Books to read: UK and Greece
May 13th, 2006, 07:19 PM
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Books to read: UK and Greece
Hi, folks. Been picking up so many useful tips from this forum as my wife and I look forward to our upcoming trip to Greece, and then the UK. A slightly different question (but again, am confident that I'll get some great responses!) -- any recommendations for books set in either of these two countries, that would help our trip become even more vivid? Not looking for travel guides really; it could be fiction, or a diary/travelogue sort of thing. For instance, I wish I hadn't already read Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island" several times over -- would be the perfect book to take to the UK! Heck, even one of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books, set in an English village (St. Mary's Mead?) would do the trick....
So that's the sort of thing I'm looking for... many thanks for your suggestions!
cheers,
R
So that's the sort of thing I'm looking for... many thanks for your suggestions!
cheers,
R
May 14th, 2006, 05:35 AM
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For a fascinating look into historic London, consider, "The Diary of Samuel Pepys"
Info:
http://www.pepys.info/
Info:
http://www.pepys.info/
May 14th, 2006, 05:56 AM
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I'd recommend "London" by Edward Rutherfurd and also "Sarum", also by Edward Rutherfurd for UK interest. Both are great story-telling wound through historical times. Sorry, can't help you with Greece.
May 14th, 2006, 08:01 AM
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I would recommend any of Beverley Nichols' garden books. He is not a how-to garden writer, but an amazingly witty chronicler of English country life. And yes he does pass along some practical tips for the horticulturalist,
but only as an excuse to let loose his charming writing style. A Thatched Roof, Down the Garden Path, Merry Hall, Laughter on the Stairs, Sunlight on the Lawn, Garden Open Today are the titles I would urge you and any other lovers of all things English to run and get
but only as an excuse to let loose his charming writing style. A Thatched Roof, Down the Garden Path, Merry Hall, Laughter on the Stairs, Sunlight on the Lawn, Garden Open Today are the titles I would urge you and any other lovers of all things English to run and get
May 14th, 2006, 09:57 AM
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I am currently enjoying "England for All Seasons" by Susan Allen Toth to prepare for my upcoming trip. It is not funny like Bryson but there are a few humourous moments. There is some good information on London and other areas of England. Apparently, she has written other books about England. I may have to visit my library for those.
May 14th, 2006, 10:07 AM
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Where are you actually travelling TO in the UK? Where are you visiting?
There are inumerable books set in the UK, so if you can come up with places/regions, it will help. Also, thrillers, detective novels, romances?
For example, Oxford - P D James' Inspector Morse novels, Waugh's Brideshead Revisited was partly set in Oxford, Rosie Thomas set her first novel 'Follies' in Oxford, as did Jilly Cooper (the latter two being romances).
For Shropshire, read Mary Webb; Avebury Stone Circle, Robert Goddard's 'Sight Unseen'. If you like horseracing read Dick Francis or John Francome. Daphne du Maurier wrote many books set in Cornwall.
Please be a little more specific and perhaps I can suggest more...
There are inumerable books set in the UK, so if you can come up with places/regions, it will help. Also, thrillers, detective novels, romances?
For example, Oxford - P D James' Inspector Morse novels, Waugh's Brideshead Revisited was partly set in Oxford, Rosie Thomas set her first novel 'Follies' in Oxford, as did Jilly Cooper (the latter two being romances).
For Shropshire, read Mary Webb; Avebury Stone Circle, Robert Goddard's 'Sight Unseen'. If you like horseracing read Dick Francis or John Francome. Daphne du Maurier wrote many books set in Cornwall.
Please be a little more specific and perhaps I can suggest more...
May 14th, 2006, 11:06 AM
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If you are at all interested in England just before, during and just after WWII, you must read the Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard. There are four books and they are so lovely. You will want to read them again and again.
Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie is also a tender little book. It gives you a feeling for England that once was, and for some of us, we keep searching for.
If you're an Agatha Christie fan, you can visit Nether Wallop not far from Wilton House, it was used in one of the TV productions as St. Mary Mead - I think Sleeping Murder.
If you like mysteries and are visiting Cornwall, W.J. Burley's Wycliffe series are good. The early Martha Grimes are also good for cozy village mysteries. For something a bit more modern and grittier the Silent Witness series by Nigel McCrery and Val McDermid's Wire in the Blood are excellent. If you're visiting Oxford Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse mysteries are very good and you can easily visit many of the places mentioned in the book.
If you're visiting Yorkshire, Peter Robinson's mysteries are fairly good. And there's always James Herriot's novels and Nicholas Rhea's Heartbeat series (although the TV production is better than the books).
