In the first half, we answer the question: is there a right time for each particular book? In the second half, we compare Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House and Tessa Hadley’s The Party.

You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given

And, of course, do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com with any questions or comments!

The books and authors we mentioned in this episode are:

Honourable Estates by Vera Brittain
Deviants by Santanu Bhattacharya
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
Richmal Crompton
E.V. Lucas
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Sweet Valley High by Francine Pascal
The Pooh Perplex by Frederick Crews
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Doctor Thorne by Anthony Trollope
Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Douglas Bruton
The Bachelors by Muriel Spark
Symposium by Muriel Spark

In the first half, we discuss quality vs quantity in our reading goals (inspired by this Guardian article). In the second half, we debate two books we picked from each others ‘Best reads of 2025’ lists – Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton and Voyaging Out: British Women Artists From Suffrage to the Sixties by Carolyn Trant.

You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given. Sorry that I’m behind with posting those, but more are on their way…

And, of course, do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com with any questions or comments!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Spring House by Cynthia Asquith
The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
The Party by Tessa Hadley
The Greatcoat by Helen Dunmore [is the novel I was trying to remember!]
All My Sons by Arthur Miller
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Freida McFadden
If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino
The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial by Chloe Hooper, Helen Garner, and Sarah Krasnostein
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
‘Master and Man’ by Leo Tolstoy
A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney
Told in Winter by Jon Godden
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Winter in Thrush Green by Miss Read
Emma by Jane Austen
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Hope Never Knew Horizon by Douglas Bruton
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

We turn the whole episode over to our run-down of our ten favourite books from a year in reading. As has become a tradition, we will then choose one book from each other’s list to read for the next episode.

You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given.

Rachel’s top 10 books are:

10. The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
9. Small Domb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans
8. The Butchering Art by Lindsey Fitzharris
7. Voyaging Out by Carolyn Trant
6. Crooked Cross by Sally Carson
5. Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
3. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
2. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
1. Braided Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Simon’s top 10 books are:

10. Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel by Mark Hussey
9. Bookish by Lucy Mangan
8. Love by Elizabeth von Arnim
7. Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson
6. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
5. Treasure Hunt by Molly Keane
4. The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
3. The Equations of Love by Ethel Wilson
2. Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton
1. Follow Your Heart by Susanna Tamaro

The other books and authors we mention in this episode:

On the Calculation of Volume vol.1 by Solvej Balle
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Voyage Out by Virginia Woolf
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Their Finest Hour by Lissa Evans
Anne Bronte
Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts
A Curious Friendship by Anna Thomasson
The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Hetty Dorval by Ethel Wilson
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

In the first half of this episode, we discuss whether we prefer younger authors or older authors (thank you Lindsey for the suggestion!) In the second half, we compare two recently reprinted novels about unmarried English women in Continental Europe – Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee and Fenny by Lettice Cooper.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Lanterns Across the Snow by Susan Hill
The Names by Florence Knapp
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
This House of Grief by Helen Garner
Yellowface by Rebecca Kuang
Ian McEwan
Sally Rooney
Mary Lawson
Penelope Fitzgerald
Pamela Frankau
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
Nancy Mitford
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
Casualties by Lynne Reid Banks
Desirable Residence by Lettice Cooper
Sanditon by Jane Austen
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
The New House by Lettice Cooper

In the first half of this episode, we discuss whether we prefer writing style to be ornate or simple. In the second half, we compare Sylvia Plath’s most famous poetry collection Ariel with Janet Malcolm’s book about Plath biography, The Silent Woman.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
All The Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner
Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy
Tortoise By Candelight by Nina Bawden
The Cost of Living by Kathleen Farrell
Bookish by Lucy Mangan
Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
The American Way of Death by Jessica Mitford
Henry James
Wilkie Collins
George Orwell
Yellow by Janni Visman
The Trouble With Sunbathers by Magnus Mills
The Children’s Bach by Helen Garner
Island In Moonlight by Kathleen Sully
The Bloater by Rosemary Tonks
Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Barbara Comyns
Beryl Bainbridge
The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills
Elizabeth Strout
Anne Tyler
Carol Shields
Margaret Atwood
Virginia Woolf
James Joyce
Orbital by Samantha Harvey
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel by Mark Hussey
Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Bitter Fame by Anne Stevenson
Ted Hughes: the Unauthorised Life by Jonathan Bates
The Journalist and the Murderer by Janet Malcolm
Two Lives by Janet Malcolm
Fenny by Lettice Cooper
Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee

In the first half, we use Geraldine’s suggestion – do we avoid books that will upset us? In the second half, we compare They Came To Baghdad by Agatha Christie and Fear Stalks The Village by Ethel Lina White.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given.

The books and authors we mention in this episode:

Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
Training School for Elephants by Sophy Roberts
Return to Cheltenham by Helen Ashton
King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild
The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Railway Station by E. Nesbit
The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
Their Finest Hour by Lissa Evans
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Diary of a Lone Twin by David Loftus
Let Not The Waves of the Sea by Simon Stephenson
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Tess of the D’Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
The Five-Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens
R.L. Stine
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Other People by Celia Dale
P.G. Wodehouse
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
E.F. Benson
Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White
The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm
Ariel by Sylvia Plath

In the first half of the episode, we ask if we can like characters in novels who make stupid decisions. In the second half, we compare Other People by Celia Dale and A Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

You can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given.

The books and authors we mention:

Literary Gardens by Sandra Lawrence (ill. by Lucille Clerc)
Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie
‘The Garden Party’ by Katherine Mansfield
Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton
Hope Never Knew Horizon by Douglas Bruton
The Truth About Blayds by A.A. Milne
The Dover Road by A.A. Milne
They Came To Baghdad by Agatha Christie
Honourable Estate by Vera Brittain
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Daisy’s Aunt by E.F. Benson
Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins
P.G. Wodehouse
Margery Sharp
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Pin To See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse
Oscar Wilde
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Peter Pan  by J.M. Barrie
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
Crooked Cross by Sally Carson
Autumn by Ali Smith
The Performance by Claire Thomas
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
William’s Wife by Gertrude Trevelyan
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
My Darling Villain by Lynne Reid Banks
Fear Stalks The Village by Ethel Lina White

In the first half, Rachel and I discuss significant weather scenes in novels, and whether knowing about the weather in novels makes a difference to us. In the second half, we compare two very different novels from 1934, both recently republished: Crooked Cross by Sally Carson (reissued by Persephone) and The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning (reissued by the British Library).

Here is the LitHub article about rain in novels: lithub.com/the-best-rain-in-literature

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

Tou can support the podcast at Patreon – where you’ll also get access to the exclusive new series ‘5 Books’, where I ask different people about the last book they finished, the book they’re currently reading, the next book they want to read, the last book they bought and the last book they were given.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
All The Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner
William Maxwell
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
August Blue by Deborah Levy
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Braided Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Position of Spoons by Deborah Levy
Autocorrect by Etgar Keret
Suddenly, A Knock On The Door by Etgar Keret
The Five Good Years by Etgar Keret
Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Dark Like Under by Alice Chadwick
Heatwave by Penelope Lively
Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden
The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Landscape in Sunlight by Elizabeth Fair
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Between The Acts by Virginia Woolf
The Years by Virginia Woolf
Funny Weather by Olivia Laing
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
The Five Year Sentence by Bernice Rubens
Other People by Celia Dale

Rachel and I have looked through the books we read for the first ten years of the podcast and have each picked our ten favourites – thank you for everyone who suggested this fun idea. Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you’d like to suggest anything for further episodes. Find us above, on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts.

Here are our top tens, with the episodes in which they first appear, if you’d like to read more. Don’t read this if you don’t want spoilers!

RACHEL’S TOP TEN

10. Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson (ep 137)
9. Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton (ep 8)
8. A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair (ep 36)
7. The Lark by E. Nesbit (ep 56)
6. Father by Elizabeth von Arnim (ep 91)
5. A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford (ep 47)
4. The Heir by Vita Sackville-West (ep 45)
3. A Pin To See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse (ep 34)
2. Four Gardens by Margery Sharp (ep 102)
1. One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes (ep 13)

SIMON’S TOP TEN

10. Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee (ep 20)
9. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (ep 137)
8. Enbury Heath by Stella Gibbons (ep 107)
7. The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola (ep 130)
6. Four Gardens by Margery Sharp (ep 102)
5. The Semi-Detached House and The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden (ep 48)
4. The Sweet and Twenties by Beverley Nichols (ep 52)
3. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (ep 103)
2. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (ep 20)
1. Greengates by R.C. Sherriff (ep 31)

The other books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Giving Up The Ghost by Hilary Mantel
On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf
Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans
Dark Like Under by Alice Chadwick
Emma by Jane Austen
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee
Mamma by Diana Tutton
The Young Ones by Diana Tutton
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Westwood by Stella Gibbons
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson
The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp
A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford
Messalina of the Suburbs by E.M. Delafield
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
Crooked Cross by Sally Carson

Can you believe we’ve been going for ten years? It’s wild to me! In the first half of the episode we compare two gothic-inspired novels – O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker and The Sundial by Shirley Jackson. In the second half, we share lots of lovely, lovely emails from you guys. We asked about the books and episodes that stand out from our first decade – and were so touched by everyone who got in touch. Apologies for the handful of people who messaged after we’d recorded. I’m afraid you aren’t in the episode, but we were grateful for the messages of course.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon.

