Recommendations

[Toad]

Hi all,

I am looking for "heart-warming" stories written from 1900-1960, and set in England during those years. I feel that I need a dose of simple, charming, old-fashioned stories. I would be grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks

Toad

[Marbles]

Heart-warming, simple, charming...stories?

These are the most interesting descriptors I have seen for a while.

[Emil Miller]

Anything by P G Wodehouse, probably the most 'heart-warming, simple and charming' writer in the English language.

[kev67]

The Railway Children. The Wind in the Willows. Are we talking Edwardian here? If so, maybe something by E.M. Forster if you want something more mature, although TBH I have not read any of his stuff. The 39 Steps or The Riddle in the Sands maybe if you want some old-fashioned thrills. Scoop and Lucky Jim are comedies written rather later, but both are enjoyable and relatively innocent.

[mal4mac]

Why start as late as 1900? The most heart warming English novels I've read have been Victorian. For instance:

"Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy (totally avoids the dark themes of his later novels!)
"Alice in Wonderland"
Most of Dickens

I wouldn't call Lucky Jim heart warming - funny, certainly, but I find it rather bitter humour. Same goes for what I've read of Waugh, though I haven't read Scoop. I've read most of Forster and don't find him heart warming - interesting and an aesthetic delight, but not heart warming. I'm not sure the English did heart warming between 1900 and 1960, except in kids books. Death of Empire and two world wars doesn't really inspire a warm heart. I think America did better - To Kill a Mockingbird, and much of Steinbeck, is more warm hearted than any English stuff I can think of.

[ennison]

Some of TC Boyle is heart-warming even though there is often tragedy interwoven. Paul Gallico I guess. Neil Munro's Para Handy Tales. The short story "Scotch Settlement". Lots of children/ teen lit is very good for that and no adult should feel ashamed of enjoying the best of it. Why should the sprogs get all the upliftting stories? "The Death Defying Pepper Roux" made my toes curl with pleasure. Why must it be in such a narrow time period?