Tea or Books?

 
Agatha Christie and curious titles come together in perhaps my favourite episode of the podcast yet. And also the first one where we’re both in our 30s, guys. And also one of our most bizarre. In the first half, we look at titles and discuss whether we prefer them fancy or simple – yes, those are the categories – and quickly realise what a tangle that is.

On safer ground, we turn to Dame Agatha Christie in the second half, pitting her two most famous detectives against each other. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple – who will come out on top? The answers, as they say, might surprise you.

Listen above, via iTunes (rate! review!), or your app of choice – and let us know which you’d pick from each pair!

Here are the books and authors we mention in this podcast – it’s a lot this week – and, if you’re a fan of films, do give Colin’s podcast The C-Z of Movies a try.

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
The Years by Virginia Woolf
The Lost Europeans by Emanuel Litvinoff
Eudora Welty
Christina Stead
Emma by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym
Dear Life by Alice Munro
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Pin to See the Peepshow by F Tennyson Jesse
Messalina of the Suburbs by E.M. Delafield
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian by Marina Lewycka
A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
[could not find the particle physics novel title!]
The Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley by Diana Petre
William by E.H. Young
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie
The Murder of Roger Acroyd by Agatha Christie
Murder of a Lady by Anthony Wynne
The Driver’s Seat by Muriel Spark
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
Samson Agonistes by John Milton
Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
Andrew Marvell
Alexander Pope
A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie
Appointment With Death by Agatha Christie
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
The Majestic Mystery by Denis Mackail
The Life and Times of Hercule Poirot by Anne Hart
The Life and Times of Miss Jane Marple by Anne Hart
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

 
Letters! Diaries! Oscar Wilde! We’ve got it all – well, those three things – in episode 17 of Tea or Books?, which has taken a bit of time to arrive, for which I apologise. But we are as rambling and bookish as ever. Do let us know which you’d choose in each category, and any suggestions you have for great collections of letters of diaries.

Ooops for the moment where I said Virginia Woolf when I meant Jane Austen. Sorry Jane.

Next week we’ll be getting into all things Agatha, pitting Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot against each other. That one should be fun. Do, do, do let us know any suggestions you have for future episodes – we love getting them. Listen above, or visit our iTunes page (or use your podcast provider of choice). You can even rate us on iTunes if you so please.

Here are the books and authors we mentioned this week:

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
It’s Hard to Be Hip Over Thirty by Judith Viorst
The Small Miracle by Paul Gallico
Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
The Prose Factory by D.J. Taylor
The Years by Virginia Woolf
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Night and Day by Virginia Woolf
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty
The Lost Europeans by Emanuel Litvinoff
What There Is To Say, We Have Said by William Maxwell and Eudora Welty
The Element of Lavishness by Sylvia Townsend Warner and William Maxwell
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters ed. Charlotte Mosley
The Letters of Elizabeth Myers ed. Littleton Powys
A Well Full of Leaves by Elizabeth Myers
More Was Lost by Eleanor Perenyi
The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Sylvia and David: the Townsend Warner/Garnett Letters
Bloomsbury’s Outsider by Sarah Knights
Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
The Letters of Virginia Woolf
The Letters of Jane Austen
A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf
Nella Last’s War by Nella Last
A Notable Woman: The Romantic Journals of Jean Lucey Pratt ed. Simon Garfield
A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip ed. Alexander Masters
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare

 
Villains or virtuous folk? No, not describing your hosts Rachel (Book Snob) and me, but enquiring into our favourite types of characters. In the second half, we look at two books by Mollie Panter-Downes: One Fine Day and London War Notes, comparing novel and non-fiction (and ultimately, of course, loving both).

I think I left the window open again. Oops… sorry if the sound quality is affected once again. Let’s face it, if you were after stark professionalism then you’d have given up on us ages ago. Anyway, check us out via your podcast downloader of choice, or via our iTunes page.

