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2025

  • Adrian Tinniswood: Noble Ambitions
  • Adrian Tinniswood: The Power and the Glory
  • Martin Williams: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
  • Gavin Plumley: A Home for all Seasons
  • Robert Harris: Precipice
  • Nigel Slater: A Thousand Feasts
  • Joan Aiken: Tales of London Town
  • Alan Connor: 188 Words for Rain
  • Ben Robinson: English Villages: An Extraordinary Journey through Time

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Cornflower book group

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fifiquilter

I first read Gladys Mitchell when we were living in Oman and any kind of reading was welcome. Certain aspects of her writing can indeed be tiring, although once you mentally edit the quirks reads, the story-telling begins to shine through and you can almost forgive her everything! 'The Saltmarsh Murders' is worth spending a wet weekend on.
Have to say that Diana Rigg was most awfully miscast when Auntie brought the redoubtable Dame B. to the small screen.
T

GeraniumCat

I read When Last I died last month - she certainly wouldn't go to the top of my list of favourite crime writers, but I quite enjoyed the absence of anything PC about Mrs Bradley - I do like the sound of Merlin's Furlong, I must say! My kind of silliness, I think.
I rather enjoyed the Diana Rigg series, but couldn't see that her portrayal had much to do with the Mrs Bradley of the books.

Juxtabook

Gosh, they look tempting. I haven't read anything by her and didn't enjoy the TV series especially but what GeraniumCat says makes me fancy giving the books ago.

Desperate Reader

When Last I Died is good as I recall but she really is mixed. The Vintage reprints have been generally good but I couldn't manage to finish the saltmarsh murders.

Margaret Powling

I also enjoyed the Diana Rigg Mrs Bradley Mysteries, they were so over the top, those wonderful clothes and talking directly to the screen ... and of course, the new Inspector Barnaby, Neil whatsit as her sidekick. I once wrote a piece about subscription libraries and when I went to interview the librarian of the Exeter Institute, he told me that one of the Gladys Mitchell mysteries had been set in the Institute, which has a spiral staircase to a gallery above the main room. Eek!

j ross

absolutely.
I was rarely so disappointed as I was at the TV representation; Rigg was as different from Mitchell's description (both in appearance and behaviour) as it is possible to be.
I have read as many of the books as I could find and have never been disappointed though, of course, some are better than others

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