Because there are so many books and authors mentioned in this episode, I’m not going to do a full list – but if you’d like anything clarified, do ask in the comments.

A super quick mini-episode – well, not really an episode – asking for your contributions to the next episode of ‘Tea or Books?’. It will be TEN YEARS since Rachel and I first put an episode out into the ether – I can’t believe it’s been a whole decade, and I’m so thankful to everyone who has listened, commented, emailed, reviewed etc over the time.

Will you help us celebrate? In the next episode, I’d love to share your contributions – are there books we’ve suggested that you’ve read and loved? Are there topics you particularly enjoyed? Anything that we can use to celebrate 10 years in style. Do send in your voicenotes or emails to teaorbooks@gmail.com, or put any highlights into the comment section on this blog post.

(Please do, otherwise it’ll be a very quiet first half of the episode!)

In the first half of the episode, we do a question that Lindsey suggested: do we care about authors’ personal lives? It takes us to questions both of ethics and of privacy. In the second half, we pit The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore against The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Recommended! by Nicola Wilson
Hugh Walpole
J.B. Priestley
Sylvia Lynd
Clemence Dane
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
Stasiland by Anna Funder
Crooked Cross by Sally Carson
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
Virginia Woolf
Stella Gibbons
Enid Blyton
Neil Gaiman
Mary Lawson
The Other Elizabeth Taylor by Nicola Beauman
Jane Austen
Dorothy L. Sayers
Don’t Look Round by Violet Trefusis
Echo by Violet Trefusis
Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey
Elena Ferrante
Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley
J.K. Rowling
Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson
Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater
John Keats
Percy Shelley
Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
Invitiation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
R.C. Sherriff
The Doctor’s Wife by Brian Moore
The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore
O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker
The Sundial by Shirley Jackson

In the first half of the episode, we take a suggestion from Lindsey – do we prefer resolved or unresolved endings? In the second half, Rachel and I see how successful our suggestions for each other were (from the end of last episode) – Rachel asked me to read Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes, and I asked Rachel to read Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White aka The Spiral Staircase
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Immortality by Milan Kundera
Atonement by Ian McEwan
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Goudge
The Honours Board by Pamela Hansford Johnson
An Error of Judgement by Pamela Hansford Johnson
The Unspeakable Skipton by Pamela Hansford Johnson
The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
An Impossible Marriage by Pamela Hansford Johnson
Christopher Isherwood
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore

In the first half of this episode, we discuss whether or not we take moral instruction from the books we read – does reading make us better people? In the second half, we compare two very similarly plotted books – And Then There Are None by Agatha Christie and The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning. Many thanks to Susan for suggesting this (and sorry for forgetting your name when we recorded!)

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon.

FYI Hargreaves gets very noisy in this episode!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Stasiland by Anna Funder
Mrs Dalloway: A Biography of the Novel by Mark Hussey
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
On Reading Well by Karen Swallow Prior
Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson
Emma by Jane Austen
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
How To Know A Person by David Brooks
Ghosted by Nancy French
Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
Walkable City by Jeff Speck
Pioneer Girl by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Pamela Smith
Brink of Being by Julia Bueno
Shaun Bythell
A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson

In the first half, we discuss whether or not literary fiction can be comfort reads – thank you for the suggestion, Marcy! In the second half, we compare novels we chose from each other’s Best Books of 2024 – Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad vs Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. Among the bonus things you’ll find is our talk from the Marlborough Literary Festival!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Julia by Sandra Newman
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie
Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Jane Gardam
Diaries by Virginia Woolf
Miss Read
Emma by Jane Austen
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
P.G. Wodehouse
Agatha Christie
Margery Sharp
Val McDermid
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Dorothy Whipple
A Writer’s Diary by Virginia Woolf
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson
For Every Favour by Ruby Ferguson
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Turn Again Home by Ruby Ferguson
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
The Group by Mary McCarthy
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Invisible Host by Gwen Bristow and Bruce Manning

Thanks so much for everyone who listens to the podcast and gets in touch. It means such a lot to us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are below – but if you want to avoid spoilers for our favourite books, then don’t read this list too carefully!

Letters to Gwen John by Celia Paul
The Years by Annie Ernaux
The Wife of Bath: A Biography by Marion Turner
The Inn at the Edge of the World by Alice Thomas Ellis
George Orwell
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks
My Darling Villain by Lynne Reid Banks
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Farthest Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
The Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Weather by Jenny Offill
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Body Made of Glass by Caroline Crampton
Foster by Claire Keegan
So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan
Antarctica by Claire Keegan
Chernobyl Prayer by Svetlana Alexievich
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Wifedom by Anna Funder
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Oracles by Margaret Kennedy
The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola
Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett
Lady Living Alone by Norah Lofts
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
The Spring House by Cynthia Asquith
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell

In the first half, we discuss reading rules – when we’re picking up a book, are there certain things that will definitely put us off? In the second half, we compare two novels by Willa Cather: Sapphira and the Slave Girl and A Lost Lady.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. Among the bonus things you’ll find is our talk from the Marlborough Literary Festival!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Back by Henry Green
Living by Henry Green
Loving by Henry Green
A Woman’s Place by Ruth Adam
A Bookshop of One’s Own by Jane Cholmondeley
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Waterfall by Margaret Drabble
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Katherine Mansfield
Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
My Antonia by Willa Cather
The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather

Rachel and I both love Edward Carey’s novels, so it was a real joy to have the opportunity to interview him. We discuss how he first got published, what inspired Edith Holler and what his books might have in common. Among his books, we discuss Observatory Mansions, Alva and Irva, The Swallowed Man, and Little.

For Patreon subscribers – as a thank you for your support, you can listen to Rachel interview me about the British Library Women Writers at the Marlborough Literary Festival! (If you’re not a Patreon subscriber and would like to be, follow that link to find out more.)

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with any questions or suggestions, and don’t forget you can listen to (and rate and review!) the podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
A Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk
The Haunted Wood by Sam Leith
Way Far Away by Evilio Rosero
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Weird Stone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
Diana Wynne Jones
Watership Down by Richard Adams
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Elizabeth McCracken
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Sapphira and the Slave Girl by Willa Cather

In the first half of the episode, we discuss a topic suggestion by Heidi – do we read deeply or shallowly? Do we like critical editions? Or do we just ‘switch off’ and enjoy? In the second half, we pit two British Library Women Writers titles against each other – Which Way? by Theodora Benson and One Year’s Time by Angela Milne.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
The Spring House by Cynthia Asquith
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
A.S. Byatt
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
How To Read Literature Like A Professor by Thomas C. Foster
Mary Lawson
The Haunted Woman by David Lindsay
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
The House by the Sea by May Sarton
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Beverley Nichols
Shirley Jackson
Buttercups and Daisies by Compton Mackenzie
Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House by Eric Hodgins
Concert Pitch by Theodora Benson
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett

In the first half of this episode, we do a topic suggested by Lindsey – do books need a romantic storyline? In the second half, we compare two novels set in department stores – The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola (both of us read the translation by Brian Nelson) and Babbcombe’s by Susan Scarlett aka Noel Streatfeild.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

Please come and see us talking about the British Library Women Writers series at the Marlborough Literary Festival on 29 September! And you can find out more about End Sexism in Schools at their website.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre
Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre
Timebends by Arthur Miller
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
Unless by Carol Shields
Larry’s Party by Carol Shields
Rereadings ed. by Anne Fadiman
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
Babbett by Stella Gibbons
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
The Provincial Lady Goes Further by E.M. Delafield
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
The World My Wilderness by Rose Macaulay
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
To Bed With Grand Music by Marghanita Laski
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Emma by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Anthony Trollope
Zadie Smith
Ian McEwan
Chimananda Ngozi Adichie
Sally Rooney
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Translations by Brian Friel
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres
Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Strangers by Taichi Yamada
One Year’s Time by Angela Milne
Which Way? by Theodora Benson

In the first half, we use a great topic suggestion by David – do we prefer authors who wrote too many books or those who didn’t write enough? And what do we mean by that? It was really fun trying to decide which authors fell into which category.

In the second half, two quite different works of non-fiction: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf and A Bookshop of One’s Own by Jane Cholmeley.

