Currently reading anything by a British writer? Showing 751-800 of 1,160

[Werner]

This month, Anthony Hope's 1894 novel The Prisoner Of Zenda is a common read in another one of my groups, and I'm taking part. (This isn't the cover art of the edition I'm actually reading, which has a very bland, monochromatic cover, as does the one Goodreads displays first at the book description; but I thought this one looks better, and more interesting. :-) ) Again, this is a pretty short book (and some space is taken up by illustrations), so I expect it to be another quick read.

[Rosemarie]

I am reading Old Men Forget, a fascinating look at British politics in the early and mid 20th century.

[Oksana]

I just started rereading George Orwell’s Burmese Days. I don’t remember the novel so well, only that I enjoyed it immensely.

[Rosemarie]

I have just finished The Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. This is a historical novel suitable for all ages. I loved it.

[Sarah]

Oksana, you’re a big Orwell fan, aren’t you? I’ve only read two of his books but liked Down and Out... quite a lot. What draws you to the writer ?

[Sarah]

I have been listening to the Cherringham mysteries, which are novellas grouped in threes. Well narrated and wonderful if you are looking for short bursts of escapism in your day. They’re light but entertaining and have some interesting little facts about the local history thrown in there. Has anyone else read or listened to them and if so what is your opinion? They’re not literature with a capital L, but I’ve enjoyed them. Especially when I want to listen to something that isn’t going to get me too wound up. I could never read about politics before bed, for example.

[Rosemarie]

I am reading The Human Factor by Graham Greene. The writing is excellent and I am reading it much faster than I thought I would.

[Rosemarie]

I am about halfway through Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake and have just started The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope.

[Sarah]

I’m reading “The Diary of a Bookseller” by Shaun Bythell. The everyday life of a Scottish bookseller and his oddball staff and customers.

[Rosemarie]

I finished Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake. The last 150 pages of the book were very exciting. Peake has created an extraordinary world.

[Oksana]

I started reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro after reading his The Remains of the Day. It's very dark and depressing but as always beautifully written.

[Rosemarie]

I have started The Bird in the Tree by Elizabeth Goudge for a break between heavier books.

[Pam]

I'm reading Scoop by Evelyn Waugh, my first by him, and This House is Haunted by Irish author John Boyne. Are we including Irish in the British definition?

I'm watching the TV show The Woman in White based on Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White. It's really good! I haven't read any of his books. Sometimes with classics, the closest I get to reading them is watching the tv show or movie.

[Rosemarie]

I am glad you are enjoying The Woman in White, Pam. The book is good too. I didn't have much time to read when my kids were little, but once they were in university, I started reading longer books, like The Woman in White and other Victorian classics.

[Werner]

Pam wrote: "Are we including Irish in the British definition?"

Pam, good question! We use the term "British" rather than "English," which broadens our scope beyond England to include all of the British Isles. Since we include Scottish and Welsh writers as British, I'd say that would certainly apply to Irish writers, too. Many of the leading figures that are generally studied in any typical British literature class were Anglo-Irish or of Irish ethnicity, born in Ireland or long resident there. (So, short answer: yes! :-) )

[Sarah]

I just finished reading ‘Tis by Frank McCourt. Kept me up way past my bed time because I couldn’t put it down.

[Pam]

I just read Baking With Kafka by British cartoonist Tom Gauld - a collection of comics with mostly literary themes. I think they are published in The Guardian. I don't normally read comics but I really enjoyed this collection!

[Rosemarie]

That title sounds wonderful!

[Sarah]

I have picked up another M.C. Beaton novel. This one an Agatha Raisin, and I just read a Hamish McDonald Christmas tale. They’re not great literature, but fun reading. What does everyone else think of Beaton? Who is your favorite British author for fun reading?

[Werner]

I've never read any of Beaton's work myself, though of course I've heard of her.

Hmmm! I'm taking it that by "fun reading," you mean lighter stuff --not necessarily humorous as such, but not demanding much brain power and having a high degree of entertainment value. (Of course, I mostly read for pleasure, and I can derive it from more demanding reads too. I have some 17 British authors that I officially list as favorites, and they're mostly classical authors that would be thought of as more cerebral.)