I'm sure you'll get lots more suggestions. Hope you have a wonderful holiday.
Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie is also a tender little book. It gives you a feeling for England that once was, and for some of us, we keep searching for.
If you're an Agatha Christie fan, you can visit Nether Wallop not far from Wilton House, it was used in one of the TV productions as St. Mary Mead - I think Sleeping Murder.
If you like mysteries and are visiting Cornwall, W.J. Burley's Wycliffe series are good. The early Martha Grimes are also good for cozy village mysteries. For something a bit more modern and grittier the Silent Witness series by Nigel McCrery and Val McDermid's Wire in the Blood are excellent. If you're visiting Oxford Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse mysteries are very good and you can easily visit many of the places mentioned in the book.
If you're visiting Yorkshire, Peter Robinson's mysteries are fairly good. And there's always James Herriot's novels and Nicholas Rhea's Heartbeat series (although the TV production is better than the books).
I'm sure you'll get lots more suggestions. Hope you have a wonderful holiday.
May 14th, 2006, 11:13 AM
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Eleni and Capt.Corelli's Mandolin for Greece- Or Greek history and mythology --depending on your interests: ancient history or later- a book on Churchill or World War II or a Dickens novel for the UK--again depending on what you are going to focus on while traveling...
May 14th, 2006, 07:17 PM
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Thanks for all the great suggestions, folks! Especially for the Greece reccos, for which I had absolutely no idea to begin with.
To respond to JuliaT -- in the UK, we're going to be in London (mainly) and a couple of days up in the Lakes district. But not really looking for something set in London -- I'd like a book that uses the slow, gentle backdrop of the English countryside as a setting (hence the Agatha Christie reference). Either that, or a book that offers a simultaneously insightful and warm account of the country and its people (like Bill Bryson).
Actually, of the list suggested (all of which seem very good!), Beverley Nichols' gardening books -- thanks, Guy 18 -- seem closest to what I'm looking for, even though I don't know the first thing about gardening.
Please keep 'em coming!
thanks,
R
To respond to JuliaT -- in the UK, we're going to be in London (mainly) and a couple of days up in the Lakes district. But not really looking for something set in London -- I'd like a book that uses the slow, gentle backdrop of the English countryside as a setting (hence the Agatha Christie reference). Either that, or a book that offers a simultaneously insightful and warm account of the country and its people (like Bill Bryson).
Actually, of the list suggested (all of which seem very good!), Beverley Nichols' gardening books -- thanks, Guy 18 -- seem closest to what I'm looking for, even though I don't know the first thing about gardening.
Please keep 'em coming!
thanks,
R
May 14th, 2006, 09:13 PM
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Oh, arctan, I'm so happy to hear that you are taken with my description. Beverley Nichols has given me so many hours of joy, and I am glad to hear that someone else will soon be experiencing it as well. (I sound like an evangelist, don't I?) Most of the titles I mentioned have recently been reprinted in facsimile form by Timber Press. And don't worry--I don't know anything about gardening either!
By the way, rickmay, I just picked up a copy of "Cider with Rosie" on line. And my searches, thanks to you, brought up another book, one you didn't mention. I forget the title, however. I'll post again and let you know.
By the way, rickmay, I just picked up a copy of "Cider with Rosie" on line. And my searches, thanks to you, brought up another book, one you didn't mention. I forget the title, however. I'll post again and let you know.
May 14th, 2006, 11:44 PM
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For a light and humourous read about Greece, try "It's all Greek to me" by John Mole, about his exploits purchasing and restoring a ruined house on the island of Evia. Also Edward Enfield's "Greece on my wheels" - an elderly man's journey through Greece on his bicycle.
May 16th, 2006, 01:33 AM
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Sorry for the dealy in getting back to you.
Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie is a very good suggestion, and there are some other good ones in there, especially if you like thrillers/detective novels. Has anyone mentioned Flora Thompson?
My personal favourite book about English life, the pattern to the seasons and how village life fits around nature is
'The Magic Apple Tree' by Susan Hill.
Written in the early 80s, it is a most evocative record of the sights, smells, people, gardens, animals and birds, births and deaths, festivals and foods that mark the changing seasons in a small village community. For me it sums up how I was trying to live my life 20 years ago in a small rural village. I grew roses and vegetables based on her plantings, and immersed myself in village life. It was a wonderful time. And the book is delightful. I find I read it at least once a year, and often bring it out for reference on some point or other.
I checked on amazon to see if it is still in print - it is, and just go to amazon and read the reviews - they will tell you so much more about it than I can.
