Tea or Books?

Dorothy Whipple, Winifred Peck, and authors who hop genres – welcome to episode 55!

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In the second half, we look at two novels from around the same period – House-Bound (1941) by Winifred Peck and The Priory (1939) by Dorothy Whipple – both of which have been republished by Persephone.

You can support the podcast at Patreon (a Patreon-exclusive blooper reel coming soon!), and visit our iTunes page. You can rate and review through the iTunes app or podcast apps, etc. Do get in touch if you’d like to suggest topics – we always love that.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks

A children’s books special today, featuring Frances Hodgson Burnett and Philippa Pearce. Not in person, you understand.

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In the second half, we look at two garden-focused children’s books – Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was great fun to read them – thanks Lauren for the suggestion!

You can check out our Patreon page, or our iTunes page. And we always love hearing from you, so do let us know any suggestions for future episodes!

(Quick note: I say in the episode that I never met someone who loved reading until I went to university – I meant anybody my age! I did meet some older people who loved reading :) )

The books and authors we mention are:

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

It’s the battle of the Penelopes – and which books we’re most likely to read first (top or bottom of the pile?)

Rachel is back (hurray!) – many thanks to Karen for taking her seat last time. And in this episode we’re doing a suggestion that a different Karen emailed in – do we read books as soon as we get them, or are we more likely to go for books at the bottom of the pile?

In the second half, we compare two literary Penelopes – Penelope Fitzgerald’s The Bookshop and Penelope Lively’s According to Mark. We don’t read anything by Penelope Mortimer, despite what Rachel thinks.

We have a Patreon page! You can get shout outs, cards, and even a book sent every month, plus access to any exclusive Patreon content. We also have an iTunes page, but I’ve never quite worked out what to do with that. Anyway… enjoy!

Oh, and listen out for a feline cameo…

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Penelope Mortimer

Detective fiction, crime fiction, and Beverley Nichols – what fun!

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Rachel has had to take a quick break from the podcast, but I was delighted to have a special guest in the form of Karen, from Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings, who took to it all brilliantly. After an introductory chat with Karen, we talked about Golden Age detective fiction vs modern crime fiction – with my usual lack of research, though Karen is rather better informed.

Karen and I are both besotted with Beverley Nichols, and it seemed like a good opportunity to compare two of his books – Merry Hall and The Sweet and Twenties.

Rachel should be back for our next episode. In the meantime, you can visit our iTunes page – and we’ve also set up a Patreon page. Obviously we are very, very happy for people to keep listening without signing up for Patreon, but if you’d like to help us recover hosting costs etc. and get some ‘rewards’ (from shout-outs to book parcels) then you can check out our page.

In the episode, we talk about a wonderful clip of Beverley Nichols – here it is:

The books and authors we mention are:

Nairn’s Paris by Ian Nairn

Literary families, and the reveal on our recommendations for each other – we’re back after a seasonal break. We’ve missed you!

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In the next episode we’ll be doing Penelope vs Penelope. All suggestions welcome (if you’ve sent one, it will doubtless happen eventually, once I dig it out from somewhere), and you can see our iTunes page here. If you can work out how to do reviews, via iTunes, they are always much appreciated!

The (enormous number of!) books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker

To celebrate episode 50, we are doing a question and answer episode!

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful Christmas – I’m editing this a few days before Christmas, but I’m going to assume that a wonderful time was had by all. We were really delighted with all the questions that were sent in (thank you!) and have picked 36 of them to discuss in this episode. Tune in in two years’ time for more questions and answers in episode 100!

You can see our iTunes page here, and we always welcome reviews and ratings. We’ll be back in the new year with books we think the other one will love – I chose The Boat by L.P. Hartley for Rachel, and Rachel chose Wallace Stegner’s Crossing To Safety for me.

The books and authors we mention in today’s episode are:

The Railway Journey by Wolfgang Schivelbusch

Wilkie Collins, A.S. Byatt, and the death of the author (sort of) – episode 49 is quite the mixed bag.

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In the second half, we compare The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins and Possession by A.S. Byatt – Victorian vs neo-Victorian – and I Have Thoughts.

In the next episode, we’ll be doing a Q&A – any questions welcomed; pop them in the comments – and early next year we’ve each chosen a book we really think the other one will love. And we reveal them to each other at the end of this episode…

The books and authors we discussed in this episode are:

Swans on an Autumn River by Sylvia Townsend Warner (as published as A Stranger With A Bag)

Emily Eden and the openings of books – we muddle our way through episode 48!

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In the first half of this episode we look at the beginnings of books, and discuss whether we prefer them happy or sad – and it turned out to be a very difficult topic to nail down. Your thoughts must appreciated! And in the second half, we talk about two very good novels by the Victorian writer Emily Eden.

Here’s our iTunes page – do rate and review via apps and whatnot should you so wish.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Sybille Bedford and sequels by the original author vs sequels by a different author… we need to come up with snappier titles for these things.

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Check out our iTunes page, leave us a review via an app should you wish. And let us know which books you’d recommend!

Here are the (many!) books and authors we mention in this episode:

Stephen Leacock

Elizabeth Strout is our author this episode – and we also dip a toe in the worlds of Canadian and Irish literature. Spoilers: we know a lot less than we should. Suggestions welcomed, please!

I’m off to Canada shortly, which is why we chose the first topic – and nothing much links Canada and Ireland other than the fact that I’ve thought they’d be interesting nations’ literature to talk about. In the second half, we turn to an American writer – a modern one, no less! – Elizabeth Strout. She’s literally still alive, guys. That modern.

Check out our iTunes page – rate/review through iTunes and all that – let us know which you’d pick in each category, and any other topics or authors you think we should cover in future episodes.

Look out for an inelegant bit where I sub in a clip because I got the title of a Stef Penney novel wrong. #Professional.

Here are the books and authors we mention:

Silas Marner by George Eliot