If you’d like to find out more about our appearance at Marlborough Literary Festival – here’s their events info.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Bodily Harm by Margaret Atwood
A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
The Visitors by Mary McMinnies
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
P.G. Wodehouse
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
Dorothy L. Sayers
Mapp and Lucia series by E.F. Benson
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Barbara Pym
Go Set A Watchman by Harper Lee
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes
Storm Bird by Mollie Panter-Downes
One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes
Sanditon by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Dorothy Whipple
Virginia Woolf
Barbara Comyns
Muriel Spark
Mary Essex/Ursula Bloom
Paul Gallico
Ian McEwan
Michael Cunningham
Mary Lawson
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Sarah Waters
Adele and Co by Dornford Yates
Tove Jansson
The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett
Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett
The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen
To The North by Elizabeth Bowen
Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett (Noel Stratfeild)
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple

In the first half of today’s ‘Tea or Books?’ episode, Rachel and I revisit a topic from years ago – plays! Specifically, do we think that plays should be read on the page, as well as seen on the stage. In the second half, we compare two books with a Japanese theme: Polly Barton’s Fifty Sounds, a non-fiction about moving to Japan and learning the language, and Yoko Ogawa’s novel The Housekeeper and the Professor, translated by Stephen Snyder.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

A Body Made of Glass by Caroline Crampton
The Dept of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Weather by Jenny Offill
Conventional Wisdoms by Jocelyn Brooke
The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi
One Good Turn by Dorothy Whipple
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple
The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell
J.B. Priestley
Tennesse Williams
The Dover Road by A.A. Milne
The Second Mrs Tanqueray by Arthur Wing Pinero
Private Lives by Noel Coward
Hay Fever by Noel Coward
Still Life by Noel Coward
Dear Octopus by Dodie Smith
Caryl Churchill
Lungs by Duncan Macmillan
People, Places and Things by Duncan Macmillan
Infinite Life by Annie Baker
Paula Vogel
White Noise by Suzan-Lori Parks
Posh by Laura Wade
The Watsons by Laura Wade
Jane Austen
Miss Elizabeth Bennet by A.A. Milne
Mr Pim Passes By by A.A. Milne
A View From the Bridge by Arthur Miller
A Bookshop of One’s Own by Jane Cholmeley
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

In the first half of the episode, we ask: what is our guiltiest reading pleasure? Has that changed over time? Do we feel guilty about anything connected with reading? In the second half, we compare two similarly titled novels: The Vicar’s Daughter by E.H. Young and A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love in a Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Wifedom by Anna Funder
Burmese Days by George Orwell
A Bullet in the Ballet by Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon
I Would Be Private by Rose Macaulay
Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
Miss Read
Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson
Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
The Plant Hunter by T.L. Mogford
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
The Rector’s Daughter by F.M. Mayor
Chatterton Square by E.H. Young
The Misses Mallett by E.H. Young
Miss Mole by E.H. Young
William by E.H. Young
Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

In the first half of the episode, we discuss banned books – should books ever be banned? Does a book being banned make us want to read it more? In the second half, we pit two recent novels set in the mid-century: Dear Mrs Bird by A.J. Pearce and Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Strangers May Kiss by Ursula Parrott
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh
Dear Octopus by Dodie Smith
How To Be Multiple by Helena de Bres
The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer
Barbara Pym
Day by Michael Cunningham
A Clergyman’s Daughter by George Orwell
The Vicar’s Daughter by E.H. Young
The Rector’s Daughter by F.M. Mayor

In the first half, Rachel and I discuss celebrity memoirs – do we read them? What do we count as a celebrity memoir? In the second half, we each chose one of the other’s favourite 2023 reads – Day by Michael Cunningham (one of my favourite reads from last year) and Landscape in Sunlight by Elizabeth Fair.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Convenience Store Woman by Suyaka Murata
Fifty Sounds by Polly Barton
At the Pines by Mollie Panter-Downes
Algernon Charles Swinburne
Max Beerbohm
Storm Bird by Mollie Panter-Downes
Katie Price
Peter Kay
John Gielgud
No Leading Lady by R.C. Sherriff
Virginia Woolf
Delicacy by Katy Wix
Sidesplitter by Phil Wang
Strong Female Character by Fern Brady
What’s That Lady Doing? by Lou Sanders
Glutton by Ed Gamble
Spare by Prince Harry
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Toxic by Sarah Ditum
Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton
Inferno by Catherine Cho
Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton
You’re a Brick, Angela! by Mary Cadogan
The Naughtiest Girl in the School by Enid Blyton
St Clare’s series by Enid Blyton
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham
The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
Miss Read
Bramton Wick by Elizabeth Fair
Emma by Jane Austen
Barbara Pym
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce

Some of our Patreon patrons also appear in this episode. You can join them, and get early access to episodes and other perks, at our Patreon. Do feel free to get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie
The World Between Two Covers by Ann Morgan
Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
A Flat Place by Noreen Masud
Noble Ambitions by Adrian Tinniswood
The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood
A Bird in the House by Margaret Laurence
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
The Fire-Dwellers by Margaret Laurence
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Temples of Delight by Barbara Trapido
Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido
Noah’s Ark by Barbara Trapido
Barbara Comyns
Sex and Stravinsky by Barbara Trapido
The Travelling Hornplayer by Barbara Trapido
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum by Heinrich Böll
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Billiards at Half-Past Nine by Heinrich Böll
Never Said A Word by Heinrich Böll
The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge
Dr Serocold by Helen Ashton
Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
Yeoman’s Hospital by Helen Ashton
Half-Crown House by Helen Ashton
The Self-Portrait of a Literary Biographer by Joan Givner
Katherine Anne Porter
This Little Art by Kate Briggs
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Day by Michael Cunningham
Edith Holler by Edward Carey
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
For Every Favour by Ruby Ferguson
Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary by Ruby Ferguson
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Jill’s Gymkhana by Ruby Ferguson
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale
Harriet Said… by Beryl Bainbridge
A Helping Hand by Celia Dale
The House By The Sea by May Sarton
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
The Education of Harriett Hatfield by May Sarton
Landscape in Sunlight by Elizabeth Fair
A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair
Barbara Pym
Jane Austen
Bramton Wick by Elizabeth Fair
The Native Heath by Elizabeth Fair
No Leading Lady by R.C. Sherriff
Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Last Friends by Jane Gardam
Dorothy Whippl

Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming
To Serve Them All My Days by R.F. Delderfield
The Pillars of the House by Charlotte M. Yonge
The Q by Beth Brower
Magnificent Rebels by Andrea Wulf
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt
All the Dogs of My Life by Elizabeth von Armin
Mrs. Appleyard’s Year by Louise Andrews Kent
Pleasures and Palaces by Juliet Wilbor Tompkins
Albert’s Christmas by Alison Jezard
The Stillmeadow Road by Gladys Taber
Buttered Toast by Marjorie Stewart
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
An Unequal Music by Vikram Seth

In the first half of the episode we use a suggestion from Susannah – do we read charitably or critically? In the second half we compare too rather dark novels – Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale and Harriet Said… by Beryl Bainbridge.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Mary Lawson
Stories for Winter and Nights by the Fire by various
Elizabeth Taylor
Angela Carter
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Temptation by János Székely
Family Album by Antonia Ridge
Miss Read
Grandma Went To Russia by Antonia Ridge
The Persimmon Tree by Marjorie Barnard
Katherine Mansfield
Ivy Litvinov
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Richmal Crompton
Stella Gibbons
Day by Michael Cunningham
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
A.A. Milne
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Dan Brown
Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh
Another Part of the Woods by Beryl Bainbridge
Anita Brookner
Barbara Comyns

I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but THE Mary Lawson – Canadian author of Crow Lake, The Other Side of the Bridge, Road Ends, and A Town Called Solace – joins us in this episode to talk through her work. We discuss how she approaches writing a novel, some of her creative decisions, and a little hint about her next book.

Do let us know any future episode suggestions, or any questions you have, at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com. Get episodes a little early, and some other bonus content, through Patreon. And get the podcast wherever you get podcasts! Your ratings and reviews really help too (except those people who give us one star, I guess).

The books and authors we mention in this episode:

Temptation by János Székely
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Skylark by Dezső Kosztolány
Embers by Sándor Márai
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim
Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Madame Bovary by Gustav Flaubert
Margaret Laurence
Ernest Hemingway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
‘For Esmeé—With Love and Squalor’ by J.D. Salinger
Alice Munro
Margaret Atwood
Mick Herron
Anne Enright
Sebastian Barry
Colm Tóibín
L.M. Montgomery
Thomas King
Michael Crummey
Michael Ondaatje
Brian Moore
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Arthur Miller
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
Elizabeth Strout
Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale
Harriet Said by Beryl Bainbridge

Jane Gardam and messages in books – welcome to episode 121!

In the first half of the episode, Rachel and I discuss whether or not we think books should have a message. In the second half we pit two Jane Gardam novels against each other: Old Filth and the same story from another angle, The Man in the Wooden Hat.

For those looking for Rachel’s new blog, you can find it and subscribe at Substack.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with any suggestions for topics, or questions for the middle section. You can support the podcast at Patreon, and we also really appreciate your reviews and ratings.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson
A Helping Hand by Celia Dale
Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale
Margaret Laurence
Road Ends by Mary Lawson
Brian Moore
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Love and Salt Water by Ethel Wilson
The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro
An End to Running by Lynne Reid Banks
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Double Heart by Lettice Cooper
The New House by Lettice Cooper
National Provincial by Lettice Cooper
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
Jodi Picoult
Passing Go by Libby Purves
Holy Deadlock by A.P. Herbert
Palliser series by Anthony Trollope
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
Ian McEwan
Middle England by Jonathan Coe
Lady Audley’s Secret by M.E. Braddon
Wilkie Collins
Agatha Christie
Dorothy L. Sayers
‘The Case of Miss Dorothy Sayers’ by Q.D. Leavis
Tarzan series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Ethel M. Dell
Last Friends by Jane Gardam
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
Barbara Pym
God on the Rocks by Jane Gardam
A Long Way From Verona by Jane Gardam
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson

We have our first returning guest – the wonderful Claire, who blogs at The Captive Reader. In the first half of this episode, we talk about inspiration from travel – do we get it from our fiction reading or non-fiction reading?

