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Approximately forever ago, Lisa at A Bloomsbury Life (the sort of blog which makes you wish you could become someone else for a while, namely her) tagged me in a ‘ten random things’ meme. I’ve put it on the back-burner, but since I did 100 Random Things about myself back here, I thought I’d put a little spin on it. And then invite you to do the same…

1.) Go to your bookshelves…
2.) Close your eyes. If you’re feeling really committed, blindfold yourself.
3.) Select ten books at random. Use more than one bookcase, if you have them, or piles by the bed, or… basically, wherever you keep books.
4.) Use these books to tell us about yourself – where and when you got them, who got them for you, what the book says about you, etc. etc…..
5.) Have fun! Be imaginative. Doesn’t matter if you’ve read them or not – be creative. It might not seem easy to start off with, and the links might be a little tenuous, but I think this is a fun way to do this sort of meme.
6.) Feel free to cheat a bit, if you need to…

I’ve tagged some people at the bottom of this post, but obviously anybody who wants to is welcome to give it a go.

I’ve no idea if this will work or not… mine won’t be wholly representative, because most of my books are at home in Somerset, and most of the ones I have in Oxford are those I haven’t read yet, but… here goes!

The Virago Book of Twins and Doubles – compiled by Penelope Farmer
I couldn’t have started with a better choice, but I promise you I didn’t cheat! I’m a twin, and love reading about twins – mostly to see whether or not I agree with the author’s depiction of being a twin. This anthology has many sections – Birth, Like Twins, Unlike Twins, Love and Hate, Separation and Death, Twins as Curiosities, The Myth of the Twin, Other Doubles…

The Cross of Christ – John Stott
I’m more of less acting out my little bio now! As well as being a twin, I’m a Christian. I haven’t read this book yet, I will confess, and it does look like it would need a lot of concentration, but I will before too long.

The Dangerous Book for Boys – Gonn & Hak Iggulden
And I’m a boy! This was a Christmas gift for Santa – this book is incredible! It has everything in it. I can now learn my naval flag codes, types of tree, tricks to teach a dog… even what a noun is, though I think I’ve got that covered already.

In Tearing Haste: Letters between Deborah Devonshire and Patrick Leigh Fermor – ed. Charlotte Mosley
I love reading letters, usually have a book or two on the go – and I love writing letters. Nothing beats getting a letter drop onto the doormat through the letterbox (or in the mailbox at the end of the drive, if you’re American). And then I can keep the letters in boxes on my shelves, rather than impersonal inbox folders…

The Sandcastle – Iris Murdoch
I never used to cry while watching films, until I saw Judi Dench’s amazing performance in the biopic Iris. That seemed to open the floodgates, and now I cry at every film I see. I’ve been known to cry at adverts.

The Leavises on Fiction: An Historic Partnership – PJM Robertson
I suppose this represents my study of English. I realised I wanted to study English when I was about ten… This turned to toying with applying for English and History, but I realised I didn’t love History in the way I love English – and look at me now, five years of university down the line, and no sign of stopping…

Vanessa and Virginia – Susan Sellers
I read my first Virginia Woolf novel in 2003, Mrs. Dalloway, borrowed from the mother of a family for whom I used to babysit. She’s since become one of my favourite authors – and this book also represents my blog, since it came as a review copy.

Vera – Elizabeth von Arnim
I bought this in a charity shop – Oxfam, in fact – in Evesham, the town where I went to school. As well as representing my love of Virgao Modern Classics, and the recommendation of dovegreybooks online reading group, this links to the my first job. I volunteered for Oxfam (in Pershore – a little nearer home than Evesham) sorting men’s clothes on Saturdays. When I asked if I could sort the books, they told me that they threw away any with yellowing pages… and I didn’t think I could do that.

Casting the Runes and other ghost stories – MR James
Tenuous on this one… I used to be obsessed with the Goosebumps books by RL Stine, and then the Point Horror books, and now I am completely incapable of reading anything scary. But my friend Clare loves MR James, so… I’ll read this when it’s very sunny.

So Long, See You Tomorrow – William Maxwell
No fact about me to accompany this one – but it does seem a fitting way to end!

Right – tagging ten people, but do have a go whether or not you’re tagged – and link to your results in the comments. Enjoy!

1. Elaine at Random Jottings
2. Simon at Savidge Reads
3. Karen at Cornflower
4. Rachel at Book Snob
5. Lyn at Prefer Reading
6. Hayley at Desperate Reader
7. Claire at Paperback Reader
8. Thomas at My Porch
9. Darlene at Roses Over a Cottage Door
10. Danielle at A Work in Progress

Print on Demand

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Has anybody else dabbled with Print on Demand publishers? That sounds like some sort of cult, but of course it is not… I have a few ‘abebooks alerts’ which tell me when certain books become available (like ‘richmal crompton’ + ~william – that’s Boolean searching right there, thank you Mr. Boolean, whoever you may be) and increasingly they’ve been obscure titles, with the addition ‘this book is printed especially for your order, and may take longer to arrive.’ Or something like that.

Anyway, the most recent one I got (not this year, I hasten to add) was Lovers in London (1905) by AA Milne. I have read this, but I had to do it in the Bodleian… it’s more or less impossible to find in non-print-on-demand editions. It was his first book, a series of little sketches of Amelia and the narrator having whimsical courtship and visits to the zoo, that sort of thing – later he decided he didn’t like it, bought back the copyright, and refused to let it be republished. Now, he died in 1956, and under copyright laws his books aren’t in the public domain until 2026, so I don’t know how they’ve managed to get hold of it – but Kessinger Publishing have reprinted it.

I saw reprinted it. What they’ve done, it seems, is photocopy a 1905 edition of the book, and stuck it in some cheap card. It’s even got a shelfmark written on the first page, so it was clearly from some library or other. Inside, the book has that beautiful font they so often used in the early 20th century – outside it’s about as cheap as a book can get, with a fairly flimsy cover and no cover design to speak of. Or even of which to speak.

So… what do you think of this phenomenon? If a phenomenon it indeed is? I would never choose this quality of book over an original edition, but I think it’s great for things like Lovers in London which I’d never be able to afford otherwise. It’s a way for publishers with tiny budgets to get obscure things ‘in print’ – though it will never create a buzz about the book, or new-found popularity for the author, in the way that Persephone Books or The Bloomsbury Group have the potential to do with their reprints. But it means I have a copy of Lovers in London on my shelves, which I wouldn’t have had a chance of otherwise – unless I resorted to larceny of course.

Have you bought any Print on Demand books? I’m thinking novels, rather than the other fields P-on-D works in. Or does their cheapness (in quality rather than price, I assure you) put you off? Or has the whole concept just never crossed your mind?

EDIT: do read the comments – my experience with PoD publishers isn’t very vast, and there are some good links and advice about better quality ones. Thanks for your comments, guys!

Wintery

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Before I forget – my dear friend Lyn has recently set up a blog. She’s been reading lots of blogs for years, and I’m delighted that she’s taken the plunge – do go and pay her (and her beautiful cat Abby) a visit: Prefer Reading.

Oxford is submerged in more snow than I’ve ever seen in Oxford before. Or, possibly, anywhere. Sadly I didn’t take my camera around with me today, but Harriet (who also lives in Oxford) has posted a couple. I should be experimenting with new referencing software I downloaded, but more of me wants to be reading this:

I mentioned it in one of my hauls the other day, and nobody yelped in recognition, but perhaps somebody has heard of Ib Michael? Do I have any Danish readers?! According to my ‘Around The World’ thingummy widget I’ve had 54 visits from Denmark since July. Doesn’t that seem incredible? Almost all my comments seem to come from the UK and US, but apparently people in countries like Bahrain, Namibia, Estonia have visited… in fact 147 countries worldwide. How many countries *are* there? And is ‘Reunion’ really one of them?

