True confessions

[callmemadam]

First I have to show off my new icon, courtesy of redscharlach. Miranda Richardson squeaking from the cupboard under the stairs is IMO the funniest moment in the entire Blackadder series.




My confession is that I used to be a snob who wouldn't have dreamt of reading anything that looked like chicklit. Completely ridiculous in someone who enjoyed Georgette Heyer, Margery Allingham and many other writers of older (and therefore more acceptable?) light fiction. Now I revel in Katie Fforde and I bought three more of her books on a successful trawl of local charity shops this morning. She picks subjects that interest me: garden design in Wild Designs, market gardening in Thyme Out, antiques in Flora's Lot, which I'm reading now. What I really love is the Englishness of the books. The cups of tea, the hot water bottles, the listening to the World Service when you can't sleep. She manages to tick all the boxes and it's such fun to have a reliably 'nice book' to hand. Middlebrow, moi?

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

That sounds like my snobbery of not touching modern thrillers with a bargepole while reading any amount of sub-Fleming pap from the 1960s.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I am not alone!

[kerrilouise.livejournal.com]

I finally got around to reading Wild Designs after you mentioned it last time. It's been in the to be read pile for ages. I than read Stately Homes and have now borrowed a stack more from Bettina.

I'm not a huge chick lit fan though I do like Liz Young. I love romanace books though and just about any other genre you care to mention but rarely read anything like literature at all.

I want to be entertained by my reading not depressed.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Why do we read if not to be entertained? Not all great literature is depressing, though:-)

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

I have really enjoyed Katie Fforde's books up until the last two or three. IMO, she's become lazy and formulaic in her writing, presumably partly as a result of having to churn them out year after year for her publisher. Going Dutch and Practically Perfect really aren't worth the money, I think. But I enjoyed Flora's Lot (for the update of Heyer's Grand Sophy) and a number of her earlier ones are very fun.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Good job I didn't pay much for Going Dutch then. There is a formula, as I suggested in an earlier post, but it's a very successful one. I'm enjoying Flora's Lot and not just because The Grand Sophy is one of my favourite Heyers. I see what you mean and must read it again pronto. The first I read, Stately Pursuits, was the one I liked least.

[debodacious.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any Katie Fforde having been put off, completely irrationally, by not liking Jasper. But she sounds rather like my cup of tea, and I always trust your literary judgement as I thinks we have similar tastes, so I will check her out.

I love your icon too, but I must beg to differ; Percy's lump of purest green is my personal fave Blackadder moment.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I understand that Fforde/Fforde thing. I've never read Jasper. I've found all my Katie Fforde books in charity shops, so they're easy to find.

On Blackadder we shall just have to disagree:-). I could have picked 'Nicholas the Second who used to be bizarre' as a favourite line.

[gghost.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to read her, too. 'Flora's Lot' sounds like a good place to begin for me. You've also inspired me to read some mystery fiction again. I just checked out Patricia's Wentworth's 'The Key' from our library this afternoon. It's my first Miss Silver, and I'm really looking forward to it.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

If you want a nice, light, romantic read, you can't go wrong. I have read a couple of other chicklit authors and they were nothing like as good.

I'm not sure if I've read The Key but several Miss Silvers have alternative titles. If you find you like Patricia Wentworth, you're set up for months. I had no idea she had written so many books!

Katie Fforde

[(Anonymous)]

I've said it before and no doubt will say it again, but Katie is an excellent writer because she knows her market and writes for it. Crime writer Hazel Holt once said to me that Angela Thirkell said that what ones' readers wanted was the same book over and over again. Katie writes for a certain market. This is why she's top of her particular tree. It's not chick lit but then it's not literary fiction either.
Katie's sister Jane Gordon-Cumming is also a writer. Try her book A Perfect Family Christmas (preferably at Christmas time.)

Re: Katie Fforde

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Comparisons with Angela Thirkell can't be bad. I think Katie Fforde's novels must be just like Mrs Morland's: 'good bad books'.
Thanks for the recommendation re Jane Gordon-Cumming; I'll certainly look out for the book.