I love stories set during Christmas! However, it can be difficult to settle into a cozy holiday novel when you're looking at a seemingly endless Christmas to-do list. With this in mind, I'm offering a list of highly recommended Christmas novellas, three of...
To round out this year of fiction by early twentieth century English women, I offer a holiday mystery! The Santa Klaus Murder, by Mavis Doriel Hay -- Synopsis from the publisher: Aunt Mildred declared that no good could come of the Melbury family Christmas gatherings...
The Uninvited -- originally known in the UK as Uneasy Freehold -- was published in 1942 by Irish author Dorothy Macardle and was adapted to the screen by Dodie Smith in 1944. Go here for my post about the film starring Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey. I'm pleased to say...
Several years ago I enjoyed film adaptations of these novels written by women in the early 20th century. For September's post I decided to finally READ the novels. What a delight! I began with The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. (published 1922) The...
(Just under the wire with this August post!) This year my intention was to recommend novels by female authors published in the early 20th century. I veered into mid-century with Dodie Smith and I'm doing it again today with Barbara Pym's Jane and Prudence (1953) and...
Continuing with women's fiction from the early 20th century, today I'm pleased to share Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Making of a Marchioness in a gorgeous paperback edition from Persephone that includes its sequel. The publisher has this to say: "Little Lord...
For June’s “Tea and a Book” I am celebrating the work of Winifred Holtby (1898-1935), an English author who published seven novels, two books of poetry, two collections of short stories, and a critical memoir of Virginia Woolf, all before succumbing to kidney disease...
Continuing with our focus on early 20th century female writers, May’s “Tea and a Book” features two cosy mysteries (yay!) by E.C.R. Lorac (1894-1958). Lorac wrote quite prolifically under three pseudonyms, so check out her impressive catalog on Wikipedia.
April’s “Tea and a Book” continues its focus on the early 20th century by recommending Rachel Ferguson’s THE BRONTES WENT TO WOOLWORTHS. Rachel Ferguson (1892-1957 — not to be confused with last month’s author, RUBY Ferguson) was a journalist, author, biographer,...
For March Tea and a Book I am recommending two titles by English writer Ruby Ferguson (1899-1966). Like the authors previously featured this year, Ferguson published her novels in the middle of the 20th century (active from 1926 to 1965). In addition, she wrote...
For February’s “Tea and a Book” I am recommending THE NEW MOON WITH THE OLD, first published in 1963 by Dodie Smith. Smith began her writing career with plays and soon turned to novels. (Eventually she became a screenwriter, as well.) I CAPTURE THE CASTLE is my...
For a while now I've struggled with attention span while reading, and I had a particularly hard time with my horror recommendations last month. After that I enjoyed a "cleanse" of sorts with The Bookshop on the Shore, a sweet romance about a London nanny who takes...
This year it's been far too easy to put a book down. Many of us have suffered from diminished attention span during the pandemic, of course, and accepting this has made it easier to let go of books that aren't working for me. Lately I've found it particularly...
It's barely been a minute since my last "tea and a book" post, but I just read a novel and need to tell you about it. If you know me at all, you know I'm obsessed with the Brontë sisters, particularly Charlotte, and that Jane Eyre is on my top ten list of favorite...
During our many summers in Oxford, I spent a lot of time in Blackwell's Bookshop -- browsing, reading, drinking tea, and sometimes even writing. It's probably my favorite bookstore in the world because it is enormous, exhaustively stocked, and yet somehow intimate and...