In the sense that it's meant here, the two British authors that I've turned to most for "fun reading" are Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, both for their mysteries (the same genre as Beaton); Doyle's science fiction fits the bill too. A third is the late Sir Terry Pratchett, who had a wonderfully exuberant sense of humor (it's best known in his Discworld series, though I actually like his The Bromeliad Trilogy better). And although I've read relatively little of her adventures, I really like Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise. :-)

[Rosemarie]

I like reading British mysteries from the Golden Age of Mysteries, which includes Agatha Christie. I enjoy P.G. Wodehouse for a fun read, and I do like Sherlock Holmes.
I used to read the M.C.Beaton mysteries but stopped after a while, since there were just too many of them, and Agatha Raisin really got on my nerves.

[Elizabeth A.G.]

Just started The Coroner's Lunch by Colin Cotterill who was born in London and has dual British and Australian citizenship but currently living in Southeast Asia. This is the first in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series published in 2004. The story takes place in post-war Laos in 1976 and the nation is under Communist rule. Dr. Siri, 72 yrs., is the irreverent, satirical government appointed coroner who in his more youthful days was a fan of Georges Simenon's crime detective, Inspector Maigret, and now finds himself investigating crimes himself. He thinks, "the coroner and the detective were blending...he liked the way it felt." Cotterill includes political satire, humor, and good old crime sleuthing in this (so far) engaging read. I believe there are 13 books in this series.

[Rosemarie]

I have just started Phineas Redux by Anthony Trollope, book number four in the Palliser series.
As well, I am reading a collection of short stories called Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries collected by Martin Edwards.

[Sarah]

I can see how Agatha Raisin would annoy people. I find the writer is satisfying for brain candy that I can listen to while I work and not be too challenged. It’s not really great literature but satisfying like tomato soup on a cold winter’s day. I also enjoy the Richard Jury novels for light entertains British mysteries.
Terry Pratchett is wonderful. I am not familiar with the other series by him, thanks for the heads up Werner!

[Werner]

Sarah wrote: "Terry Pratchett is wonderful. I am not familiar with the other series by him, thanks for the heads up Werner!"

You're welcome, Sarah! If you read it sometime, I'll be interested in what you think.

[Werner]

At the time that I checked Pirates!, the book I started reading today, out from the library, I knew nothing about the author, Celia Rees, other than her name. But it turns out that she's a British writer! She was born (in 1949), raised and educated in England, and continues to make her home there.

[Rosemarie]

I am reading The Compleat Angler by Izaak Walton.
I have been fishing in my entire life, and won't be in the future either since I have been a vegetarian for 20 years.

[Melanie]

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... - I've just started this, his first book in the series and it captured me right away.

I read his Vienna Spies earlier and recommend that one too.

[Rosemarie]

I have started the fifth book in the Palliser series-The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope.

[Sarah]

I’m on an M.C. Beaton kick of Hamish MacBeth and Agatha Raisin. Two different series by the same author. Also reading the diaries of Canadian author who studied at Oxford Robertson Davies who will always be one of my all time favorites.

[Rosemarie]

Robertson Davies is one of my favourites too, especially since he was born in a town very close to where I grew up.
I have been reading re-issues of mysteries from the Golden Age of British mysteries. There is a whole series with lovely vintage looking covers from lesser known British authors. They are a lot of fun.

[Carol]

I love the Golden Age of British mysteries, Josephine Tey, Dorothy Sayers, and Edmund Crispin among my favorites. I just did a google search and found a list of lesser known ones that I will have to check out. I will look for Robertson Davies, unknown to me. Its always fun to find a new author.

[Sarah]

So nice to see people interested in his work. He was a great writer and when he passed away I was devastated there’s be no more new stories and I’ve read all of his fiction. Now ai read his literary criticism which is really fun too n

[Carol]

Sarah wrote: "So nice to see people interested in his work. He was a great writer and when he passed away I was devastated there’s be no more new stories and I’ve read all of his fiction. Now ai read his literar..."

I went to Apple books and I downloaded Fifth Business for $3.99. Feel guilty, should have gone to library, but got so excited reading the first few pages for free that I bought it. Another Canadian author I love is John Buchan.

