Isa and May by Margaret Forster

Have read a lot of Margaret Forster.....its always a lovely read!

I'm about as old as Margaret Forster and have enjoyed all her books as she passed though the different stages in life. I can only hope that my own granddaughters will love me like the Isamay loved May. How to achieve this?

Live close enough to pop in regularly for a cup of tea, and leave when she starts nagging? lol

Yes, my lovely Grandma was just up the road from me after she moved back to be nearer. I was 12 by then and would drop in after school because I hated going home. Oh to have the peace and calm of her house for an hour or so. A chat and a cup of tea and a shoulder to off load my teenage miseries on. Bless her, she always made me feel like I was doing her a favour.

I'm reading Isa and May just now. It's a great book, and I'm really savouring it. Some books you just don't want to end, don't you find? I think I've read just about all of Margaret Forster's books. She gets to the point, doesn't she? I particularly enjoyed 'Have the Men Had Enough?'. She wrote it a number of years ago, but it really summed up how that generation looked on the 'wage-earners' of the family.

I loved that book 'Have the Men Had Enough?' I've read it 3 times and will read it again. I remember going to ante-natal classes in the 60s and being told to give myself the extra rasher of bacon, even if 'Hubby' wanted it. Margaret Forster always puts a finger on the pulse of the time she is writing in and has continued to do it up to the present day.

I think I'll read it again, too! She's clever writer, and considering she must be coming into her 70's, she keeps up to date with the attitudes of the younger generation so well. Thinking of what you were saying about 'even if hubby wanted the extra rasher of bacon'! My mother-in-law was definitely of that ilk! However, her son (my husband!) learned more from me than he ever did from her about the rights that women are entitled to!!

Oh greenmossgie! Don't lets start on mothers-in-law. I wouldn't know where to stop.
Back to Margaret Forster: 'Lady's Maid' the biography of the maid of Elizabeth Barret- Browning(1806-1861) is compulsive reading. Makes you glad you were born in the 20th century.

I have read most of Margaret Forster's books, and enjoyed Isa & May a couple of months ago. I hadn't realised when I bought it that it was about Isamay's grannies so it was a pleasant surprise. I remember reading both Lady's Maid and Have the Men Had Enough. I think Margaret Forster is a brilliant writer. The books about her relations were very good too.

HI JuliaMack, as we seem to like the same books can you recommend someone? I have read all Margaret Drabble's books and she has written several about older women. She was born in Sheffield like I was and is the same age as me.

I have enjoyed most of Mavis Cheek's books although couldn't get into the last one so gave up. Also, all of Kate Atkinson's books - Case Histories, When Will There Be Good News and Started Early, Took My Dog have been filmed for TV. Also, Imogen Parker is one to look out for. Good luck!