# Novels and stories about interwar Britain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 1, 2012, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332 "2012-09-01T03:17:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/21 "2012-09-02T19:00:36Z")
I recently read and really enjoyed J.G. Farrell’s [Troubles](http://www.amazon.com/Troubles-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590170180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346612359&sr=8-1&keywords=Troubles+Farrell), about an English family in Ireland (at the time still part of the UK) just after WWI. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/22 "2012-09-02T23:18:18Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > _Cold Comfort Farm_ by Stella Gibbons. It’s very funny. The movie is absolutely fabulous, too. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@ChrisM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisM)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/23 "2012-09-02T23:23:54Z")
I like L.P. Hartley’s novels like _The Go-Between_, _The Hireling_ and _Eustace and Hilda_. I’m not sure precisely when they are set, though, but I think they are generally around that period. Also Jocelyn Brooke’s novels, such as _The Scapegoat_ and _The Orchid Trilogy_. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@ChrisM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisM)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/24 "2012-09-02T23:30:43Z")
Oh, also some of Elizabeth Bowen’s novels, like _The Last September_. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/25 "2012-09-03T00:00:06Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The movie is absolutely fabulous, too. I see what you did there. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/26 "2012-09-03T01:11:22Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I recently read and really enjoyed J.G. Farrell’s [Troubles](http://www.amazon.com/Troubles-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590170180/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346612359&sr=8-1&keywords=Troubles+Farrell), about an English family in Ireland (at the time still part of the UK) just after WWI. We should warn the OP that this is a crazy rambling dark funny heavily-metaphorical novel, kind of like Fawlty Towers on opium. But well worth the read. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/27 "2012-09-03T04:06:09Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > We should warn the OP that this is a crazy rambling dark funny heavily-metaphorical novel, kind of like Fawlty Towers on opium. But well worth the read. Good catch! It is indeed an excellent read and fits the time period, but is maybe not tonally in line with what one usually associates with interwar Britain. Not a novel, and I haven’t read it myself yet, but Robert Grave’s [The Long Week-End: A Social History of Great Britain 1918-1939](http://www.amazon.com/Long-Week-End-History-Britain-1918-1939/dp/0393311368/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1346644970&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Long+Week-End%3A+A+Social+History+of+Great+Britain+1918-1939) looks very good. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/28 "2012-09-03T04:34:31Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > The movie is absolutely fabulous, too. An earlier BBC _Cold Comfort Farm_ series was also excellent… I’ve seen _Cold Comfort Farm_, Dodie Smith’s _I Capture The Castle_ and Molly Keane’s _Devoted Ladies_ considered “Middlebrow Parodic-Gothic.” Three of my favorite books set in the period–I had no idea there was genre! Although the time period of _Cold Comfort Farm_ was actually a later 20th century–in which there had been no Second World War; film versions just set it in the 1930’s… If fiction from earlier in the century is allowed, let me recommend Ford Madox Ford’s _Parade’s End_. It begins in 1912 and ends some undetermined time after The Great War–but was written in the 1920’s and considered a modernist classic. Quite worthwhile if you expend just a little effort. As is the adaptation scripted by Tom Stoppard, just begun on BBC2 and coming to HBO next year… ---
**Author:** ![TSBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/77aa72/32.png) [@TSBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TSBG)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/29 "2012-09-03T04:55:36Z")
Thanks again everyone! I have read Cold Comfort Farm and I Capture the Castle, will try Devoted Ladies. And the description of Troubles doesn’t, er, trouble me, sounds great. As do all of these. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/30 "2012-09-03T13:54:32Z")
Roughly the first half of Richmal Crompton’s [Just William](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_William_series) series would fit the bill. G. K. Chesterton’s [Father Brown](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Brown) series. Arthur Ransome’s [Swallows and Amazons](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swallows_and_Amazons_series) series. ---
**Author:** ![Parenchyma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Parenchyma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Parenchyma)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2012, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/31 "2012-09-03T16:02:07Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > If fiction from earlier in the century is allowed, let me recommend Ford Madox Ford’s _Parade’s End_. It begins in 1912 and ends some undetermined time after The Great War–but was written in the 1920’s and considered a modernist classic. Quite worthwhile if you expend just a little effort. As is the adaptation scripted by Tom Stoppard, just begun on BBC2 and coming to HBO next year… I got this from the library to get ready for the BBC show and was surprised how much I like it. I had only read the first 150 pages when I saw the first episode and that also inspired me to keep reading. Now I’m 750 pages in (out of 900) and quite glad I expended that little effort. I will have to see the last 4 episodes before I can weigh in on Stoppard’s adaptation, but so far it’s fascinating to see what he’s chosen to distill from that massive book down to 6 hours of TV. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/32 "2012-09-06T14:51:40Z")
This looks like another possibility: [Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor](http://www.amazon.com/Rose-Life-Service-Lady-Astor/dp/0143120867/ref=tmm_pap_title_0) ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2012, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/33 "2012-09-07T09:56:16Z")
[Helen Forrester’s autobiographical trilogy](http://www.harpercollins.com.au/authors/50000119/Helen_Forrester/index.aspx) of life in Depression era Liverpool. Anything by Monica Dickens (Charles Dickens’ granddaughter). ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/34 "2012-09-09T09:13:20Z")
John Buchans, 39 Steps, a bloody good read even now. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/35 "2012-09-09T12:18:27Z")
> [@Lust4Life](#): > > John Buchans, 39 Steps, a bloody good read even now. I adore this book! I can’t figure out why every movie made of it has to screw it up! The plot and the hero are so clever-- I wish someone would put it on the screen just the way it was written. I had hopes for the TV version that came out recently, but no-- they tried to “improve” it. It doesn’t need improving. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/36 "2012-09-09T12:47:55Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I adore this book! I can’t figure out why every movie made of it has to screw it up! The plot and the hero are so clever-- I wish someone would put it on the screen just the way it was written. I had hopes for the TV version that came out recently, but no-- they tried to “improve” it. It doesn’t need improving. I’ve long thought that myself . ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2012, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332/37 "2012-09-09T13:42:49Z")
oooh, good thread!! 🙂 try some of Georgette Heyer, while better known of writing Regency Romance novels (which she invented!) she wrote murder mysteries and some are from that era. [Behold, Here’s Poison](http://www.amazon.com/Behold-Heres-Poison-Georgette-Heyer/dp/1402217986/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347197841&sr=8-1&keywords=behold+here%27s+poison) \*From Publishers Weekly Although her contemporaries Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and Ngaio Marsh got more attention, Heyer (1902-1974) also was an important pioneer in the mystery field. When she wasn’t writing her more famous historical romances, Heyer turned out several sharp and satirical mysteries such as this one, which in many ways is as bracingly modern as the film Gosford Park in its treatment of life above and below stairs in a posh country house. \* _“Miss Heyer’s characters and dialogue are an abiding delight to me… I have seldom met people to whom I have taken so violent a fancy from the word ‘Go.’” Dorothy L. Sayers_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/novels-and-stories-about-interwar-britain/633332.md?page=1)