August reading

[debodacious63]

Anthony Armstrong - We Like the Country; Village at War; We Keep Going; The Year at Margarets The sequels to last month's Cottage into House and great cosy reads for those who, like me, like garden and house books with a 30s/40s/50s setting.

Henrietta's War - Joyce Dennys Well, how have I not read this before when it ticks so many of my reading boxes? I think I feared it might be a lesser Provincial Lady, but in fact it stands up perfectly well against it. I loved Henrietta - warmer than Mrs Miniver, and very funny.

Pink Sugar - O Douglas Read when I thought I was going to the launch of the new edition. As usual the romance element is totally unconvincing, but that's not why I read her books. Her families are delightful, and Bad Bill is one of my favourites of her small boys.

Penny Plain - O Douglas I can never read O Douglas without revisiting this book - it was the first one of hers I ever came across (when I was young at my grandparents' house , and my writing where I signed my name on the flyleaf is still childish) and for many years I didn't read anything else by her, but this is one of my all time favourite books. There are just so many splendid characters, and I love them all - from the Misses Watson ("Teenie. You're a wee marvel!") to the dreaded Mrs Duff-Whalley with her deceased husband who held her back socially by eating "cheese to his tea."

The Lost Child - Julie Myerson After all the newspaper controversy about whether she was right to wash her family dirty linen in public  I wasn't sure if I really wanted to read this, but actually I couldn't put it down. The Victorian family story she searches out is fairly pedestrian, although sad , but I empathised  deeply with the 20th century problems with her boy. We were well down the same path with Mr V (with whom he shares a name) and I have experienced so many of them same emotions.

Wishing for Tomorrow; the sequel to The Little Princess - Hilary McKay I take issue slightly with the title, surely it can only be a sequel to, not the sequel, but I enjoyed it well enough. I much prefer her Casson books though.

ETA once again LJ has bolded me. Grr.