Barbara Pym, May Sarton, and bookshops – welcome to episode 115!
In the first half of the episode, we take up Sally’s suggestion of topic – and discuss whether or not we like books set in bookshops and libraries. More suggestions for books in this category, please!
In the second half, we compare Barbara Pym’s Quartet in Autumn with May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude and pick our favourite.
You can get in touch with suggestions etc at teaorbooks@gmail.com – get the episodes a few days early, and other bonuses, at Patreon.
The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
Quick Curtain by Alan Melville
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck
House-Bound by Winifred Peck
Dorothy Whipple
E.M. Delafield
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin
Greenery Street by Denis Mackail
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
Business As Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford
Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
Peter and Alice by Peter Shaffer
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Virginia Woolf
Barbara Cartland
Stephenie Meyer
E.L. James
Agatha Christie
Beryl Bainbridge
Margery Sharp
Muriel Spark
Miss Read
The House By The Sea by May Sarton
Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr
As a lover of libraries and bookshops, I really enjoyed this! I always look out for books featuring libraries. I’d recommend The Little Wartime Library by Kate Thompson. Madeline Martin (The Last Bookshop in London) also wrote The Librarian Spy.
I read four of the books: The Bookshop; 84, Charing Cross Road; Diary of a Bookseller; The Shadow of the Wind. I enjoyed all of them. And quite a few other books about bookshops. Yes, I think I belong to the group who likes to read about books and bookshops.
I don’t have a list like yours but all my bookshop books can be found under the tag Book about Books.
Lessons in Chemistry is dreadful but is all the rage in the US this year. 21st century characters, situations, and dialogue plopped down in the 1950s/1960s. You’ll be yearning for Barbara Pym. I also found A Quartet in Autumn depressing but well written. The Sarton was so-so for me. I prefer the Pym.
Really enjoyed this podcast as it sent me scuttling to my shelves to find out what books I had that featured bookshops and libraries. I found Penelope Fitzgerald’s book disquieting but honest as none of the characters are quite straightforward. I mean why does the protagonist take it into her head to open a book shop there in the first place? I will admit to trying and abandoning the Madeline Martin book although I don’t think I gave it a fair go. Basically I found the plot rather clunky and then it was due back at the library and it was reserved so I duly handed it over.
Our local library has undergone a renaissance thanks to Covid. H&S concerns meant that the council worked with publishers to renew all stock with lovely covers. They asked people what they wanted and changed the range of books to meet that. When restrictions were lifted they made space for people to meet up and now host a toddler’s song group, a book club, a knitting group, a young carer’s group, a local history group and a chat group for people feeling isolated. Thanks to my local library I have been able to track down many of your recommended authors and give them ago before investing in a purchase. Most importantly for the ‘Rachel’s’ of our day children still get the excitement of choosing books to take home. Just yesterday as I went in a little lad came out with an armful of books, smiling broadly as he told his grand-dad to hurry up because he wanted to get home to read another Paddington. Libraries are alive and well and still serving their communities up here in Lancashire – thankfully!
Thanks for a great discussion again; I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts. I am one of those who loves the idea of books set in bookshops or libraries but it does depend upon the writing; I am afraid Simon that I did not rush to read the next in the Shaun Bythell series after reading his first one and I agree with Rachel about some of the contemporary romantic novels set in bookshops – not for me!
The middle question about how authors look was interesting – I agree with your comment about Ivy Compton Burnett’s appearance very much suiting her novels!
I read both Quartet in Autumn (a reread) and Journal of a Solitude before the podcast. I did not enjoy Quartet in Autumn as much as I was expecting from my memory of a previous reading. Letty was my favourite character and I especially liked her observation (p186) that ‘ at least it made one realise that life still held infinite possibilities for a change’ and the way her friendship with Mrs Pope developed. It was a redeeming feature of an otherwise rather grim story. However, I did appreciate the descriptions of the domestic settings and the insights into their office life.
In contrast, I loves Journal of a Solitude (and that was despite the descriptions of all her plants which by another writer might have put me off). From the beautiful opening paragraph I was hooked; the nature descriptions were stunning and I also noted lots of quotes which seemed to perfectly encapsulate her feelings (and often mine too) about such things as small talk and ,as you mentioned, how she felt after an emotional outburst. Unlike the characters in the Pym, May was often solitary but not lonely; she had her friends and her creativity. So, in summary I agree with both of you. May Sarton wins this ‘book-off’!
I’ve probably read more non-fiction books about books and bookshops than fiction ones – but frankly anything to do with books is good for me! And libraries too… love them!
There’s quite an intersection between books about libraries and Barbara Pym, particularly An Unsuitable Attachment, much of which takes place around a library, and the posthumous An Academic Question. Nicholas Parnell (supposedly based on Robert Liddell) in Some Tame Gazelle is also an Oxford librarian. Quartet in Autumn has never been one of my go to Pyms, partly because it is such a bleak, if occasionally hopeful, view into loneliness and old age—not by any stretch a comfortable (or comforting) read but interesting in that it brought her back from the wilderness.
Though no one seems familiar with Jonathan Strong’s novels, The Judge’s House (neighbors inherit a house crammed with books and need to figure out what to do with them all) is also slightly relevant, maybe.
I’m definitely attracted to books about libraries/bookshops (and I think publishers know it is popular too). Libraries seem to crop up often in fantasy – such as the Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman, which I didn’t enjoy enough to read the rest of the series. Another book I enjoyed more was Mr Penumbra’s 24-hr Bookstore, by Robin Sloan (though I don’t think I read any of the follow-up novels).
I didn’t really enjoy the Penelope Fitzgerald Bookshop book – I think for similar reasons to Linda. There’s also The Librarian, by Sally Vickers, which I read last year.
Here’s a book set in a bookshop that doesn’t sound like any of the novels you discussed, The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. Although it’s fiction, it’s set in a bookshop she owns in Minneapolis during the pandemic. It’s excellent.
Oo thanks Kay – I’ve heard good things about her.
I’ve probably read everything by May Sarton over the last forty years or more, but the book I most often recommend as an introduction to her is “Plant Dreaming Deep”. It’s about buying and settling into her first home on her own. If you like books about houses and home and the thoughtfulness of place and possessions, it’s lovely.
When you asked about authors who look like themselves, my first thought was Neil Gaiman.
Oh I didn’t realise it was about that – thank you Lunaea, I clearly need that one now!