Penelope Lively, Helen Hull, boarding houses and isolation – welcome to episode 109! In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I compare boarding houses novels and novels where people live alone – up to and including complete isolation.

Penelope Lively, Helen Hull, boarding houses and isolation – welcome to episode 109!


https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/tea-or-books-109.mp3


In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I compare boarding houses novels and novels where people live alone – up to and including complete isolation. The blog post by Jacqui that I mentioned is on her blog.


In the second half, we pit two novels set during heatwaves against each other – Heat Wave by Penelope Lively and Heat Lightning by Helen Hull. It was hot when I read them, even though it definitely isn’t now.


Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with suggestions or questions. You can listen above, on Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. And you can support the podcast and get bonus content (and the podcast a couple of days early) through Patreon.


The books and authors we mention in this episode are:


The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp

Four Gardens by Margery Sharp

How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn

Hilary Mantel

Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley

The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley

The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark

Barbara Pym

Paying Guests by E.F. Benson

The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton

Of Love and Hunger by Julian McLaren-Ross

House of Dolls by Barbara Comyns

School for Love by Olivia Manning

The Boarding House by William Trevor

The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks

The Magnificent Spinster by May Sarton

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer

The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier

Begin Again by Ursula Orange

Living Alone by Stella Benson

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore

Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay

Yellow by Janni Visman

Summer by Ali Smith

Late and Soon by E.M. Delafield

A Helping Hand by Celia Dale

The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson