chesilbeach

Sorry I've only had phone access yesterday, so couldn't keep up with the thread. Please can I ask again, not to just nominate books for random counties, as it's going to get a bit confusing (in fact, it already is! ). I will try and remember to go back through the thread when those counties come up, but I might miss them, so for now, can we stick to just a few counties at a time, and not move on until we've got a consensus. Sorry to be bossy But, since I am being (a bit) bossy, please remember we're supposed to be finding the most famous book for each county and not our favourite books or books we want to read. If you want to do your own challenge and decide on your own books for each county, or even just to pick and choose the ones from this list and mix in your own, you're more than welcome to just use this as a resource, but I think for this list, we should try and stick to our original aim which was the most famous books from each county. I'm not trying to put you off nominating, discussing and generally just joining in, but it is quite a challenge in itself to try and fill the gaps for all 48 counties, so I would like to just set some boundaries (no pun intended ... well, maybe a little bit ) Ok now for the nice bit … back to the book discussion! Next post will be about the counties still under discussion at the moment.

Started Lovesong by Alex Miller today - bought it after it was a recommended to me when I was looking for Australian authors. About a third of the way through, and am completely caught up in it.

Ok, back to the book choices ... Cornwall: It seems we've narrowed it down to both Jamaica Inn or My Cousin Rachel. It seems that we all seem to think Jamaica Inn seems more synonymous with Cornwall, so I think we should go for that one. If you want on your own challenges, you could always include both or choose My Cousin Rachel if you felt like it. Cumbria: It's now 3:2 in favour of Swallows and Amazons over The Maid of Buttermere, so I'm wondering whether we should have this as an either/or category? After all, it's our own challenge so we can set whatever rules we like!!! Maybe if we get any input from other members later, it can sway us in favour of a single book? Kent: It looks like The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates seems the most suitable as both famous and set solely in the county, so I think we should go for that one. I'll update Cornwall and Kent, so just waiting for your opinions on Cumbria.

I think it's entirely up to you, Kay. It'll be your challenge, and personally, I think I'll probably re-read some but maybe not others, but the aim for me, will be to complete the list, having visited (vicariously though books) every county in England!

Janet, sorry you're feeling poorly, hope you feel better soon. My idea was to have a discussion around the books we consider the most famous for each county, and then try and get a consensus (not an official vote or poll), and if we can't agree, then maybe we could end up with two options for a particular county. As for reading the books, it's the same as any other challenge I think, and you take it at your own pace and in whatever order you feel like. I think the idea of this particular thread is to suggest and discuss the books, to try and figure out what we think is the most famous book for each county.

Yes, you'd better help!! I'm especially counting on you to sort out County Durham after pointing out how difficult it is.

Pointless

Willoyd, I thought I had listed the Ceremonial Counties, but going back to the source, I can see I picked the original list not the most recent. I'm happy to admit I was wrong and I've changed the list on the first post and that gives us 48 counties in total. Can someone please tell me which county Wuthering Heights now comes under, as there are four separate counties of Yorkshire?

Yes, that was the article. I'm definitely a very good snudger, and I'm partial to gongoozling too.

I finally feel like I made some reading progress this weekend!!! I know I've still been reading this month, but it's been snatched minutes here and there, but I read almost a whole Daisy Dalrymple book this weekend - Styx and Stones by Carola Dunn, and I finished it off today. I also bought a new book yesterday - The Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt through the Lost Words of the English Language by Mark Forsyth - after reading an article by him on the Guardian website.