In the second half, we compare two novels Claire suggested – Eva Ibbotson’s The Morning Gift and D.E. Stevenson’s The English Air, two novels starting just before the Second World War.

You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. And you can support the podcast at Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry
The Princess of Siberia by Christine Sutherland
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber
So Big by Edna Ferber
The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
Death in the Clouds by Agatha Christie
Faith Fox by Jane Gardam
Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie
The Jasmine Farm by Elizabeth von Arnim
Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Benefactress by Elizabeth von Arnim
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
Princess Priscilla’s Fortnight by Elizabeth von Arnim
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
A.A. Milne
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
How The Heather Looks by Joan Bodger
The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen by Elizabeth von Arnim
Catch the Rabbit by Lana Bastašić
Heidi by Johanna Spyri
The Provincial Lady in America by E.M. Delafield
Louisa M. Alcott
Essie Summers
Marianne North
A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird
A Visit to Don Otavio by Sybille Bedford
Oleander, Jacaranda by Penelope Lively
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson
In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson
Karel Čapek
George Mikes
The Silent Traveller in Oxford by Chiang Yee
Stephen Leacock
Mary Lawson
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
The Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson
Madensky Square by Eva Ibbotson
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam

In the first half of this episode, we discuss detective fiction – do we prefer the mystery-solver to be a professional or an amateur? And in the second half we compare two fairly recent novels – Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, and Women Talking by Miriam Toews.

Do get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions for the podcast – at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – and you can listen wherever you listen to podcasts! You can support the podcast at Patreon, should you so wish, with various available rewards.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau by Sheena Wilkinson
Day by Michael Cunningham
No Leading Lady by R.C. Sherriff
Journey’s End by R.C. Sherriff
Marghanita Laski
The Dark Fantastic by Margaret Echard
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
The Venetian Glass Nephew by Elinor Wylie
Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle
Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple novels by Agatha Christie
Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers
Jackson Brodie novels by Kate Atkinson
The Thursday Club Murders by Richard Osman
Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles
The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
Sergeant Cluff series by Gil North
Mrs Bradley series by Gladys Mitchell
Quick Curtain by Alan Melville
Maigret series by Georges Simenon
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford
A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Balkan Trilogy and Levant Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
William Blake
The Book of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
The English Air by D.E. Stevenson
The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson

In the first half – a topic suggested by Aileen, where we discuss authors who wrote both children’s and adult’s books and whether we read both. In the second half, we compare two novellas about immigrant experiences – Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid and The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka.

As ever, you can support the podcast at Patreon, get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Listen to the podcast wherever you get podcasts (including Spotify) and we’d love it if you could read and review.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Picnic in the Shade by Rosemary Edisford
Noble Ambitions by Adrian Tinniswood
The Long Weekend by Adrian Tinniswood
Letty Landon by Helen Ashton
William series by Richmal Crompton
Family Roundabout by Richmal Crompton
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
Frost at Morning by Richmal Crompton
Matty and the Dearingroydes by Richmal Crompton
I Ordered A Table For Six by Noel Streatfeild
Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Making of a Marchioness by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Edith Wharton
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
The Lark by E. Nesbit
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden
John Boyne
Sarah Crossan
The Rescuers by Margery Sharp
Barbara Euphan Todd
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Penelope Lively
C.S. Lewis
Chloe Marr by A.A. Milne
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne
‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth
Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Women Talking by Miriam Toews

We are so delighted to welcome Lucy Scholes as a guest for this episode. She’s is a reprint/old books superstar – you might know her Re-Covered column for the Paris Review, her work as Senior Editor of McNally Editions, or her editing of A Different Sound: Stories of Mid-Century Women Writers. Or any number of other things. What excitement to have her on the episode!

In the first half, we discuss unnamed narrators and other characters – are we fans? In the second half we pit Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs against Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott, both recently reprinted novels that are quite ahead of their time.

You can listen above or on Spotify or your podcast app of choice. You can support the podcast at Patreon or get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
West With The Night by Beryl Markham
English Journey by Beryl Bainbridge
J.B. Priestley
Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
Gerald: A Portrait by Daphne du Maurier
A Flat Place by Noreen Masud
Sagittarius by Natalia Ginzburg
My Face For The World To See by Alfred Hayes
Foster by Claire Keegan
Making Love by Jean-Philippe Toussaint
The Forensic Records Society by Magnus Mills
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Milkman by Anna Burns
Thirst for Salt by Madelaine Lucas
Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe
Mrs S by K Patrick
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
Intimacies by Katie Kitamura
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Rebecca Watson
The Love Child by Edith Olivier
Elizabeth Bowen
They by Kay Dick
The Ice Age by Margaret Drabble
The Indignant Spinsters by Winifred Boggs
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

In the first half, we talk about sports in books – do we like them? Will we be able to think of any? Thank you to Lindsey for suggesting the topic! In the second half we compare two murder mysteries: It Walks By Night by John Dickson Carr and Quick Curtain by Alan Melville.

Get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – get early access etc through Patreon, and do rate and review wherever you get your podcasts!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

This Census-Taker by China Miéville
The City and the City by China Miéville
The Portrait by Willem Jan Otten
Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
Hornet’s Nest by Helen Ashton
Dr Serecold by Helen Ashton
Yeoman’s Hospital by Helen Ashton
People in Cages by Helen Ashton
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
Boxer, Beetle by Ned Beauman
How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup by J.L. Carr
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
A Season in Sinji by J.L. Carr
The Silence of Colonel Bramble by Andre Maurois
A.A. Milne
P.G. Wodehouse
Rudyard Kipling
Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
St Clare’s series by Enid Blyton
Malory Towers series by Enid Blyton
The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman
Double Fault by Lionel Shriver
Morse series by Colin Dexter
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
Death on the Cherwell by Mavis Doriel Hay
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
Cinderella Goes To The Morgue by Nancy Spain
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Death of Anton by Alan Melville
Weekend at Thrackley by Alan Melville
Sally on the Rocks by Winifred Boggs
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott

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

In the first half of this episode, we use a suggestion from listener Sarah – do we prefer linear or non-linear narratives? In the second half we look at two books from Rachel’s tbr pile that don’t, honestly, have much in common – though we do manage cobble together some thoughts, as per: A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen and the short story collection Winter in the Air by Sylvia Townsend Warner.

As usual, we’d love to hear from you at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with any questions, comments or suggestions – you can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please rate and review, it would mean a lot, and you can support us at Patreon too.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
The Captain Comes Home by Helen Ashton
Miss Ranskill Comes Home by Barbara Euphan Todd
Return to Cheltenham by Helen Ashton
Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett aka Noel Streatfeild
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
Free Air by Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Spiderweb by Penelope Lively
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Which Way? by Theodora Benson
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Dangerous Corner by J.B. Priestley
Constellations by Nick Payne
The Eternal Return of Clara Hart by Louise Finch
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle
The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Wise Children by Angela Carter
The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis
Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner
To The North by Elizabeth Bowen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton

In the first half of this episode, we look at literary retellings – by which we mean authors using fairy tales or Greek mythology or basically whatever we fancy including in this very loose definition. It feels like a topic we’ve done before, but apparently we haven’t?

In the second half, we compare two doorstoppers – South Riding by Winifred Holtby and Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com – you can also support the podcast on Patreon, and listen to it above or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The books and authors we discuss in this episode:

Mad, Bad And Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi
The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood
Ulysses by James Joyce
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
The True Heart by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Longbourn by Jo Baker
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Juniper Tree by Barbara Comyns
A Wild Swan and other stories by Michael Cunningham
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Anthony Trollope
Lady Audley’s Secret by M.E. Braddon
Winter in the Air by Sylvia Townsend Warner
A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen

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

In the first half, Rachel and I discuss what characters look like – do we care, do we notice if it’s mentioned, etc. In the second half, we look at two novels by Molly Keane – one under her pseudonym of M.J. Farrell – Good Behaviour and Full House.

You can get in touch with suggestions at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com, find us on Spotify or your podcast app of choice, and support the podcast (and get the episodes early) at Patreon.

Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor
Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro
Contested Will by James Shapiro
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Benefactress by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Introduction to Sally by Elizabeth von Arnim
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Jane Austen
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
The Twits by Roald Dahl
Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell
Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers
Richmal Crompton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor
A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
Dorothy Whipple
Young Entry by M.J. Farrell
Rising Tide by M.J. Farrell
Two Days in Aragon by M.J. Farrell
They Were Sisters by Dorothy Whipple
Three Sisters by May Sinclair

A bit of a longer break than usual because I lost my voice. But we’re back, asking – in the first half of the episode – whether we care where characters work? Are we drawn to books about workplaces?

In the second half, we compare two very good novels – Tove Jansson’s The True Deceiver and Celia Dale’s A Helping Hand.

You can get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com, support on Patreon, find us on Spotify, and all those good things.

