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E F Benson and Dodo's Daughter - Novels of 1913

Hang out with the frivolous young things of 1913 in a novel that's half Victorian epigram and half modernist stream of consciousness. Dodo's day is not yet over, as she's about to begin her third...

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Sax Rohmer and The Mystery of Fu Manchu - Novels of 1913

Fiendish plots, deadly traps, poison delivered by centipede, psychotropic fungi and man-eating mushrooms. Sax Rohmer invents lots of very intricate ways to kill people, delivered by Fu Manchu with...

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Elizabeth von Arnim and Enchanted April – Novels of 1922

In a wet and cold February, do you ever dream of escaping to a small Italian castle for sunshine and wisteria? Join four unhappy ladies who are longing for the right kind of love, and watch them unfold...

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John Buchan and Huntingtower - Novels of 1922

It's got hidden jewels, a princess who can run a mile, teenage military commanders, and the rejevenation of a retired grocer. Huntingtower is John Buchan's most delightful and exhilarating outdoor...

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Rose Macaulay and Mystery at Geneva - Novels of 1922

Secrets and politics and multiple kidnappings at the League of Nations, and some pointed messages about early feminism. Rose Macaulay's Mystery at Geneva is a fine satirical novel in the mystery mode....

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Una L Silberrad and The Honest Man - Novels of 1922

It's the late 17th century, and Lady Otterby's spendthrift husband is betraying his friends and spending any money he can borrow as if honour was going out of fashion. Una L Silberrad's The Honest Man...

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E F Benson and Miss Mapp - Novels of 1922

Social tyranny in a small town, in E F Benson's novel of low cunning and outrageous scheming, Miss Mapp. For readers who play bridge for blood.

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P G Wodehouse and The Adventures of Sally - Novels of 1922

The Adventures of Sally is set in 1920s New York, London, the stage and the French Riviera, after she inherits a fortune. Also starring several besotted young men, a lousy boxer, two devious leading...

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the end of 1922, and something new coming up

Why I can't recommend Sapper's The Black Gang, and why I'm taking a short break.

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Dornford Yates - Stuff That Really Happened 1

Dornford Yates's first two novels - Anthony Lyveden and Valerie French - were about the awful fate of the gentleman ex-officer who had to earn his living in domestic service. More melodrama comes from...

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Nancy Mitford and Wigs on the Green - History Podcasters collage

The History Podcasters got together recently to record a collage edition on the theme of Terrible Leaders. You can hear all three collage programmes (each 30 minutes long) on www.historypodcasters.com....

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Ernest Hemingway and Islands in the Stream

Go fishing with Ernest Hemingway's novel Islands in the Stream and catch big man's stuff, like bonito, and U-boats, and bodies. Marvel at prose so pared down that it's just core, all peel flung out to...

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whoops, too early ...

Due to mechanical failure, the sun in my eyes, and a distracting essay-marking deadline, I released the Hemingway post immediately, today, rather than on 30 May, when it was supposed to be. Now I don't...

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H G Wells and Mr Britling Sees It Through

Watch the First World War happen to a small village in Essex, and the household of Mr Britling, Everyman pundit and writer, with a son and friend who have just joined up, and very mixed feelings about...

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talking about The Thirty-Nine Steps on BBC Radio Three

On Tuesday 24 June 2014 I'll be / will have been one of the interviewees on a BBC Radio Three programme called Free Thinking, discussing John Buchan's novel The Thirty-Nine Steps and its relationship...

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Lindsey Davis and Falco

Visit Ancient Rome and the nastier outposts of the Roman Empire in the company of Marcus Didius Falco, private detective and lovable put-upon family man, in the excellent novels by Lindsey Davis. For a...

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Naomi Mitchison and The Blood of the Martyrs

We're in Ancient Rome, and we're waiting for the lions, with Naomi Mitchison's fine novel The Blood of the Martyrs. Not everyone in the cells is a Christian, and not everyone waiting to see the blood...

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Geoffrey Trease and The Crown of Violet

It's around 400 BC in Athens, and there's a plot to overthrow the city-state's democracy with a dictator. It's also the Spring Festival, and Alexis has entered a play against Aristophanes, which he and...

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John Buchan and Jacobite novels

For those with a fondness for Bonnie Prince Charlie, for lace jabots, snuff taken at the wrist, and the skirl of pipes on a wet foggy morning in the Highlands, these novels by John Buchan on the...

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Sylvia Townsend Warner and The Corner That Held Them

Mud, fog, small beer, and not very much change in conversation over a lifetime spent in a 12th-century convent in eastern England. Sylvia Townsend Warner's pioneering historical novel The Corner That...

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