Laurie Lee's Cider With Rosie is a very good suggestion, and there are some other good ones in there, especially if you like thrillers/detective novels. Has anyone mentioned Flora Thompson?
My personal favourite book about English life, the pattern to the seasons and how village life fits around nature is
'The Magic Apple Tree' by Susan Hill.
Written in the early 80s, it is a most evocative record of the sights, smells, people, gardens, animals and birds, births and deaths, festivals and foods that mark the changing seasons in a small village community. For me it sums up how I was trying to live my life 20 years ago in a small rural village. I grew roses and vegetables based on her plantings, and immersed myself in village life. It was a wonderful time. And the book is delightful. I find I read it at least once a year, and often bring it out for reference on some point or other.
I checked on amazon to see if it is still in print - it is, and just go to amazon and read the reviews - they will tell you so much more about it than I can.
May 16th, 2006, 02:10 AM
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The UK is pretty well the most urbanised country in Europe. So tourists who spend most of their time in London are getting a much more accurate impression of Britain than provincial propagandists like to pretend.
Yet most posters here are suggesting books set in fantasy worlds. True, watching the TV news on BBC Oxford, the city's murder rate does seem to have imitated the Morse novels recently. But few of us live in Agatha Christie-land, and it's very unlikely arctan will be spending much time there.
The Rutherford "London" novel does indeed offer a pretty good insight into the city's history. But London really doesn't work the way it did in Pepys time (some chaps are supposed to treat their au pairs the way Pepys treated the maids. But it's pretty uncool in Holland Park or Fulham). If you want a serious, readable, account of London's history, Peter Ackroyd's London is the handiest and chattiest.
Almost all the books suggested are one person's view of a country that's very different indeed from the way novelists (who are pretty atypical people) present it. In arctan's shoes, I'd just tune my computer to Radio 4 at bbc.co.uk and listen randomly. Or download the latest edition of the key programmes that define us:
- Today
- Bells on Sunday
- The Moral Maze
- Something Understood
- I'm sorry I haven't a clue
- The News Quiz
- This Sceptered Isle
- Mark Tully on the 150th Birthday of Indian Railways
And DON'T listen to The Archers, which a politically correct soap opera set in Christieland. Though combining three horrors in one programme is a real technical feat
Yet most posters here are suggesting books set in fantasy worlds. True, watching the TV news on BBC Oxford, the city's murder rate does seem to have imitated the Morse novels recently. But few of us live in Agatha Christie-land, and it's very unlikely arctan will be spending much time there.
The Rutherford "London" novel does indeed offer a pretty good insight into the city's history. But London really doesn't work the way it did in Pepys time (some chaps are supposed to treat their au pairs the way Pepys treated the maids. But it's pretty uncool in Holland Park or Fulham). If you want a serious, readable, account of London's history, Peter Ackroyd's London is the handiest and chattiest.
Almost all the books suggested are one person's view of a country that's very different indeed from the way novelists (who are pretty atypical people) present it. In arctan's shoes, I'd just tune my computer to Radio 4 at bbc.co.uk and listen randomly. Or download the latest edition of the key programmes that define us:
- Today
- Bells on Sunday
- The Moral Maze
- Something Understood
- I'm sorry I haven't a clue
- The News Quiz
- This Sceptered Isle
- Mark Tully on the 150th Birthday of Indian Railways
And DON'T listen to The Archers, which a politically correct soap opera set in Christieland. Though combining three horrors in one programme is a real technical feat
May 16th, 2006, 05:06 AM
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This has probably been said many times before -- but this forum really is amazing. Thanks a bunch for all the suggestions, folks -- very very useful as I go book-shopping tomorrow.
To the last poster (Cotswold): Yes indeed, a lot of the books mentioned in this thread are not representative of London (or even the UK) as it really is today -- and yes, they do hark back to a fantasyland that perhaps existed only in some authors' imaginations. But guess what: a lot of people (including me) still love to make the occasional nostalgia-fueled journey to that fantasyland. And more power to us. If fiction -- and books in general -- had as its sole goal "being representative", our literary world would be by far the poorer.
cheers,
R
To the last poster (Cotswold): Yes indeed, a lot of the books mentioned in this thread are not representative of London (or even the UK) as it really is today -- and yes, they do hark back to a fantasyland that perhaps existed only in some authors' imaginations. But guess what: a lot of people (including me) still love to make the occasional nostalgia-fueled journey to that fantasyland. And more power to us. If fiction -- and books in general -- had as its sole goal "being representative", our literary world would be by far the poorer.
cheers,
R