Ok, having read through everyone's thoughts on the thread, I think I'd like to keep this challenge to the English counties only, but if anyone else wants to set one up for the other countries within GB, UK, British Isles (whichever you want to choose), then feel free! You're also more than welcome to change the challenge to books of your own preference, if you don't agree with the chosen book, or if you simply don't like it and want to read something else that is also famous in that particular county. On the list of counties I posted, I had taken out City of London from the list I had and just left it with County of London, but I'm actually going to add it back in, just because this will give us a nice round number of 40, and it means there's an opportunity to get another book within the county in so that the city doesn't dominate it. Personally, while I'd prefer fiction books, I can see the justification for including memoirs if they are synonymous with a particular place, and I'm happy for both children's and adult literature to be included too. I think we should stick to the book being set in the county, and be the most famously associated with it. I think we're all agreed on both Cider With Rosie for Gloucestershire and Pride and Prejudice for Hertfordshire, so I'll add those to the first post. With regards to the rest, we've got a few suggestions so far so I'll just put them all in one place to see if we can agree on any of them: Cumbria: I've not read either of the suggestions, but for me Swallows and Amazons seems more familiar to me as being set in the Lake District. Willoyd's suggestion is The Maid of Buttermere, but I have to say, it's not one I'm familiar with. Does anyone else have a strong argument for either - at the moment, I'd say it's 3:1 in favour of Swallows and Amazons, so that seems the most suitable choice. Yorkshire: Wuthering Heights seems like a perfect choice to me. The only other thought I'd had might have been one of the James Herriot books. Any other suggestions? Cornwall: Daphne Du Maurier seems like she ought to get the Cornish vote, so the options Kay suggested are Jamaica Inn or My Cousin Rachel. Thoughts? Kent: The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates. I've certainly heard of this one, so I'm happy to be convinced, unless anyone else can offer an alternative? Can I just ask that we stick to getting agreement on these four, and then go down the list one county at a time to make sure we don't miss anything in the discussion.

I've only seen the BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre with Toby Stephens and Ruth Wilson, which I thought was fantastic. I did catch a bit of one on ITV3 this afternoon, with Samantha Morton and Ciarán Hinds - normally I love both of them, but after only a few minutes of this one, I didn't like either of them as the leads, and turned it off.

Neither have I. Never have I ever finished The Times crossword

Actually, I do have a query - I've only done English counties at the moment, but perhaps I should extend it to Wales, Scotland and Ireland, but I have to admit, I don't know much about the geography of them. What does everyone think? I can easily update the first post and title of the thread, if you think it should encapsulate the rest of the UK.

After seeing a link to another challenge for the US, poppyshake and I thought it would be fun to do the same thing for English Counties. The idea is to read the most famous book from each county. Below is a list of all the current counties in England with the most famous book(s) for each one, as we have discussed on this thread. 1. Bedfordshire - My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates 2. Berkshire - The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame 3. Bristol - The Misses Mallett by E. H. Young 4. Buckinghamshire - The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper 5. Cambridgeshire - The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers 6. Cheshire - Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell 7. City of London - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 8. Cornwall - Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier 9. Cumbria - Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome [alt. The Maid of Buttermere by Melvyn Bragg] 10. Derbyshire - Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks 11. Devon - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie or The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle 12. Dorset - Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy 13. County Durham - Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens 14. East Riding of Yorkshire - South Riding by Winifred Holtby 15. East Sussex - Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne 16. Essex - The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James 17. Gloucestershire - Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee 18. Greater London* - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 19. Greater Manchester - North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell 20. Hampshire - Watership Down by Richard Adams 21. Herefordshire - On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin 22. Hertfordshire - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 23. Isle of Wight - England, England by Julian Barnes [alt. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (this book is only briefly set on the Isle of Wight but that particular section is famously associated with it)] 24. Kent - The Darling Buds of May by H. E. Bates 25. Lancashire - Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson 26. Leicestershire - The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend 27. Lincolnshire - The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot 28. Merseyside - An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge 29. Norfolk - The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley 30. North Yorkshire - Dracula by Bram Stoker [alt. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot] 31. Northamptonshire - Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 32. Northumberland - The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin 33. Nottinghamshire - Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence 34. Oxfordshire - The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford 35. Rutland - Set In Stone by Robert Goddard 36. Shropshire - Summer Lightning by P. G. Wodehouse 37. Somerset - Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore 38. South Yorkshire - A Kestral For A Knave by Barry Hines 39. Staffordshire - The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett 40. Suffolk - The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald 41. Surrey - Emma by Jane Austen or The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells 42. Tyne and Wear - Another World by Pat Barker 43. Warwickshire - Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes 44. West Midlands - Middlemarch by George Eliot 45. West Sussex - Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons 46. West Yorkshire - Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 47. Wiltshire - Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope 48. Worcestershire - The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall * There are so many options for Greater London, that you can also look at London Fiction thread.