I’m getting off topic – what I was saying was that I feel like some wintery reading. The book I absolutely recommend, when it’s chilly, is Tove Jansson’s The Winter Book – hopefully Prince is from the same school. Maybe I’ll find out tonight, if the lure of BiblioExpress doesn’t work.

You’ll be pleased to know that I’m still on no-bought-books, but I have already been given two. Becca gave me a late Christmas present of Novel Destinations: Literary Landmarks from Jane Austen’s Bath to Ernest Hemingway’s Key West, which looks brilliant – in fact, I almost bought it for myself a few weeks ago, but decided to wait and see if anybody had got it for me for Christmas! And yesterday I met up with Simon S, who very kindly gave me An Expert in Murder by Nicola Upson. Since he’s buying approximately 24 books fewer than me this year, I think he’s very brave, and slipped him a book too…

I have a feeling that a lot of my friends will be receiving book parcels from me this year, as I need to feed my book shopping addiction support the book industry somehow…

In The Springtime of the Year – Susan Hill

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In the run up to Christmas, we briefly discussed Festive Reading, and I was relieved to see that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t prepare that much, and had never really thought about it. It doesn’t get much more unseasonal than the book I was reading in late December – Susan Hill’s In the Springtime of the Year. Look, another season is right there in the title… and, do you know what, I rather wish I had read it in Spring now. (I also rather wish I knew whether or not seasons should be capitalised, so answers on a postcard please. Or, alternatively, in the comments box.)

I’ve made no secret about my love of Susan Hill’s Howards End is on the Landing, and shortly after reading that I made my first acquaintance with one of her novels, the captivating and unsettling The Beacon (more here) – I can’t remember who recommended I try In The Springtime of the Year next, but thank you whoever it was – it’s another short, sad, and often rather brilliant book. Published in 1974, it’s theme is eternal – the loss of a loved one. In this instance, it is the sudden and accidental death of a young man called Ben, killed by a falling tree in the opening pages of the novel. The novel follows his wife Ruth, in her early twenties, coping with his death, and coming to terms with it.

I daresay that sounds quite slight as a synopsis, but some of my favourite writers are those who can weave an involving narrative without huge set pieces or plot turns. The biggest event having happened in the first few pages, this novel is more a study of grief than a rollercoaster of events. From the immediate aftermath; the funeral; Ruth’s difficult relations with Ben’s family; closer kinship with Ben’s younger brother; dealing with Ben’s possessions; moving onwards to the future without him – each stage is subtly and intimately shown – never too much introspection, and always writing of so high a standard that it doesn’t feel like cliche. This sort of writing (especially in the days of soap operas) must be incredibly difficult to do, for the path is so strewn with cliches, but Hill makes it look easy.

She thought suddenly, I am alone, I am entirely alone on this earth; there are no other people, no animals or birds or insects, no breaths or heartbeats, there is no growing, the leaves do not move and grass is dry. There is nothing.

And this was a new feeling. No, not a feeling. Loneliness was a feeling, and a fear of the empty house and of the long days and nights, and the helpless separation from Ben – feelings. This was different. A condition. A fact. Simply, being absolutely alone.
My one problem with the novel was that everybody in the village seemed to feel Ben’s death incredibly deeply – the novel states that even those familiar with death were especially affected by his. I suppose that isn’t a problem, but it might have been more realistic to contrast Ruth’s deep grief with those around who, though sad, cannot feel it to the same extent. For that is how such deaths affect neighbourhoods, is it not?

Nobody very close to me has ever died, not yet, and I still found this novel incredibly affecting. I also felt – though, again, I cannot support this from my own experience – that In the Springtime of the Year could be a huge comfort to anyone going through that. Or perhaps to those around them, to help them understand. I’m in danger of getting emotional here, aren’t I? And I shouldn’t forget that Susan Hill hasn’t set out to write a grievance counselling book – though there may be overlap, this is primarily a very well written, subtle, and touching novel, and that is certainly achievement enough.