[Sarah]

That’s great Carol! I really hope you enjoy it! You can get his books in trilogies my favorite was Rebel Angles.

[Werner]

I think of Buchan more as a British than a Canadian author. He was born (1875) and raised in Scotland, went to college at Oxford Univ., and spent most of his life in the British Isles, serving in Parliament there, among other positions (and his ashes are buried in England). But he most definitely has a Canadian connection: he served as Governor General of Canada from 1935 until his death in 1940. (He also served in the British colonial administration in southern Africa in the early 1900s, and was a war correspondent in France during World War I.)

Although I've heard of Robertson Davies --decades ago, I read, or skimmed, a magazine article (I forget what magazine it was in) that described him as "Canada's preeminent man of letters"-- I've never read any of his work. Probably I should; but with 398 books already on my to-read shelf, at present I'm looking more to cutting down that total than adding to it. :-) If I read a new Canadian general fiction author right now, I'd be more apt to pick Mazo de la Roche, whose Jalna series we have at the BC library. (I don't believe we have anything at all by Davies, though I should remedy that!)

Here's the Goodreads link to the novel that Sarah mentioned: The Rebel Angels.

[Rosemarie]

Davies wrote a lot of non-fiction as well. One of my favourites is A Voice from the Attic: Essays on the Art of Reading. According to Davies, Canada is the attic of North
America. He was known for his sense of humour.

[Sarah]

Wow! Lots of information and a new author for me to try. Davies essays are remarkable! His nonfiction is just as wonderful as his fiction. See if you can’t fit a wee bit of it in if you can Werner. You might like it. Thanks for all the info I’ll check out the new author!

[Werner]

Sarah wrote: "Wow! Lots of information and a new author for me to try. Davies essays are remarkable! His nonfiction is just as wonderful as his fiction. See if you can’t fit a wee bit of it in if you can Werner...."

Well, I've just added A Voice from the Attic to my "maybe to read" shelf (thanks for the link, Rosemarie!). What the hey --that shelf only had 115 books. :-) (I use it as a sort of annex to my "to-read" shelf.)

If you do read anything by Mazo de la Roche sometime, Sarah, I'll be interested in your review. I've never read any of his work; but the Jalna series was mentioned in an encyclopedia article on Canadian literature that I read as a kid (okay, I was sort of a weird kid, and I read encyclopedias at times for the fun of it!), so that was what put it on my radar.

[Rosemarie]

I read some of the Jalna books years ago. They are not "great literature", but I can see why they were popular. They are the story of a family over the years and at times there is a lot of drama. The only character I really remember is the first Whiteoak and her parrot.

[Werner]

Yes, I remember reading somewhere that the matriarch of the Whiteoak family had a talking parrot! :-)

[Carol]

Werner, I was laughing when you said you used to read the encyclopedia as a kid for fun, because I used to read the dictionary for fun. I was fascinated by those abbreviations after the word, such as ME or L. I found a little notebook I started when I was 10 years old, where I would write down each new word I came to and look it up in my beloved dictionary.

[Rosemarie]

I was never that organized, Carol. I started doing that when I was learning French but it took way too much time and I would lose track of what I had been reading.

[Werner]

Carol wrote: "Werner, I was laughing when you said you used to read the encyclopedia as a kid for fun, because I used to read the dictionary for fun. I was fascinated by those abbreviations after the word, such ..."

Cool! :-)

[Rosemarie]

I have just finished reading The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling and I am glad I did. The first book was good but this one was much better.

[Sarah]

I didn’t know that there were two Jungle Books. I have read one but thought it was all the stories together. I shall have to look for the second now and see if it is work not included in the one I read. I want to read more Kipling.

[Rosemarie]

Some editions contain both the first and second jungle books.

[Melanie]

I've just finished https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Highly recommended WW11 espionage.

This is the second book I've read by Alex Gerlis and I can't wait to read the next one.

[Sarah]

That looks really interesting Melanie!

[Melanie]

Sarah wrote: "That looks really interesting Melanie!"

Yes his books are hard to put down, Sarah. I've just bought "The Berlin Spies".
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...