Tea or Books? #109: Boarding House Novels vs Living Alone and Heat Wave vs Heat Lightning

Tea or Books?

Penelope Lively, Helen Hull, boarding houses and isolation – welcome to episode 109!

https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/tea-or-books-109.mp3

In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I compare boarding houses novels and novels where people live alone – up to and including complete isolation. The blog post by Jacqui that I mentioned is on her blog.

In the second half, we pit two novels set during heatwaves against each other – Heat Wave by Penelope Lively and Heat Lightning by Helen Hull. It was hot when I read them, even though it definitely isn’t now.

Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com with suggestions or questions. You can listen above, on Spotify, wherever you get podcasts. And you can support the podcast and get bonus content (and the podcast a couple of days early) through Patreon.

The books and authors we mention in this episode are:

The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp
Four Gardens by Margery Sharp
How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Hilary Mantel
Speedy Death by Gladys Mitchell
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
Barbara Pym
Paying Guests by E.F. Benson
The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Of Love and Hunger by Julian McLaren-Ross
House of Dolls by Barbara Comyns
School for Love by Olivia Manning
The Boarding House by William Trevor
The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
The Magnificent Spinster by May Sarton
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Gentleman Overboard by Herbert Clyde Lewis
The Wall by Marlen Haushofer
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
Begin Again by Ursula Orange
Living Alone by Stella Benson
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore
Murder Underground by Mavis Doriel Hay
Yellow by Janni Visman
Summer by Ali Smith
Late and Soon by E.M. Delafield
A Helping Hand by Celia Dale
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson