Katherine May
The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May
Oliver Sacks
Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple
The Other Day by Dorothy Whipple

Tea or Books? #100: Q&A Special

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? 15 Comments


For our special hundredth episode, Rachel and I are doing a question and answer. Thanks so much to everybody who sent in questions – we didn’t get to all of them, but hopefully we answered at least one of yours.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com if you’d like to ask anything for future episodes. Reviews and ratings very gratefully received, especially if they’re nice!

You can find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, podcast apps, and Patreon if you’d like to support the pod and get various bonuses and benefits.

The books and authors we mention in this are:

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The Willow Cabin by Pamela Frankau
A Wreath for the Enemy by Pamela Frankau
Marriage of Harlequin by Pamela Frankau
The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden
The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton
Provincial Lady series by E.M. Delafield
Tension by E.M. Delafield
Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield
Consequences by E.M. Delafield
Another Country by James Baldwin
Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
Mr Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
Pieces by Helen Oyeyemi
Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers
Whose Body by Dorothy L Sayers
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
Jazz by Toni Morrison
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A.A. Milne
Modern Humour
The Feminine Middlebrow Novel by Nicola Humble
A Very Great Profession by Nicola Humble
Mindy Kaling
Issa Rae
Anna Kendrick
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Donna Tartt
Milan Kundera
Leo Tolstoy
Margery Sharp
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee
Louisa M. Alcott
The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Mr Pim Passes By by A.A. Milne
Richmal Crompton
Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd
Wurzel Gummidge by Barbara Euphan Todd
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Emma by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Thrush Green series by Miss Read
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
National Provincial by Lettice Cooper
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes
Greengates by R.C. Sherriff
The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Into the Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
Muriel Spark
Speaking of Love by Angela Young
Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
Told in Winter by Jon Godden
Rumer Godden
Dan Brown
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Possession by A.S. Byatt
Zadie Smith
Mary Webb
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
Mamma by Diana Tutton
Tea Is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
A Pin To See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse
Messalina of the Suburbs by E.M. Delafield
Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benson
A Visit to Don Otavio by Sybille Bedford
Pleasures and Landscapes by Sybille Bedford
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
The Years by Virginia Woolf
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Nemo’s Almanac
Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
Miss Plum and Miss Penny by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Marilynne Robinson

British Library Women Writers #5: Father by Elizabeth von Arnim

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I am getting behind with writing about these books – there are seven out, and I’m only on number five – but slow and steady wins the race! Much like when I chose Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay for the series, Elizabeth von Arnim was an author I knew I wanted to include. I just had to had a quick think which of her out-of-print novels to choose.

The series is intended to highlight women’s lives in different periods of the 20th century. That’s why I chose Dangerous Ages, which sheds such light onto different generations’ experience of the 1920s. And it’s why I chose Father: the focus on an unmarried woman said so much about the 1930s.

Father is a novel that reminded me an awful lot of Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. In both, an unmarried woman is desperate for her independence, and not to be subservient in her relative’s home. For Laura Willowes, it’s her brother’s home; in Father it’s – you guessed it! – the father’s. Jennifer is 31 and a slave to her widowed father, a writer; she laments ‘the years shut up in the back diningroom at a typewriter, with no hope that anything would ever be different’. Only things are different. Father is getting married again, to Netta, who is younger than Jennifer. She sees her opportunity for escape: she can move to the countryside.

Through and beyond father she saw doors flying open, walls falling flat, and herself running unhindered down the steps, along Gower Street, away through London, across suburbs, out, out into great sun-lit spaces where the wind, fresh and scented, rushed to meet her […] Jen, her wide-open eyes shining with the reflection of what she saw through and beyond father. She could feel the wind – she could feel it, the scented fresh wind, blowing up her hair as she ran and ran…

And, like Laura Willowes, she does move to the countryside. Only things aren’t quite as uncomplicated as she’d hoped. Waiting for her, in that village, are James and Alice – the vicar and his tyrannical sister – who make an interesting parallel to Jennifer and her father. Alice is also a spinster, but holds all the power in her brother’s house – and is keen to dissuade any possible sisters-in-law who might oust her from the vicarage. And yet – as she also comes to realise – she is dependent on her brother. She may hold the power at the moment, but it isn’t secure. It’s interesting to see two women who are so completely different both in the role of dependent female relative.

So, Father has a lot to say about unmarried women of the interwar period – but it’s also very funny. Jennifer is a delight, and her actions are always justifiable but often extremely eccentric. Deciding to sleep out on a mattress in the garden, for instance. You can’t help but love her and want freedom for her. And Father is every bit as frustrating as any fictional man who believes he is always right (or non-fictional, I daresay).