I was thinking the same thing! I've collected a list of counties in preparation for having more time to look into it. Perhaps I should just post the list of counties in a new thread and get everyone else to make suggestions, then we could create our own challenge.

Well, it seems like this book has been a pretty good read for most people! It didn't even occur to me that there was anything misogynistic in Wyndham's characterisation of Phyllis. I guess that although I knew it was set decades ago, the period wasn't that important, and therefore I just felt that Phyllis was of the generation that could start to have their own careers, and where being childless could be a choice or because infertility treatments were much less advanced. Either way, I never thought there was anything out of the ordinary in her being the one to get the men to open up and talk to her, I just felt that was her personality, not necessarily linked to being female.

You're welcome

Could it be Sisters of the East End by Helen Batten?

I read and enjoyed Poltergeeks last week. I loved that the story starts straight, no hanging about, just gets straight into it. There's plenty of humour and the sense of the rebellious nature of being a teenager when you're trying to find out who you are, and push the boundaries set by your parents. I thought it was interesting that it, being written by a man, the lead character was a teenage girl - I'm not sure I've ever read a book like that before, and I thought for the most part, it was a believable teenage girls voice. Like Michelle said earlier, the magical element of the story has an authenticity to it, and I like the development of the story with Julie discovering more about her lineage and the prospects for her future. There is a sense of urgency throughout the story, and builds to a thrilling climax to the story. As an adult who enjoys reading YA books, I liked this book, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to teenagers as the target audience.

I have seen it, and you're right, it's even worse! Doesn't stop me watching it occasionally if I come across it while channel hopping

Great to see that you've found a book to love from your reading group, willoyd! I know you've found it a struggle at times, but it's worth sticking with it for the occasional gem that comes through. My reading group read my choice of book last month - one of our favourites, Findings by Kathleen Jamie. It was a bit of a mixed reaction, although I think that they're not very big non-fiction readers, and read it like a novel rather than taking each essay as an individual piece of writing, but on the whole most people did enjoy the writing style, and found at least one of the essays stood out for them.

Hello Nightmare! I really enjoy Richelle Mead's books, and I like how her YA series flow from one set of characters to the next in the world she's created. I'm looking forward to book four in the Bloodlines series, The Fiery Heart; I think it's due out next month.

I read The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig and thought it was a very different type of war story to any I'd read, but very good. I've been meaning to search out more of his books, although I'm not a big reader of memoirs or biographies, so I think I'll be looking for more novels, but if you haven't read The Post Office Girl, I'd certainly recommend it.

So, I've just finished listening to Mansfield Park narrated by Juliet Stevenson, and while for the most part I enjoyed it, I really didn't like her voices for Fanny and Lady Bertram, in fact every bit of Lady Bertram's dialogue made me physically wince. I want to try listening to the rest of Austen on audiobook as it's perfect for the car, but I'm dithering on whether to try another Juliet Stevenson narration in case I have the same problem. Have any of you listened to this or any other Austen narrated, and can you recommend a particular edition? Initially, I'm particularly interested in Emma, as I found it hard to read, but have enjoyed Mr Knightley's Diary by Amanda Grange which retells the story from Knightley's perspective, so I'm hoping that maybe listening to Emma, I'll be able to appreciate it more.