Project 24

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Well, I’ve used the utmost of my technological wizardry (by which I mean copying things into MS Paint and… no, sorry, that’s it) and have replaced the Project 24 link with a pretty little picture instead. If you click on it, it’ll take you to the list of books bought this year – and I can use it to signify relevant posts. Here it is in what we computer types like to call ‘big size’.


You might recognise the sketch from this post. I’m still holding on strong at no books bought – my friend Lucy, who is also doing Project 24, is already one book down…

Pastors and Masters

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So far, bought nothing in 2010… but to be honest I haven’t had any temptation, since I’ve spent most of the New Year in bed so far, while my research work stares at me from across the room. Still, not feeling too awful right now, and hopefully I’ll be back on my feet before long. In fact, I feel well enough to try and catch up on reviewing some of the books I read in December…

First up is Pastors and Masters by Ivy Compton-Burnett, which Hesperus Press very kindly sent me. As you’ll have spotted in my recent purchases, I have enough ICB to last me a while – but I had to support Hesperus as they’re the only people keeping ICB in print in the UK. (Having said that, the New York Review of Books Classics series does have two in print, and they’re stocked in some bookshops in England – like the Persephone Bookshop off Notting Hill Gate, for example). Pastors and Masters is ICB’s first ‘proper’ novel, from 1925, and unlike the others I’ve read, doesn’t take place in a big, sprawling family. Instead, we are in a boys’ school, witnessing the interactions of teachers up and down a slightly bizarre hierarchy. Though there are also a lot of boys, they don’t get much dialogue, and hence not much of the novel concerns them – for even in her first novel, ICB privileged dialogue over description, though not to the same extent as in her later works.

Mr. Merry, the central schoolmaster, is prone to the deliciously and infuriatingly sarcastic speechs which ICB scatters throughout her books: ‘And get to your seats without upsetting everything on your way, will you please? Oh, who would be a schoolmaster? I should not be doing my duty to you all, if I did not warn you all against it. And I suppose it is a good thing to have the east wind from an east window blowing in upon forty people, thirty-nine of them growing boys, before their breakfast on a March morning? And… one, two, three, four, five, six, seven… it takes eleven boys to shut a window, does it? And I suppose I cannot make a few remarks, without having you all fidgeting and gaping and behaving like a set of clodhoppers instead of gentlemen? Get to your work at once, and don’t look up again before the gong.’ Though he feels himself in charge, there are also junior masters and those who own the school and their wives and governors and parents and… I must confess I got a little confused as to who was whom (or whom was who, or something). ICB’s character delineation matured in her later novels, I think. The plot running through this novel, aside from the everyday activities of the school, is that two of the teachers have written books, and intend to publish. I shan’t spoil the storyline, but it is rather more cloak and dagger than some of ICB’s later novels, and involves more Agatha Christie-esque guess-work – but alongside this, ICB’s style is unmistakable, though not wholly developed. I would describe Pastors and Masters as ICB-lite, if you will. Recognisable enough to please the ICB fanatic, but also sufficiently like a more ‘normal’ novel for those who find her style affected. It’s short, funny, and – though by no means her best work – I would recommend it to those who want to give ICB a go, and don’t feel up to one of her longer novels. If you like this, there’s a lot more to explore – if you don’t, at least it has one of Hesperus’ beautiful covers!

Project 24

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Well, I’ve started the New Year with a filthy cold… feeling very sorry for myself, and eating and drinking a lot. Lucky I didn’t make any New Year’s Resolutions about calorie consumption… but I did, as you probably know, about books.

This is just a heads-up about a new thingummy in the right-hand column. It’s just to your right, and it says ‘Project 24’. At the moment, if you click on the link, it takes you to a page with precisely nothing on it – if you’re as naturally curious as me, you’ll have just found out that I’m telling the truth – but this will all change! When I buy a book, I’ll let you know what it is, why I chose it etc. – and will add it to that link. So as the year goes on, if you’re interested, you can find out what’s found its way into my house so far.

