I could do with some escapist literature just now. Not froth, nothing so light it blows away in a breeze, but something solid and nice and warm and comfortable that transports you happily from the here and now.
A quick search suggested Dorothy L. Sayers, Georgette Heyer and Neil Gaiman. Any more?
Later: thinking the post could do with a picture, perhaps by way of inspiration for your suggestions, I did an image search for 'escapist literature', and this came up (here's the source) -
What can I say?
Barbara Pym, Penelope Fitzgerald?
Posted by: Claire | 26 February 2009 at 12:08 PM
The Warden by Trollope or Under the Greenwood Tree by Hardy, both very comfortable novels rather untypical of the rest of their work.
Posted by: clara | 26 February 2009 at 12:24 PM
Does it have to be fiction? What about letters and diaries? I would suggest the Lyttelton Hart-Davis Letters (there are 6 volumes, but you could start with Vol 1 - where else? - just as a taster). These collected letters are the correspondence between George Lyttelton, one-time house master at Eton and father of the late Humph, and Rupert Hart-Davis, father of Duff and Adam (of TV fame), the publisher. I would also suggest the autobiograhies of Cecil Roberts (out of print but possibly available cheaply from Abe?) or the essays of Richard Church, two writers whom most today have not heard of and yet they were so prolific in the 1940s and 1950s. And finally, what about Brian Dolan's Ladies of the Grand Tour? The Grand Tour was undertaken by many wealthy young men (and this was the basis for a TV series with Brian Sewell) but many women also undertook the Grand Tour although their reasons for so doing were slightly different from their male counterparts.
For fiction I would recommend the 'knitting' novels of Ann Hood (The Knitting Circle) and Kate Jacobs (The Friday Night Knitting Club and Knit Two, plus Comfort Food which isn't a 'knitting' novel.)
I should also like to recommend Theatres of Glass by Rebecca Stott, the story of Anna Thynne who set up the first sea water aquarium a decade before Darwin published his Origin of Species by Natural Selection. This sounds a dull read, but I assure you it's not!
Posted by: Margaret Powling | 26 February 2009 at 12:33 PM
Just reading Laurie Colwin, Family Happiness. I'm loving it, deceptively simple, a very cosy book.
Posted by: carole | 26 February 2009 at 02:24 PM
Have you tried Angela Thirkell? The earlier books are best.
Posted by: Barbara | 26 February 2009 at 04:26 PM
I would second the choice of Trollope, adding only most of Wodehouse and Conan Doyle (I suspect this is a gender-biased choice). The best definition of escapist literature and its uses is perhaps in Jane Austen: "Sir Walter Elliot of Kellynch-hall in Somerset-shire was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one..." The brilliance of the description is that you need read no more than that to get the essence of the character.
Posted by: Mr Cornflower | 26 February 2009 at 09:25 PM
You need fine writing, escapism and fantasy, crime and a love story: Margery Allingham's Sweet Danger will do you nicely.
By the way, great pic of you and Mr Cornflower!
Posted by: Lindsay | 26 February 2009 at 10:02 PM
I prescribe Adriana Trigiani's Big Stone Gap or Lucia Lucia. By the way, the Mail on Sunday's You magazine announced the other week that cornflower blue is the colour that everyone will be wearing this summer!
Posted by: Nicola | 26 February 2009 at 11:36 PM
Du Maurier, P. D. James, Iris Murdoch, Chiam Potok?
Posted by: ted | 27 February 2009 at 12:36 AM
How about some Margery Sharp? Britannia Mews or The Foolish Gentlewoman come to mind. Plus, your newest knit wip looks fabulous.
Posted by: Louise | 27 February 2009 at 11:44 AM
What excellent suggestions - I don't know which to take up first!
Posted by: Cornflower | 27 February 2009 at 12:15 PM
John Grisham either The Last Juror or The Broker. I think you'd particularly like The Last Juror as it has such a wonderful warm portrayal of family life built around good cooking! ignore the 'which juror will get shoot next summary' on Amazon as it is not really like taht at all - it is more about relationships within a small town and how the town changes over time. It is a bit like To Kill A Mockingbird.
Posted by: Juxtabook | 27 February 2009 at 03:09 PM
I ditto Angela Thirkell! Or maybe a mystery--Ngaio Marsh or even a Jacqueline Winspear Maisie Dobbs novel?
Posted by: Danielle | 28 February 2009 at 08:00 PM