The books and authors we mention in this episode:

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Oleander, Jacaranda by Penelope Lively
Shrines of Gaiety by Kate Atkinson
Managing Expectations by Minnie Driver
How We Love by Clementine Ford
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
Business As Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford
Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett
A Pin To See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse
Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
The Doctor’s Children by Josephine Elder
The Citadel by A.J. Cronin
Thrush Green series by Miss Read
Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Fresh From The Country by Miss Read
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey
Little by Edward Carey
The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey
The Maintenance of Headway by Magnus Mills
The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
Three To See The King by Magnus Mills
The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
Wise Children by Angela Carter
Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico
War Among Ladies by Eleanor Scott
Nice Work by David Lodge
The British Museum is Falling Down by David Lodge
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood
A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
Sarra Manning
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Full House by M.J. Farrell
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane

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

In the first half of this episode, we discuss a topic suggested by Gina – do we prefer books with bite or without bite? All will be explained in due course… In the second half we pit two books with similar plots against each other: Late and Soon by E.M. Delafield and A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor.

Do get in touch – with voice notes, questions, suggestions – to teaorbooks[at]gmail.com. You can find us at Patreon, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, your podcast app of choice.

The books and authors mentioned in this episode are:

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Goshawk by T.H. White
T.H. White by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Real and the Romantic by Francis Spalding
Osebol by Marit Kapla
Rose Macaulay
Margery Sharp
Miss Read
O. Douglas
Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple
Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Saul Bellow
Elizabeth Fair
Ursula Orange
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp
The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp
Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Other Elizabeth Taylor by Nicola Beauman
Frost at Morning by Richmal Crompton
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull

In the first half, we continue our ‘do we care…’ series with ‘do we care what characters read?’ By which we mean we’re looking at the books that characters read, and what that tells us about them. In the second half, we compare two novels by Stella Gibbons – The Bachelor and Enbury Heath.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with questions, comments etc. You can find us on Spotify (hopefully!), Apple Podcasts, by playing above, etc. etc. And you can support the podcast at Patreon – or by rating and reviewing where you listen, which is so much appreciated.

The books and authors we mention in this episode:

The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Provincial Lady series by E.M. Delafield
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
William Shakespeare
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Baedeker Guides
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
Michael Arlen
William Burroughs
Warwick Deeping
E.M. Dell
Gilbert Frankau
Pamela Frankau
John Galsworthy
Philip Gibbs
J.B. Priestley
Sapper
Hugh Walpole
F.R. and Q.D. Leavis
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radclyffe
Horace Walpole
Lover’s Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald
A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood
Agatha Christie
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Penelope Lively
Penelope Mortimer
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
Walt Whitman
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
Bassett by Stella Gibbons
Westwood by Stella Gibbons
Tea Is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex
Late and Soon by E.M. Delafield
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor

In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I discuss whether you should read the book before you watch the film. In the second half, we pit two novels about hotels against each other: The Feast by Margaret Kennedy and Grand Canyon by Vita Sackville-West.

You can find the episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or via the play button above. Get even more content and bonus things at Patreon! We really appreciate it when people rate and review the podcast, and we also love hearing from you at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Suddenly a Knock at the Door by Etgar Keret
The Optimist by E.M. Delafield
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Enbury Heath by Stella Gibbons
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Along For the Ride by Sarah Dessen
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Dorothy Whipple
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Emma by Jane Austen
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Trial by Franz Kafka
George Bernard Shaw
Monica Dickens
Together and Apart by Margaret Kennedy
The Forgotten Smile by Margaret Kennedy
Lucy Carmichael by Margaret Kennedy
Lucy Gayheart by Margaret Kennedy
Agatha Christie
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy

Rachel is busy this month, so I put a shout-out on our Patreon page to see if anybody would be willing to step in and take her place. I was delighted that Arwen said yes, and I think you’ll enjoy the chat we had. In the first half, we talk about big vs small families in literature – and in the second half, we compare Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm by George Orwell. Rachel will be back next time, to do the books we previously advertised.

You can join the Patreon at the link above – you’ll get episodes early and other bonus bits, and you might even end up on an episode yourself!

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you’d like to suggest or ask anything. You can find our podcast at Apple podcasts, Spotify, your podcast app of choice, or the audio file above.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

E.F. Benson
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Philip K Dick
Iain M Banks
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Hard Times by Charles Dickens
Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Anna of the Five Towns by Arnold Bennett
The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett
Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett
Literary Taste by Arnold Bennett
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Diary of a Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Foe by J.M. Coetzee
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
The Dust Never Settles by Karina Lickorish Quinn
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
Sleepwalking Land by Mia Couto
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Autobiography by Anthony Trollope
Anita Brookner
The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Famous Five series by Enid Blyton
Danny, Champion of the World by Roald Dahl
A Change for the Better by Susan Hill
The Nutmeg Tree by Margery Sharp
The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
Moomin series by Tove Jansson
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Hunky Parker’s Watching You by Gillian Cross
The Demon Headmaster by Gillian Cross
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K Dick
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Grand Canyon by Vita Sackville-West

In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I discuss whether or not we like dreams in books, and how different authors use them. In the second half, we compare two novels about couples on the brink of World Wars – The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning and William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton.

The podcasts I was a guest on are Lost Ladies of Lit and The Mookse and the Gripes – go and check them out!

You can get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com, find us on Patreon if you’d like to support the podcast, and listen to us through Spotify, Apple podcasts, or your podcast app of choice.

The books we mention in this episode are:

O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Lady Audley’s Secret by M.E. Braddon
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Longbourn by Jo Baker
Dreaming of Rose by Sarah LeFanu
Rose Macaulay by Sarah LeFanu
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Elizabeth Goudge
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Moondial by Helen Cresswell
A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller
All My Sons by Arthur Miller
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
The Flick by Annie Baker
John by Annie Baker
The Watsons by Laura Wade
Home, I’m Darling by Laura Wade
Posh by Laura Wade
White Noise by Suzan-Lori Parks
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Private Lives by Noel Coward
Still Life by Noel Coward
Hay Fever by Noel Coward
Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward
The Dover Road by A.A. Milne
Mr Pim Passes By by A.A. Milne
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare
Lungs by Duncan Macmillan
People, Places and Things by Duncan Macmillan
The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning
Charles Dickens
George Orwell
School for Love by Olivia Manning
The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
Grand Canyon by Vita Sackville-West

Apologies for the unexpected delay in recording. Blame Rachel! But we are here and raring to go. In the first half, we follow a topic suggested by Mairad (topic ideas to teaorbooks@gmail.com, please!) – do we prefer books that make us think, or books that make us feel?

In the second half, two novels that ended up having more in common than we initially imagined – Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively and The Diviners by Margaret Laurence. And no, despite the lengthy break, ONE of us hadn’t finished reading the books.

You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast app of choice. Please rate and review! And you can support us on Patreon.

(This is my first episode on a new laptop, which might explain some of the weird clicking that Rachel’s side picked up? I don’t know. Sorry about it!)

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Feast by Margaret Kennedy
The Constant Nymph by Margaret Kennedy
The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett
Which Way? by Theodora Benson
The Native Heath by Elizabeth Fair
Brampton Wick by Elizabeth Fair
A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair
Into the Woods by John Yorke
Emma by Jane Austen
Because of the Lockwoods by Dorothy Whipple
Dorothy L Sayers
Agatha Christie
Milan Kundera
Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
According to Mark by Penelope Lively
The Heatwave by Penelope Lively
How It All Began by Penelope Lively
The Photograph by Penelope Lively
Oleander, Jacaranda by Penelope Lively
The Great Fortune by Olivia Manning
William – an Englishman by Cicely Hamilton

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

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

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

Sorry for an unintended long break, but we’re back and Rachel even has a new mic – hopefully has helped with the sound issues, though there may be some teething problems while we get used to it. (I do my best but I am certainly not a professional editor!)

Don’t forget – we would love your questions for episode 100. Do send questions to teaorbooks@gmail.com, on anything you’d like to know about – from books to podcasting to tea to anything else.

In this episode, in the first half we talk about essays – and it is surprising that we haven’t done it before. In the second half, we compare two Persephone books – Winifred Holtby’s The Crowded Street and Susan Glaspell’s Brook Evans.

We’d love to hear from you – and please do review and rate the podcast, which you can find on iTunes, Spotify, or your podcast app of choice. And you can find us on Patreon too.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L Sayers
Osebol: Voices from a Swedish Village by Marit Kapla
Akenfield by Ronald Blythe
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
The Poor Man by Stella Benson
Princes in the Land by Joanna Cannan
Murder Included by Joanna Cannan
When I Was A Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit
A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit
If I May by A.A. Milne
Once a Week by A.A. Milne
Delight by J.B. Priestley
Personal Pleasures by Rose Macaulay
Forty-One False Starts by Janet Malcolm
Edith Wharton
The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm
Notes From No-Man’s Land by Eula Biss
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
Fran Lebowitz
Gloria Steinem
Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde
The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson
Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
E.V. Lucas
George Orwell
Max Beerbohm
Notes to Self by Emilie Pine
Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield
Fidelity by Susan Glaspell
Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
National Provincial by Lettice Cooper

As mentioned in the podcast – we’d love to hear your questions as we gear up for our hundredth episode. Just email teaorbooks@gmail.com, or put your questions in the comments to this post.

In the first half of the episode, we decide whether or not we like nature writing. In the second half, we have postponed our discussion of The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby and Brook Evans by Susan Glaspell – instead, Rachel and I both pick three favourite books by women that have won prizes.