Well, I’m three days in and haven’t bought any books yet! Hope you’re proud of me…

I know some of you were going to join me in Project 24 – just remind me if you are…

Oh, and I’m hoping to make a more distinctive picture to act as a banner for Project 24 posts… any suggestions of good software/website for designing this sort of thing would be much appreciated.

The Bookbarn

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Yes, Project 24 has begun (as I intend to call it) – I’ll keep you updated throughout the year with the twenty-four books which find their way into my home, that’ll be something to look forward to, won’t it – but on the 29th December Our Vicar’s Wife and I took a trip to the wondrous Bookbarn. It’s the biggest secondhand bookshop (nay, barn) in the country, and happens to be a mere thirty-one miles from our house in Chiselborough. So, I went out on a high, buying a pile of books so tall and so unstable that it prompted comment from more than one bystander.


As with my recent Hay-on-Wye haul, I bought lots of Ivy Compton-Burnett novels:
– More Women Than Men
– The Last and the First
– Elders and Betters
– Men & Wives
I’ve stocked up on so many ICBs now that I doubt I’ll have finished them in a decade’s time… but still three or four more to look out for!

Most of the rest of these are novels which I’ve heard talked about in books like A Very Great Profession, or from people who like Persephone books, or Virago Modern Classics… the Yahoo Group dovegreybooks would simply describe them as ‘doveish’, but if you liked any of my Top Books of 2009, then you’ll probably be interested…


– A Wreath of Roses – Elizabeth Taylor (I came away from Nicola Beauman’s biography of ET very keen to read this one)
– An Autumn Sowing – EF Benson (a recommendation from Elaine at Random Jottings)
-The Match Maker – Stella Gibbons (of Cold Comfort Farm fame)
– A Child in the Theatre – Rachel Ferguson (of Brontes Went To Woolworths fame)
– Anne Severn and the Fieldings – May Sinclair
– Mary Olivier: A Life – May Sinclair (since I loved Life and Death of Harriett Frean, I’m intrigued to read more)
– Staying with Relations – Rose Macaulay
– Grand Hotel – Vicki Baum
– High Table – Joanna Cannan
– Guard Your Daughters – Diana Tutton (where have I heard of this? Hands up if you’re guilty!)
– Red Pottage – Mary Cholmondeley (I’ve heard this called one of the best Virago Modern Classics, if memory serves…)
– The Stone Angel – Margaret Laurence (read this in 2007, really enjoyed it, and finally stumbled across a cheap copy. I also bought the film a couple of months ago, and still haven’t watched it.)


– The Silent Traveller in Oxford – Chiang Yee (one of the men working in the Bookbarn somehow found out that I am at Oxford, and so recommended this – it’s a travel diary with beautiful Chinese illustrations. Usually I don’t like travel literature, because I don’t have a visual mind, but I know all the places he’s going already!)

That’s it! (Well, I also bought a book as a gift, which will be flying across the blogosphere soon) Phew. 17 books which, as Mum pointed out, is the equivalent of eight and half months-worth of my book-buying in 2010. That’s quite a sobering thought.

But let’s ignore that, eh, and I’ll just revel in that lovely pile of books. Comments, of course, both welcome and solicited. Green-eyed venom optional.

Books of 2009

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At the end of each year, I leave you with a list of the books I’ve read during the year… this year I’ve read more titles than usual, but that’s because I read rather a lot of plays for one of my courses… and re-reads have a ‘x’ in front of them. Again, rather more than usual. Anyway, here goes! (warning: if you’re in the dovegreybooks postal book group, watch out! Some of these titles are in it, but I couldn’t remember exactly which…)

