This episode's book: Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster is a delightful epistolary novel, first published in 1912 as a serialisation for Ladies Home Journal. At the time it was classified as a “college girl book” and is the story of hard-on-her luck Jerusha, who comes into a bit of luck with Mr Smith (who she nicknames Daddy Long Legs) decides to pay for her education.

This episode’s guest is fellow sandgroper Tamara Moss and New York Times Bestselling author of The Escape Game (co-written with Marissa Meyer) and also the Lintang series.

Check out Tamara's website

In this episode, we cover:

Favourite protagonists

Is this a problematic romance or a reflection of the time?

Dear Enemy - the sequel.

Third-act break-ups/black moments

We love epistolary novels but they can cause plot probs.

Writing letters - let us know in the comments whether you’re a letter writer

Leave a comment

💋 And, of course, we rate DADDY LONG LEGS: Kiss, Kill, or Marry.

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📚 Books Mentioned in this Ep

The Gentleman of Moscow by Amor Towles

Illuminae by Amy Kauffman and Jay Kristoff

The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

The Near Daphne Experience by Alison Reynolds

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

84 Charring Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Teen Power Inc series by Emily Rodda

Twilight series

Harry Potter series

Five Voices by Tamara Moss

⏰ Timestamps

1.0 Welcome to Daddy Land.. and to Tamara Moss!

2.10 Tamara’s bio – teaching, Asian Studies, New York Times Bestselling Author…

4.37 Rach probes Tamara’s origin story

5.15 In a win for Arachnophiles, we introduce today’s novel – Daddy Longlegs from 1912.. but is it… ok??

7.27 The blurb – an orphan and her mysterious eight legged sponsor.. (or something like that…)

8.00 Adaptations. Just how tall is Fred Astaire, anyway?

8.43 Jean Webster, a nice lady who wrote about nice ladies and their…daddies?

12.08 How did we read it? Ears? Eyes? Vibes?

13.38 Rach goes deep with Daddy facts

15.51 Kiss, Kill, Marry. It’s time!

18.51 Judy is Tamara’s favourite protagonist – and we can see why!

20.05 Writing romance in a series of one-sided letters to an older man

23.33 Addressing the Daddy in the room. (eww?)

27.55 Age gap love – like Anthea (Daddy) and Rach (Judy)..

29.43 Rach ponders the third act break up (the black moment..)

33.20 Remember that letter you sent to someone telling them about that time you were both in the same room together having a conversation you both already know about? Me neither.

36.19 We name some excellent epistolic novels…

39.21 Are Tamara and Rachael letter writers? Letter keepers?

47.42 The Gentleman of Moscow. Way more exciting than it sounds. Unless you think it sounds exciting, in which case, exactly as exciting as it sounds.

48.18 Marissa Meyer, Live Journal, co-writing and Daddy Longlegs!

Whoops we forgot to mention what’s coming next. It’s THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF and JUNKYARD CATS. Happy reading and listening.

👉 Watch now and tell us - did you love Daddy Long Legs?

👉Next Ep, we’re diving into The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clark and our Augut guest is Fiona McArthur who is making us read Junkyard Cats by Faith Hunter

September Books: 14th July - Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier28th July - The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes with guest author Tricia Stringer

PLEASE NOTE we’ve made a few changes for the rest of the year.

You can view the list here!

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