Here are the books and authors we discuss…

London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Journeying Wave by Richmal Crompton
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Celia by E.H. Young
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Pollyanna by Eleanor H Porter
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (Atticus Finch)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Joe Gargery)
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Emma by Jane Austen (Mr Knightley)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Jane Bennet)
Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
To Bed With Grand Music by Marghanita Laski
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
Agatha Christie
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
101 Dalmations by Stella Gibbons (Cruella de Vil)
Othello by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
London War Notes by Mollie Panter-Downes
The Provincial Lady in Wartime by E.M. Delafield
Postscripts by J.B Priestley
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

Thanks for listening!

 

Happy endings? Sad endings? And a couple of Elizabeth von Arnim novels – we have a fun, albeit somewhat sickly episode. It makes me think of my favourite, my-missed sitcom Happy Endings, but we’re actually talking about whether we prefer books to be cheerful or miserable at the end (or, indeed, something in between). Spoilers alert, unsurprisingly – and thanks, Faith, for your suggestion. In the second half of the podcast, we talk about one of our favourite writers, Elizabeth von Arnim, and stage a battle between her two most famous novels, Elizabeth and Her German Garden and The Enchanted April.

I had to cut out a lot of coughing, so apologies if things are a bit disjointed. I left a few coughs in for effect.

Do head over to our iTunes page (why not leave us a review?!) or download through a podcast app, or listen in the player above. We love hearing from you – so do let us know your thoughts, or your suggestions. And here are the books we mention…

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngoza Adichie
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Elizabeth Taylor
Barbara Pym
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Guard Your Daughters by Diane Tutton
Paul Gallico
The Chateau by William Maxwell
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
A Talent to Deceive: an Appreciation of Agatha Christie by Robert Barnard
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Caravanners by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Solitary Summer by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Enchanted August by Brenda Bowen
Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim
Mr Skeffington by Elizabeth von Arnim
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim

Ebooks! Books! Nancy Mitford! Evelyn Waugh! We’ve got it all for you in episode 11, as we turn our attention to the well-worn path of ebooks vs paper books/tree books/real books (whatever you want to call them) and to Nancy Mitford vs Evelyn Waugh. We’d love to hear your views on these topics, particularly suggestions for Miford or Waugh books to read. Download through your podcast app of choice, or via our iTunes page.

Suggestions for future topics couldn’t be more welcome – particularly if they come in an X vs Y format, as sometimes it is quite hard to work ideas into our Tea vs Books pattern of doing things. Apologies for any popping on the microphone. Apparently using a mug as a mic stand doesn’t work as well as one might think.

Here are the books and authors we mention in episode 11…

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Death on the Riviera by John Bude
The Eye of Love by Margery Sharp
Barbara Pym
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Christine by ‘Alice Cholmondeley’ (Elizabeth von Arnim)
The Lark by E. Nesbit
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
The Other Day by Dorothy Whipple
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The 100 Best Novels by Robert McCrum
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Wigs on the Green by Nancy Mitford
Pigeon Pie by Nancy Mitford
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
Love in a Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford
Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
E.F Benson
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
F. Scott Fitzgerald
The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford
The Letters of Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters ed. Charlotte Moseley

 

 
‘Tea or Books?’ is back for the new year – and it starts pretty shambolically, as we can’t remember the episode number. Once that is sorted out, we discuss whether or not we set New Year’s Reading Resolutions, and then debate the relative merits of beloved authors Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Taylor. It’s definitely one of those times that I’m delighted that I can keep both authors on my shelves, but it’s fun to challenge ourselves with the prospect of having to lose one of them.

As always, we’re very keen to hear what you think – and any topics you’d like us to cover in future episodes. We’re so thrilled to be back for our second year (more or less)! Here, as usual, are the books we discuss in this episode… Download via your podcast app of choice, or at our iTunes page.

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Curiosity by Alberto Manguel
A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
The Mystery in White by J. Jefferson Farjeon
Colette
The Towers of Trebizond by Rose Macaulay
The Other Elizabeth Taylor by Nicola Beauman
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Persuasion by Jane Austen
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
A Very Private Eye by Barbara Pym
An Academic Question by Barbara Pym