x1. Winnie-the-Pooh – AA Milne
x2. The House at Pooh Corner – AA Milne
x3. The Feminine Middlebrow Novels 1920s to 1950s – Nicola Humble
x4. The Provincial Lady in America – EM Delafield
5. Breath – Tim Winton
x6. Orlando – Virginia Woolf
7. The Colleen Bawn – Dion Boucicault
8. Black Ey’d Susan – Douglas Jerrold
9. The Bells – Leopold Lewis
10. Melodrama – James L. Smith
11. Uncle Tom’s Cabin (play) – George L. Aiken
x12. The Provincial Lady in Wartime – EM Delafield
13. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
14. The Octoroon – Dion Boucicault
15. Mrs. Warren’s Profession – George Bernard Shaw
16. The Second Mrs. Tanqueray – Arthur Wing Pinero
17. The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith – Arthur Wing Pinero
x18. Jacob’s Room – Virginia Woolf
19. Mrs. Dane’s Defence – Henry Arthur Jones
20. Stage-Land – Jerome K. Jerome
x21. Between The Acts – Virginia Woolf
x22. A Woman of No Importance – Oscar Wilde
23. The Philanderer – George Bernard Shaw
24. The Master-Builder – Henrik Ibsen
25. The Lady From The Sea – Henrik Ibsen
26. Lolly Willowes – Sylvia Townsend Warner
27. Harriet Hume: A London Fantasy – Rebecca West
x28. Lady Into Fox – David Garnett
29. The Heir – Vita Sackville-West
30. Hedda Gabler – Henrik Ibsen
x31. The Haunted Woman – David Lindsay
32. A Taste of Honey – Shelagh Delaney
33. The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Rattigan
34. The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West
35. The Winslow Boy – Terence Rattigan
36. The Entertainer – John Osborne
x37. Miss Hargreaves – Frank Baker
x38. The Birthday Party – Harold Pinter
39. Travesties – Tom Stoppard
40. Indian Ink – Tom Stoppard
41. Rock and Roll – Tom Stoppard
42. The Lion in Love – Shelagh Delaney
43. Saved – Edward Bond
44. Loot – Joe Orton
45. What The Butler Saw – Joe Orton
46. Blasted – Sarah Kane
47. Early Morning – Edward Bond
48. Cloud Nine – Caryl Churchill
x49. The Love Child – Edith Olivier
50. Mr. Fortune’s Maggot – Sylvia Townsend Warner
51. Making History – Brian Friel
52. The History Boys – Alan Bennett
53. Our Country’s Good – Timberlake Werternbaker
54. Oh What A Lovely War – Theatre Workshop
x55. Arcadia – Tom Stoppard
56. It’s Hard To Be Hip Over Thirty and other poems – Judith Viorst
57. Forever England – Alison Light
58. Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley
59. Love Letters – Leonard Woolf & Trekkie Parsons
60. His House in Order – Arthur Wing Pinero
61. Separate Tables – Terence Rattigan
62. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher – Kate Summerscale
63. Straws Without Bricks: I Visit Soviet Russia – EM Delafield
64. Making Conversation – Christine Longford
x65. Two People – AA Milne
66. Put Out More Flags – Evelyn Waugh
x67. A Very Great Profession – Nicola Beauman
68. The Ascent of Man – AA Milne
69. The Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Arnim
70. The House of Dolls – Barbara Comyns
71. The Psychology of the Servant Problem – Violet M. Firth
x72. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
73. Hallucinating Foucault – Patricia Dunker
74. A Shot in Dark – Saki
x75. Through the Looking Glass and what Alice found there – Lewis Carroll
76. Seducers in Ecuador – Vita Sackville-West
77. Jane’s Fame – Claire Harman
78. The Fox – DH Lawrence
79. Paris Review Interviews vol.1 – Various
x80. The Heir – Vita Sackville-West
x81. The Hours – Michael Cunningham
82. Cheerful Weather For The Wedding – Julia Strachey
83. Fugitive Pieces – Anne Michaels
84. Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont – Elizabeth Taylor
