Tea or Books? #115: Do We Like Books About Bookshops? and Quartet in Autumn vs Journal of a Solitude

Barbara Pym, May Sarton, and bookshops – welcome to episode 115! In the first half of the episode, we take up Sally’s suggestion of topic – and discuss whether or not we like books set in bookshops and libraries. More

Barbara Pym, May Sarton, and bookshops – welcome to episode 115!

In the first half of the episode, we take up Sally’s suggestion of topic – and discuss whether or not we like books set in bookshops and libraries. More suggestions for books in this category, please!

In the second half, we compare Barbara Pym’s Quartet in Autumn with May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude and pick our favourite.

You can get in touch with suggestions etc at [email protected] – get the episodes a few days early, and other bonuses, at Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

Quick Curtain by Alan Melville

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Bewildering Cares by Winifred Peck

House-Bound by Winifred Peck

Dorothy Whipple

E.M. Delafield

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin

South Riding by Winifred Holtby

A Girl in Winter by Philip Larkin

Greenery Street by Denis Mackail

Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther

Matilda by Roald Dahl

Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Business As Usual by Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford

Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley

The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley

Peter and Alice by Peter Shaffer

Ivy Compton-Burnett

Virginia Woolf

Barbara Cartland

Stephenie Meyer

E.L. James

Agatha Christie

Beryl Bainbridge

Margery Sharp

Muriel Spark

Miss Read

The House By The Sea by May Sarton

Castle Skull by John Dickson Carr