Do get in touch if you have any suggestions for topics we should do – and you can find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Patreon etc etc. We’d love you to rate and review us, if you can.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

National Provincial by Lettice Cooper
South Riding by Winifred Holtby
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Henry Longfellow
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
White Spines by Nicholas Royle
Quilt by Nicholas Royle
The Uncanny by Nicholas Royle
Love, Interrupted by Simon Thomas
The Warning Bell by Lynne Reid Banks
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Farthest-Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks
The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
The Goshawk by T.H. White
The Pilgrim Hawk by Glenway Wescott
The Pebbles on the Beach by Clarence Ellis
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May
Bleaker House by Nell Stevens
Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
John Moore
Adrian Bell
The Village by Marghanita Laski
Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski
The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
The Village by Marghanita Laski
To Bed With Grand Music by Marghanita Laski
Tory Heaven by Marghanita Laski
Love on the Supertax by Marghanita Laski
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Mother and Son by Ivy Compton-Burnett
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Injury Time by Beryl Bainbridge
Another Part of the Woods by Beryl Bainbridge
Sweet William by Beryl Bainbridge
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson

In the first half of the episode, we debate whether to read spontaneously or plan our reading. In the second half, two E.M. Delafield novels vie against each other: Tension, recently reprinted in the British Library Women Writers series, and Thank Heaven Fasting.

Do get in touch if you have any suggestions for future episodes, or questions for the middle section – teaorbooks@gmail.com. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, your podcast app of choice etc, and can support the podcast at Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Consequences by E.M. Delafield
The Way Things Are by E.M. Delafield
The Solange stories by F Tennyson Jesse
Mrs Alfred Sidgwick
The Hills Sleep On by Joanna Cannan
A Lion, A Mouse, and a Motor-Car by Dorothea Townshend
The Glass Wall by E.M. Delafield
Love Has No Resurrection by E.M. Delafield
The Gap of Time of Jeanette Winterson
The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare
The Other Side of the Bridge by Mary Lawson
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
Barbara Kingsolver
Miss Bunting by Angela Thirkell
Love at All Ages by Angela Thirkell
The Duke’s Daughter by Angela Thirkell
Festival at Farbridge by J.B. Priestley
The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart
P.D. James
The Shelf by Phyllis Rose
Sun City by Tove Jansson
Agatha Christie
Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
Georges Simenon
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Where There’s Love, There’s Hate by Adolfo Bioy Casares and Silvina Ocampo
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mary Webb
Faster! Faster! by E.M. Delafield
The War Workers by E.M. Delafield
The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby
Brook Evans by Susan Glaspell

In this episode, we ask whether or not offensive books should be republished – you might remember the same conversation happening here on StuckinaBook a while ago, and it was interesting to visit it with Rachel. In the second half, we pit two Barbara Pym novels against each other – Crampton Hodnet and A Glass of Blessings.

Sorry it’s been a while – we actually recorded this a couple of weeks ago but it’s been too hot for me to edit a podcast. I know that doesn’t make sense, but I’m sticking to it.

We’d love to hear from you – you can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com. You can support the podcast on Patreon, find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your podcast app of choice. Do let us know if you have any questions for the middle section, or any topics you’d like us to cover.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
I Ordered a Table for Six by Noel Streatfeild
Saplings by Noel Streatfeild
Miss Linsey and Pa by Stella Gibbons
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
The Sweet Dove Died by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Philip Larkin
An Academic Question by Barbara Pym
A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
Walter Pater
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane
Emma by Jane Austen
Tension by E.M. Delafield
Thank Heaven Fasting by E.M. Delafield

In the first half, we take a detour from our usual practice and pit two authors against each other. And it’s two very big hitters – Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf, suggested by my friend Paul.

In the second half, we look at two post-war novels about houses – The Foolish Gentlewoman by Margery Sharp and The Half-Crown House by Helen Ashton.

Do get in touch with us if you have any suggestions or questions – teaorbooks[at]gmail.com. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, your podcast app of choice etc. You can also support the podcast at Patreon, from as little as a dollar a month.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are everything by Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf [!] and:

There is a Fortress by Winifred Peck
House-Bound by Winifred Peck
Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck
Arrest the Bishop by Winifred Peck
Summer by Ali Smith
Winter by Ali Smith
The Knox Brothers by Penelope Fitzgerald
Charlotte Mew by Penelope Fitzgerald
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
The Village by Marghanita Laski
Tadpole Hall by Helen Ashton
Joanna at Littlefold by Helen Ashton
Yeoman’s Hospital by Helen Ashton
The Captain Comes Home by Helen Ashton
Angela Thirkell
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
Crampton Hodnet by Barbara Pym
A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym
The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne

In the first half of this episode, we do a topic suggested by Gillian – do we care where authors live? That is, do we want to visit their houses – we talk through authors’ houses we’ve visited and those we’d like to visit.

In the second half, we compare two coming-of-age novels: Frost in May by Antonia White and Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann.

Do get in touch if you have suggestions for topics, or questions for the central section – teaorbooks@gmail.com. You can listen above, through Spotify, through your podcast app of choice, or Apple Podcasts. You can support the podcast, and get mini bonus episodes, from as little as one dollar a month at Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Last of Summer by Kate O’Brien
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
The Franchise Affair by Josephine Tey
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
No Place Like Home by Beverley Nichols
Jane Austen
Bronte sisters
The Life of Charlotte Bronte by Elizabeth Gaskell
Stephen Leacock
Virginia Woolf
William Wordsworth
This Golden Fleece by Esther Rutter
Robert Burns
Beatrix Potter
Dante
Emily Dickinson
Louisa M. Alcott
The Provincial Lady in America by E.M. Delafield
Rudyard Kipling
Thomas Hardy
Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie
A.A. Milne
E.M. Delafield
Barbara Comyns
Marilynne Robinson
They Knew Mr Knight by Dorothy Whipple
As For Me and My House by Sinclair
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
A Very Great Profession by Nicola Beauman
Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
Thrown to the Woolfs by John Lehmann
The Sincerest Form by E.M. Delafield
Olivia by Olivia
The Half Crown House by Helen Ashton
The Foolish Gentlewoman by Margery Sharp

In the first half, we ask: ‘Do we care what characters are called?’, looking at the strange and ordinary names that characters are given. In the second half, we compare Tove Jansson’s novel – or is it – The Summer Book and short story selection A Winter Book.

As ever, we would love to hear your questions and suggestions to teaorbooks@gmail.com. You can listen to the podcast above, through a podcast app, on Apple Podcasts, or on Spotify. You can support the podcast on Patreon, and many thanks to those who do

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Camilla by Frances Burney
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Tristam Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Evelina by Frances Burney
The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
The Half Crown House by Helen Ashton
Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
The Foolish Gentlewoman by Margery Sharp
P.G. Wodehouse
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
The Gipsy in the Parlour by Margery Sharp
The Reading Group by Elizabeth [not Barbara!] Noble
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Ballad and the Source by Rosamond Lehmann
Patience by John Coates
Charles Dickens
Anthony Trollope
A Name to Conjure With by G.B. Stern
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Weather by Jenny Offill
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Chemistry by Weike Wang
Sarah Crossan
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham
Sex Education by Janni Visman
Yellow by Janni Visman
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Grief Is The Thing With Feathers by Max Porter
Lanny by Max Porter
Vanessa and Her Sisters by Priya Parmar
Lettice Delmer by Susan Miles
Hello Friend We Missed You by Richard Owain Roberts
Tomas Tranströmer
Fair Play by Tove Jansson
Sun City by Tove Jansson
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann
Frost in May by Anthonia White

In the first half of the episode, Rachel and I discuss clothes in books – do we care what characters wear? I forgot to mention, but do check out Moira’s excellent Clothes in Books blog for lots of this sort of thing.

In the second half, we are unusually modern – comparing Life After Life by Kate Atkinson and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo.

Do get in touch with us if you have any suggestions or questions – teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – and you can support the podcast at Patreon. Many thanks to those who do!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Flick by Annie Baker
John by Annie Baker
A Winter Book by Tove Jansson
A Name to Conjure With by G.B. Stern
For All We Know by G.B. Stern
Alan Ayckbourn
Harvey by Mary Chase
Speaking of Jane Austen by Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern
More Talk of Jane Austen by Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern
Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day by Winifred Watson
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
High Wages by Dorothy Whipple
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
‘Miss Brill’ by Katherine Mansfield
The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Letter From New York by Helene Hanff
Patricia Brent, Spinster by Herbert Jenkins
Emma by Jane Austen
Daisy’s Aunt by E.F. Benson
Mapp and Lucia by E.F. Benson
Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp
Ashcombe by Cecil Beaton
Edith Olivier
Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Star of the Sea by Joseph O’Connor
A Winter Book by Tove Jansson
The Summer Book by Tove Jansson

In the first half of the novel, we look at the settings of novels, and ask whether we prefer familiar or unfamiliar settings. In the second half, we compare two recently reprinted novels by Elizabeth von Arnim – Father and Expiation.

You can listen above, on Spotify, via Apple Podcasts, or any podcast app. You can support the podcast at Patreon, or get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com.

The books and authors we mention in this episode:

O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Passing On by Penelope Lively
According to Mark by Penelope Lively
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
Dorothy L Sayers
E. M. Delafield
Charles Dickens
Winifred Holtby
Vera Brittain
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
Maria Edgeworth
Brensham Village by John Moore
The Moving Toyshop by Edmund Crispin
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Bowen
Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Westwood by Stella Gibbons
The Matchmaker by Stella Gibbons
Bassett by Stella Gibbons
Here Be Dragons by Stella Gibbons
Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
Barbara Pym
Alas, Poor Lady by Rachel Ferguson
Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
Keeping Up Appearances by Rose Macaulay
Crewe Train by Rose Macaulay
Potterism by Rose Macaulay
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

In the first half, we look back over a very unusual year and ask – was it a good reading year or a bad reading year? We’ve not talked much about the pandemic this year, because we want this to be one of the places people can escape from all that, but in this episode we’ve talked about how it affects our reading.

In the second half, in a slight change to the advertised pairing, we compare O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. Both are coming-of-age novels set in the 1910s and published in the 1940s, though in very different environments.

We’ll see you in the new year – in the meantime, you can listen to this podcast on Spotify, via your podcast app, or at Apple podcasts. You can get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com and/or support the podcast at Patreon.

Thanks to Arpita of Bag Full of Books for her wonderful contribution to our Dorothy Evelyn Smith conversation!

Have a lovely Christmas and a happy new year – here’s hoping 2021 is better than 2020.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Three Kings by Stephen Beresford
Present Laughter by Noel Coward
Have His Carcass by Dorothy L Sayers
The New Magdalen by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Willa Cather
Emily Eden
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
Ali Smith
Square Haunting by Francesca Wade
Virginia Woolf
Business As Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford
John Buchan
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
A Woman’s Place by Ruth Adam
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey
Alva and Irva by Edward Carey
Little by Edward Carey
The Moor’s Account by Laila Lalami
Leila Slimani
Jeeves and Wooster series by P.G. Wodehouse
The Girl on the Boat by P.G. Wodehouse
Miss Plum and Miss Penny by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Beyond the Gates by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Proud Citadel by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
The Lovely Day by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton
Miss Read
Tomorrow Will Be Better by Betty Smith
Expiation by Elizabeth von Arnim
Father by Elizabeth von Arnim

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

In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I talk about whether we want blurbs – i.e. do we do research on what we’re reading before we pick it up. In the second half, we look at two novels by Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.

Do let us know if you have any questions for the central bit of the podcast – or any topic suggestions; we always love to hear them. You can find us in your podcast app of choice, via Apple podcasts, or on Spotify. And you can support the podcast on Patreon, should you so wish!

Incidentally, apologies for Hargreaves miaowing for his tea throughout… which, indeed, he had already eaten.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Bring Up The Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Talk of the Devil by Frank Baker
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Letters of Virginia Woolf
Essays by Gloria Steinem
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
Mrs Parkington by Louis Bromfield
Gelett Burgess
The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg by Louis Bromfield
Barbara Pym
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Nightingale Wood by Stella Gibbons
Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
Asleep in the Sun by Adolfo Bioy Casares
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

We recorded this episode a little while ago and I have been lazy at editing – but here we are. Hope you like our lovely new logo, courtesy of my graphic designer friend Ellie.

In the first half of this episode, we discuss novels based on real people vs biographies – in the second half, Crossriggs by Jane and Mary Findlater vs a book it seemed a little based on, Emma by Jane Austen.

You can listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts or your podcast app of choice – reviews gratefully accepted! You can support the podcast, and get bonus mini episodes along with other ‘rewards’, at Patreon.

Oh, and you can find a snippet of me recommending a lovely summer read in the latest Book Club Review Podcast – have a hunt for that in your apps.

Books and authors we mention in this podcast:

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Human Kind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
Airhead by Emily Maitlis
A Woman’s Place by Ruth Adam
A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair
Vanessa and Virginia by Susan Sellers
Vanessa and Her Sister by Priya Parmar
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
Alexandra Harris
Hermione Lee
Quentin Bell
Regeneration by Pat Barker
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon
The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik
Rose Macaulay by Constance Babington-Smith
Rose Macaulay by Jane Emery
Rose Macaulay by Sarah LeFanu
The Silent Woman by Janet Malcolm
Anne Stevenson
According to Mark by Penelope Lively
Summer in February by Jonathan Smith
Stevenson Under the Palm Trees by Alberto Manguel
Nicola Upson
Josephine Tey
Gyles Brandreth
Oscar Wilde
Dorothy L. Sayers
The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
The Three Brontes by May Sinclair
Larchfield by Polly Clark
Remembering Denny by Calvin Trillin
The Story of Charlotte’s Web by Michael Sims
Arthur and Sherlock by Michael Sims
Parson Austen’s Daughter by Helen Ashton
Bricks and Mortar by Helen Ashton
More Women Than Men by Ivy Compton-Burnett
A House and Its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett
Manservant and Maidservant by Ivy Compton-Burnett
Elizabeth Gaskell
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Welcome to episode 86, in which we talk about characters we feel empathetic towards and those we feel sympathetic towards. And if you aren’t sure of the distinction, don’t worry, we’ve got that covered too.

In the second half, we compare two books with similar titles but very different contents: When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson and The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford.

Do get in touch if you have any suggestions for topics or a question for the middle bit – we’re at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com. Find us in your podcast app of choice, on Spotify, or on Apple Podcasts. And you can support us on Patreon, where there are also bonus ten-minute episodes from me.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Game by A.S. Byatt
Possession by A.S. Byatt
The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt
The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
The Vanishing Act by Adrian Alington
Dorothy L Sayers
Agatha Christie
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Goodbye To Berlin by Christopher Isherwood
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Henry James
Prater Violet by Christopher Isherwood
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Ian McEwan
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Dr Thorne by Anthony Trollope
The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Lady Susan by Jane Austen
Ivy Compton-Burnett
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Biggles series by W.E. Johns
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Any Human Heart by William Boyd
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Way We Live Now by Meg Rosoff
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
White Cargo by Felicity Kendal
William Shakespeare
The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith
Look Back With Love by Dodie Smith
Look Back With Astonishment by Dodie Smith
Look Back With Mixed Feelings by Dodie Smith
Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
Wise Children by Angela Carter
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
Lover’s Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald
Sea Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard
At Freddie’s by Penelope Fitzgerald
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Famous Five series by Enid Blyton
Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford
Crossriggs by Jane and Mary Findlater
Emma by Jane Austen

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

In the first half of this episode, we talk about novels set in the mountains vs those set by the sea. The classic dichotomy. In the second half, we compare two very different novels about relatives – Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield, also known as Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[@]gmail.com if you’d like to suggest a topic or a question for the middle section – and rate/review us if you can! Find us at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or whichever podcast app you use – and you can support the podcast, and get little bonus eps, at Patreon.

The books and authors we talk about in this episode:

The Vanishing Celebrities by Adrian Alington
Dorothy L Sayers
Agatha Christie
Beverley Nichols
Inferno by Catherine Cho
What Have I Done by Laura Dockrill
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Heidi by Joanna Spyri
The Fortnight in September by R.C. Sherriff
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher
Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher
Famous Five by Enid Blyton
Jane Austen
Beside the Sea by Veronique Olmi
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
In the Mountains by Elizabeth von Arnim
The Egg and I by Betty Macdonald
Katherine Mansfield
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
39 Steps by John Buchan
Proud Citadel by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
Spring by Ali Smith
A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr
A Day in Summer by J.L. Carr
The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield
Stoner by John Williams
Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
Abbie by Dane Chanos
Fresh From the Country by Miss Read
A Thatched Cottage by Beverley Nichols

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

In the first half, we do a topic suggested by Lindsay – books by Australians and books by people from New Zealand. And my GOODNESS we don’t know anywhere near enough to be discussing it. But we plough on!

In the second half, we look at two non-fiction books by Adrian Bell: Corduroy and A Suffolk Harvest.

If you’d like to get bonus mini episodes, and a whole bunch of other things, you can find us at Patreon. And you can listen via Apple Podcasts or your podcast app of choice. Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you have topic suggestions or just want to say hi!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Rose Macaulay: A Writer’s Life by Jane Emery
Rose Macaulay by Constance Babington Smith
Rose Macaulay: A Biography by Sarah LeFanu
Aunt Mame by Patrick Dennis
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Circe by Madeline Miller
‘The Garden Party’ by Katherine Mansfield
Janet Frame
Opening Night by Ngaio Marsh
My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Emma by Jane Austen
My Place by Sally Morgan
The Middle of Nowhere by Geraldine McCaughrean
The Secret River by Kate Grenville
The Harp in the South by Ruth Park
Poor Man’s Orange by Ruth Park
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas
Breathe by Tim Winton
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin
My Career Goes Bung by Miles Franklin
Elizabeth von Arnim
Barbara Comyns
Sylvia Townsend Warner
A.A. Milne
Corduroy by Adrian Bell
A Suffolk Harvest by Adrian Bell
The Balcony by Adrian Bell
A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather

In the first half of this episode, we discuss style vs substance – or, to put it another way, writing style vs the plot of the novel. Which is more important to us? In the second half, we compare two novels by Henry Green – Loving and Living. One of us finished the book. Won’t say which one.