85. Say Please – Virginia Graham
x86. Flush: A Biography – Virginia Woolf
87. Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay
88. Home To Roost and other peckings – Deborah Devonshire
89. The Tales of Beedle the Bard – JK Rowling
90. Indiscretions of Archie – PG Wodehouse
91. Henrietta’s War – Joyce Dennys
92. Maidens’ Trip – Emma Smith
93. Parents and Children – Ivy Compton-Burnett
94. Dreamers – Knut Hamsun
95. Sex Education – Janni Visman
96. They Came Like Swallows – William Maxwell
97. The Holiday – Richmal Crompton
98. Henrietta Sees It Through – Joyce Dennys
99. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
100. The Tattooed Map – Barbara Hodgson
x101. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – JK Rowling
102. Alas, Poor Lady – Rachel Ferguson
103. The Last September – Elizabeth Bowen
x104. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – JK Rowling
105. Observatory Mansions – Edward Carey
106. The Other Elizabeth Taylor – Nicola Beauman
107. Oxford – Jan Morris
108. The Bird’s Nest – Shirley Jackson
109. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
110. Checkout: A Life on the Tills – Anna Sam
111. The Shutter of Snow – Emily Holmes Coleman
112. Life and Death of Harriett Frean – May Sinclair
113. Love’s Shadow – Ada Leverson
114. Tea and Tranquillisers – Dianne Hapwood
115. Princes in the Land – Joanna Cannan
116. Minnie’s Room – Mollie Panter-Downes
117. The Runaway – Elizabeth Anna Hart
118. Elizabeth and Ivy – Robert Liddell
119. Lettice Delmer – Susan Miles
120. Beg, Borrow, Steal – Michael Greenberg
121. Decline and Fall – Evelyn Waugh
122. Kisses on a Postcard – Terence Frisby
123. It’s All Right If I Do It – Terence Frisby
x124. Miss Hargreaves – Frank Baker
125. The True Deceiver – Tove Jansson
126. The Dower House – Annabel Davis-Goff
127. Howards End is on the Landing – Susan Hill
128. Summer at the Haven – Katharine Moore
129. A Very Short Introduction to Biography – Hermione Lee
130. The Tortoise and The Hare – Elizabeth Jenkins
131. The Spare Room – Helen Garner
x132. We Have Always Lived in the Castle – Shirley Jackson
133. Economy Must Be Our Watchword – Joyce Dennys
134. Modern Delight – Various
135. The Beacon – Susan Hill
136. The Paper House – Carlos Maria Dominguez
137. Fiction and the Reading Public – QD Leavis
138. Domestic Modernism, the Interwar Novel, and EH Young – Chiara Briganti & Kathy Mezei
139. Making the Cat Laugh – Lynne Truss
140. The Venetian Glass Nephew – Elinor Wylie
141. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
142. Repeated Doses – Joyce Dennys
143. Manservant and Maidservant – Ivy Compton-Burnett
144. So Many Books – Gabriel Zaid
145. Olivia – Olivia
146. Dwarf’s Blood – Edith Olivier
x147. Nineteen Eighty-Four – George Orwell
148. A Kind of Intimacy – Jenn Ashworth
149. Notes Towards the Definition of Culture – TS Eliot
150. Impassioned Clay – Stevie Davies
x151. The Holiday Round – AA Milne
152. Women, Privacy and Modernity in Early Twentieth-Century British Writing – Wendy Gan
153. High Brows – Bruce Marshall
154. The Innermost Room – Richmal Crompton
x155. Hunting the Highbrow – Leonard Woolf
x156. Mass Civilization and Minority Culture – FR Leavis
157. Civilization – Clive Bell
158. Crewe Train – Rose Macaulay
x159. Diary of a Provincial Lady – EM Delafield
160. Catchwords and Claptrap – Rose Macaulay
161. Try Anything Twice – Jan Struther
162. The Lagoon – Janet Frame
163. Keeping Up Appearances – Rose Macaulay
164. Dear Fatty – Dawn French
165. Pastors and Masters – Ivy Compton-Burnett