Comfort reads (or rather re-reads)

I love Rebecca shaw too! Read them all. Fawn4n lovely to meet you too. Nice to know we’re out there!

PG Wodehouse - Jeeves and Wooster, Blandings Castle. Every time.

For me it's anything from miss Read and I always go back to lena Kennedy especially away to the woods

Don't dismiss audio books, they can turn a good book into a brilliant story! I always have one on the go and listen all the times I can't sit and read like when prepping meals in the kitchen, driving, doing embroidery, etc.

My favourite authors are:
- Mary Stewart, not the Merlin Chronicles but all her books like Touch Not the Cat, Nine Coaches Waiting, Madam Will You Talk?, This Rough Magic, Airs Above the Ground, etc.
- M M Kaye especially The Far Pavilions and her 'Murder in . . .' series.
- John Wyndham especially The Kraken Wakes and The Chrysalids - how prescient the former seems now with the sea depth rising a little each year!
- Josephine Tey especially The Daughter of Time, Brat Farrar and Miss Pym Disposes.

I discovered Mary Stewart and Josephine Tey in my teens, thanks to a suggestion from an inspirational English teacher, and have enjoyed them ever since, I have Mary Stewart's 'My Brother Michael' bedside my bed at the moment so as to speak!

P.S. Witzend thank you for starting such a wonderful thread, there are some authors new to me here that I'll enjoy investigating.

Magicwand

I agree, I’ve made a few notes of books I’ll be reading

Oops, I forgot the Barchester series too - recently re read B. Towers and Doctor Thorne.
Two of the most deliciously ghastly characters I've ever read feature in Barchester Towers, i.e. Obadiah Slope and Mrs Proudie.
Funny how you remember the ghastly ones best - at least I do. Many years after first reading Pride and Prejudice, the two who still stood out most vividly were Lady Catherine and Mr Collins.
Trollope wrote another stand-out ghastly one in some of the Palliser series, esp. IIRC the first - Mr Bott, MP. . As I recall, Glencora would be very rude about him, and was delighted when he lost his seat.

Oh, and another Trollope - The Way We Live Now, IMO a thumping good read, which was done as a v good BBC series some years ago, with David Suchet excellent in the lead role.
Our copy is somewhat falling to bits now, but I've got Trollope's complete works on the Kindle. IIRC it was only about £2.50 for the lot.

Thanks for the reminder about Georgette Heyer. So good on audio as well. Oh and another favourite-D. E. Stevenson books.

I don't have time to read!

I'd forgotten how much I used to love Daphne du Maurier until I revisited Jamaica Inn, which led me to Rebecca. Am saving My Cousin Rachel, then it'll be the ones I don't know. But I'm not sure the The Birds or Don't Look Now will make good bedtime companions!
I too like Audible for driving, sewing and going to sleep.

Recently joined the library - so different from how it used to be! I have started with Daphne du Maurier and have read Jamaica Inn. I'm now reading "Don't Look Now" which I had no idea she'd written. Will then go on to "My Cousin Rachel". Thanks for the recommendation Henetha! Also love "The Shell Seekers" - have read it many many times.

Love anything by (very sadly has since died) Helen Dunmore

Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey, such a very clever and original idea, and Falling, by Elizabeth Jane Howard.
I go back to both these books time and time again, it’s like being amongst old friends.

Met Helen Forrester many years ago when she was in the village for a book signing session and the book I had at the time was Mourning Doves. I think I have most of her books.

I don't think I've seen Anya Seton listed here yet.

She is well worth seeking out. I have just persuaded our library to buy 'Katherine' in audio and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Now I'm on a mission to get them to purchase all her other titles.

FantasticFiction is a good site to know, especially if you are reading a series as they list them in chronological order.

H E Bates
D W Buffa (an American author who writes exciting, 'clean' = no profanity) books.
Louis L'Amour (Tales of wranglers and the Old West)
Julian Stockwin & Douglas Reeman (sea stories)
All the Sherlock Holmes books
Ken McCoy (tales about Yorkshire - 8 books)
Mike Pannett (memoirs of a Yorkshire bobby- 7 books)
James Herriot
Terry Darlington (hilarious 'Narrow dog' books)

For audio fans and those who might want to try, Good Housekeeping magazine has just started up an audio book club.

You have to create a Kobo account online, select the book of the month as specified in the magazine and put it in your basket. Enter the code found in the magazine, which means you get the audiobook free of charge, then download the Kobo app onto your phone. When you log onto the app, the book should be there ready to download onto your device ready to listen to.

The first book was The Boleyn Inheritance which was excellent as an audio as it's told from the viewpoint of 3 characters read by 3 different female actors, it really bought the story to life. There's also a Facebook group to discuss the book. Highly recommended.

Missiseff, do you have time to listen?

not as "highbrow" as some but all books that I love and reread regularly,To Kill A Mockingbird
Watermelon ...although most Marian Keyes is worth asecond or third read
The Committments ,by Roddy Doyle his Trilogy is hilarious and I remember sitting reading it on holiday laughing out loud while my friends looked on curious about the reasons for my hilarity
Doctor Zhivago a favourite since I was 14 and much more interesting and entertaining than the film
a play called Our Town ,I first read it in school and bought it in book form in second year ,its still with me ,I saw it performed in the Minnack Theatre in Cornwall a few years ago and t was a stunning ,beautiful experience .
When our school library burned down about 15 years ago I donated ALL my books ,around 2000 to them to give them a starting point ..except the ones I mentioned above .Sometimes I miss things but these are ones I cant live without

Paddy ann I like Irish writers too. My all time favourite is Edna O’Brien, I can reread her books over and over. Especially The Country Girls.

Have read Gone With The Wind so many times, always wish Scarlet will finally realise Rhett is the one, not drippy Ashley, much earlier than she does.

Nice Work by David Lodge, not mentioned on here yet I think.

What Katy Did, a real childhood favourite, and still is.

Suerussell, thank you for reminding me of The Country Girls. It's ages since I read it, but it was always a stand-out read. One line I still remember, re Baba, is, 'She was my best friend and I hated her.' !!

I don't know what happened to my copy. I suspect it was one of the many I lent to someone, which never came back.

What a lovely thread. I'm going to sit down with a note book and write down lots of these suggestions. Two of my most re-read books are Hotel du Lac and Cold Comfort Farm. Many many years ago, a friend gave me a book called Through the Kitchen Window by Susan Hill. It's a beautifully illustrated book about the kitchen / cooking, through the seasons. The writing is just wonderful. Along the lines of Nigel Slater but before his time. I get it out at the start of each season and will be reading the Autumn chapter today. I've recently started on her detective series as well.

Me too Rosie, some are already in my Waterstones wish list, which already has about five years of reading on it

Witzend, thank you for this wonderful thread, I am an avid reader and I am taking note of many 'new' titles to read. I've just down loaded How far is it to Bethlehem , looking forward to it.
My first memorable book was an illustrated children's version of Little Women I had when I was around six or seven, I loved that book, it was under my pillow every night. My mum would read some of it to me at bedtime, then after lights out I would try to read more myself by the glow from the street lights!
I can remember going to the local library every week with my dad, he would be choosing Neville Shute whilst I was searching out Mallory Towers, Chalet School, and Drina books. I can't remember the author of the Drina books but the titles began Drina dances in... various countries, I remember Madeira.
When I was at High School I joined the library in that town and read lots of historical fiction by Jean Plaidy, I now enjoy Phillipa Gregory. I have just finished reading The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, at last the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, absolutely brilliant.