If you’d like to support us on Patreon and get the new mini bonus episodes, it’s here. We’re on iTunes and any podcast app of your choice. And do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you’d like to ask us questions, suggest topics, or anything else. We love hearing from you!

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
A Bite of the Apple by Lennie Goodings
Margaret Atwood
Ethel Wilson
Stephen Leacock
My Husband Simon by Mollie Panter-Downes
Bad Girl by Vena Delmar
The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
Chatterton Square by E.H. Young
Jack by Marilynne Robinson
Hilary Mantel
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Home by Marilynne Robinson
Grief is a Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
Lanny by Max Porter
Elizabeth Bowen
Virginia Woolf
George Orwell
Chess by Stefan Zweig
Charles Dickens
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Emma by Jane Austen
Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford
Dorothy Whipple
Mary Webb
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Thornyhold by Mary Stewart
All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville-West
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West
The Death of Noble Godavary by Vita Sackville-West
Grand Canyon by Vita Sackville-West
Caught by Henry Green
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Blindness by Henry Green
The Waves by Virginia Woolf
The Years by Virginia Woolf
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce
Party Going by Henry Green
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
John Braine
Of Love and Hunger by Julian McLaren-Ross
Rosamond Lehmann
Corduroy by Adrian Bell
A Suffolk Harvest by Adrian Bell

In the first half of episode 80, we ask if writers should only write what they know – whether that means their race, gender, or experiences. In the second half we compare and contrast 4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie and Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers, and find out if I’ve got over my loathing of Lord Peter Wimsey.

We always love hearing from you – thanks to everyone who has sent in topic suggestions to teaorbooks@gmail.com. And if you have any requests for reading advice for the middle segment, do let us know.

You can see us at Apple Podcasts or by searching on Spotify, you can support the podcast at Patreon, and if you can work out how to rate and review us through your podcast app then we’re always grateful for that!

The books and authors we mentioned in this episode are:

The Book of William by Paul Collins
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Kate Atkinson
Alva and Irva by Edward Carey
Little by Edward Carey
My Caravaggio Style by Doris Langley Moore
Lord Byron
The Call by Edith Ayrton Zangwill
No Surrender by Constance Maud
Not So Quiet by Helen Zenna Smith
The Happy Foreigner by Enid Bagnold
Diary Without Dates by Enid Bagnold
The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
J.K. Rowling
Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker
William Shakespeare
The Sandcastle by Iris Murdoch
The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
Memoirs of a Survivor by Doris Lessing
The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
The Masters by C.P. Snow
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
The Garrick Year by Margaret Drabble
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie
Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie
Loving by Henry Green
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen

We have a special guest for this episode – my very good friend Lorna, who was meeting Rachel for the first time. We recorded in person in Rachel’s flat, bunched along the sofa. It was really fun – and since Lorna is a broadcast journalist, I feel like we’ve elevated ourselves…

In the first half we talk about political books, both fact and fiction. In the second half we compare two works on running bookshops – Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller and a short essay by George Orwell called ‘Bookshop Memories’.

If you’d like to support the podcast through Patreon, you can! And here we are on Apple Podcasts and you can find us on Spotify too – any reviews or ratings much appreciated. Do get in touch at teaorbooks@gmail.com with any questions or suggestions.

Here are the books and authors we mention in this episode:

Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
The Quest for Christa T by Christa Wolf
The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
The Past is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg
Goethe
Theft By Finding by David Sedaris
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
Why I’m No Longer Speaking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Small Island by Andrea Levy
The Island by Victoria Hislop
Unleashing Demons by Craig Oliver
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman
The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert Caro
Tory Heaven by Marghanita Laski
Love on the Supertax by Marghanita Laski
Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood
Coningsby by Benjamin Disraeli
Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli
Walter Scott
Charles Dickens
Emile Zola
George Eliot
Middle England by Jonathan Coe
Ian McEwan
Autumn by Ali Smith
Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
The Rotters Club by Jonathan Coe
Holy Deadlock by A.P. Herbert
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Semi-Detached House by Emily Eden
The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden
Head of State by Andrew Marr
Mrs Harris, MP by Paul Gallico
Flowers For Mrs Harris by Paul Gallico
Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell
E.M. Delafield
Old Books, Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern
Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

 
In the first half of this episode, we take a suggestion from Elizabeth – do we prefer the nineteenth or twentieth century for literature? That’s an awful lot to cover, so we just look at British literature… and not very much of that tbh. But it’s fun!

In the second half, we look at Sanditon and The Watsons – two unfinished novels by Jane Austen – and pick which one is our favourite, and which we wish had been finished.

Do get in touch if you’d like to suggest topics or want to ask us advice – you can do that at teaorbooks@gmail.com. You can support the podcast at our Patreon page and rate or review us at Apple Podcasts.

And if the Georgianary Group sounds interesting, you can find it at GoodReads.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk
William Blake
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk
Dorothy L Sayers
Georges Simenon
The Secret of High Eldersham by Miles Burton
Diaries of Cecil Beaton
Molly Fox’s Birthday by Deirdre Madden
The Wells of St Mary’s by R.C. Sherriff
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Jane Austen
Elizabeth Gaskell
George Eliot
Wilkie Collins
Charles Dickens
Mrs Henry Wood
Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Arthur Conan Doyle
Amy Levy
Bronte sisters
Mary Shelley
Virginia Woolf
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Drabble
Margaret Forster
Nina Bawden
Penelope Mortimer
Anthony Trollope
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Monk by Matthew Lewes
The Italian by Ann Radcliffe
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Cecilia by Fanny Burney
Evelina by Fanny Burney
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Self-Control by Mary Brunton
Discipline by Mary Brunton
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Loving by Henry Green
Whose Body? by Dorothy L Sayers
4.50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie

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.

You can find the podcast at Apple podcasts – please rate and review, it really helps us – or download the episode from your podcast app of choice. You can support the podcast at Patreon – and please get in touch if you need any reading advice at teaorbooks@gmail.com!

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

In the first half of this episode, we discuss whether or not we want illustrations in our books – taking a little venture to graphic novels on the way. In the second half – only four years after the podcast started – we finally read my favourite novel, Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker. We compare it to the similarly-named Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik, and discover that that’s about all it has in common.

Fun! Please get in touch if you have any topics – or any questions to ask or advice you’d like us to give! We’re at teaorbooks@gmail.com. And you can support the podcast at Patreon or find us on iTunes. We appreciate all your reviews and ratings so much.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
A Shooting Star by Wallace Stegner
Fair Stood the Wind For France by H.E. Bates
Dark Hester by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
The Old Countess by Anne Douglas Sedgwick
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
Sylvia Plath
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Edith Olivier
Tove Jansson: Work and Love by Tuula Karjalainen
Tove Jansson: Life, Art, Words by Boel Westin
Enid Blyton
The Making Of by Brecht Evens
Panther by Brecht Evens
The Wrong Place by Brecht Evens
Ethel and Ernest by Raymond Briggs
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks
Emma by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Little by Edward Carey
Alva and Irva by Edward Carey
Country Matters by Clare Leighton
The Heir by Vita Sackville-West
Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day by Winifred Watson
Mr Norris Changes Trains by Christopher Isherwood
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Agatha Christie
Curtain by Agatha Christie
Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie
The Love-Child by Edith Olivier
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Before I Go Hence by Frank Baker
I Follow But Myself by Frank Baker (autobiography)
Mr Allenby Loses The Way by Frank Baker
The Shooting Party by Isobel Colegate
Beneath the Visiting Moon by Romilly Cavan
Wine of Honour by Barbara Beauchamp

 
We’re back after a bit of a break – and we’re doing poetry for the first time ever. In the first half of the episode, we discuss whether we are moral or amoral readers. Do we have the same morality in our reading as we do in real life? And does the author’s own morality affect our reading?

In the second half, we compare Ted Hughes’ collection of poetry Birthday Letters and Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book. We just about manage to find links!

You can support the podcast at Patreon, email us at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com, find us on iTunes or your podcast app of choice etc. Feel free to get in touch!

I mention a couple of other podcast episodes here – the one where Jenny and Jenny discuss fictional morality is here; my discussion about Jansson with Trevor is here.

The books and authors – and poems! – we mention in this episode are:

A Time to Dance, A Time to Die by John Waller
Dead Man’s Folly by Agatha Christie
The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie
Alfred Tennyson
Hickory Dickory Dock by Agatha Christie
Chronicle of Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Dorothy L Sayers
The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Daphne du Maurier by Margaret Forster
Letters From Menabilly by Daphne du Maurier
Oriel Malet
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Ian McEwan
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
V.S. Naipaul
Rudyard Kipling
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
At Mrs Lippincote’s by Elizabeth Taylor
Mrs Tim of the Regiment by D.E. Stevenson
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym
Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
Some Tame Gazelle by Barbara Pym
Agatha Christie as Mary Westmacott
‘Suttee’ by Ted Hughes
‘Daddy’ by Sylvia Plath
Ariel by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
‘Wuthering Heights’ by Ted Hughes
‘Wuthering Heights’ by Sylvia Plath
‘Chaucer’ by Ted Hughes
Sun City by Tove Jansson
A Winter Book by Tove Jansson
Fair Play by Tove Jansson
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves by Rachel Malik