When I read Father in 2015, I loved it but didn’t think it was her best. On re-reading it, I think it’s actually one of the best novels Elizabeth von Arnim wrote – out of the ten I’ve read, anyway. It’s another one I’m delighted to see back in print, and with one of the prettiest covers in the series so far.

Tea or Books? #89: Do we care about gardens?, and Gilead vs Home

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? , 12 Comments

Marilynne Robinson and gardens – welcome to episode 89!

We are scraping the barrel a little in our first half, and arguably repeating ourselves, but please enjoy our musings on gardens. In the second half, after answering a question from Jen, we talk about Marilynne Robinson’s novels Gilead and Home. Finally, after talking about it for years!

You can listen above, at Spotify, at Apple Podcast, or via any podcast app you use. Reviews and ratings very welcome – they apparently help people find us. If you have any questions or suggestions, do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. What a lot of options!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Random Commentary by Dorothy Whipple
The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Expiation by Elizabeth von Arnim
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
Flesh and Blood by Michael Cunningham
Letters of Tove Jansson
Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce
A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz
Dear Reader by Cathy Rentzenbrink
On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
Faces of Justice by Sybille Bedford
Not at Home by Doris Langley Moore
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Down the Garden Path by Beverley Nichols
Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols
Dear Friend and Gardener by Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd
A.A. Milne
A Thatched Roof by Beverley Nichols
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Virginia Woolf’s Garden by Caroline Zoob
The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkley
Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay
Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay
A Scream in Soho by John Brandon
The Lake District Murder by John Bude
Agatha Christie
Quick Curtain by Alan Melville
Death of Anton by Alan Melville
The Secret of High Eldersham by Miles Burton
Mystery in White by J Jefferson Farjeon
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Miss Plum and Miss Penny by Dorothy Evelyn Smith

Tea or Books? #85: One House or Many Houses, and A Thatched Roof vs Fresh From The Country

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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.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you have suggestions for topics – we love hearing from you. And you can find us at Apple podcasts, or whatever your podcast app of choice is. And if you can work out how to review us, then please do!

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

Tea or Books? #83: Comfort Zones (Yes or No?) and Two Willa Cather Novels

StuckinaBook Tea or Books? , 6 Comments

Comfort zones, comfort novels, and two novels by Willa Cather – welcome to episode 83!

In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I talk about whether or not we have comfort zones when it comes to reading – and what our comfort reading is, which isn’t quite the same question. In the second half, we pit two Willa Cather novels against each other: A Lost Lady and Lucy Gayheart.

We hope that Tea or Books? can be a ray of sunshine in this complicated and anxious time. We’ll keep recording as much as we can! Do let us know if you have any suggestions for future episodes – and please do rate and review us at your podcast app of choice SHOULD you wish. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, and we’re on Spotify too now. If you’d like to support the podcast, that’s an option at Patreon.

You can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com. Please do!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Tension by E.M. Delafield
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Denis Mackail
Rose Macaulay
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm
Virginia Woolf
Gertrude Stein
The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Two Lives by Janet Malcolm
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Love Child by Edith Olivier
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The People on the Bridge by Wisława Szymborska
Circe by Madeleine Miller
Miss Read
Agatha Christie
Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
The Illustrated Dustjacket 1920-1970 by Martin Salisbury
Penguin By Design by Phil Baines
When I Was A Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
The Road to Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
The Shelf by Phyllis Rose
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jacques Bonnet
A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel
Jorge Luis Borges
The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Aunt Mame by Patrick Dennis
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Tea or Books? #77: Fantasy vs Fantastic Fiction and Wine of Honour vs Beneath the Visiting Moon

StuckinaBook All, Tea or Books? , , 5 Comments

World War Two fiction and the difference between fantasy and fantastic fiction – welcome to episode 77!

In the first half of this episode, I dive back into the topic of my DPhil and we talk about fantastic and fantasy fiction. In the second half we compare two of the new Furrowed Middlebrow reprints from Dean Street Press – Beneath the Visiting Moon by Romilly Cavan and Wine of Honour by Barbara Beauchamp.

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The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Notes Made While Falling by Jenn Ashworth
A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie by Charles Osborne
Eric Rabkin
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
The Love Child by Edith Olivier
Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
Daniel Defoe
The Sheik by E.M. Hull
Miss Carter and the Ifrit by Susan Alice Kerby
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple
Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple
The House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair
Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Still Missing by Beth Gutcheon
The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
Look Back With Love by Dodie Smith
Blue Remembered Hills by Rosemary Sutcliff
I Was A Stranger by John Hackett
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Corduroy by Adrian Bell
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Village by Marghanita Laski
Elizabeth von Arnim
Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
Sanditon by Jane Austen
The Watsons by Jane Austen
Lady Susan by Jane Austen