Book picks similar to
Touch Not the Nettle by Molly Clavering


fiction
furrowed-middlebrow
scotland
ebooks

Seaview House


Elizabeth Fair - 1955
    Heritage thought of his godson,” she said quickly. “Rather clumsy, but quite good manners,” Edith remarked. “And a well-shaped skull.” These were her own views, but she took it for granted that sensible people would agree with her. Sisters Edith and Rose have rather come down in the world by keeping their hotel, Seaview House. So Mr Heritage believes, and he’s not pleased when Rose’s daughter Lucy—grown a bit too attractive for his comfort—becomes friendly with his godson Edward. Would-be paramour Nevil isn’t thrilled either, and to complicate matters further, Edward is behind a scheme to build new terraced housing, depriving village residents of their coveted sea view.Dilemmas and dramas unfold—including a fire, a cook’s prophecy, and a disaster of a luncheon—but the loose ends get tied up in Elizabeth Fair’s cheerful, inimitable style.Furrowed Middlebrow is delighted to make available, for the first time in over half a century, all six of Elizabeth Fair’s irresistible comedies of domestic life. These new editions all feature an introduction by Elizabeth Crawford.“light-hearted, shrewd, diverting”--New York Times“Miss Fair makes writing look very easy, and that is the measure of her creative ability.”--Compton Mackenzie

Begin Again


Ursula Orange - 1936
    Sylvia remains at home, shocking her family with theories of sexual and social liberation. And Leslie, as the novel opens, idealizes the other three, as she tries to convince her mother to let her use her small nest egg to attend art school in London.As the four friends balance their youthful ideals with the realities of work and romance in 1930s England, Orange offers hilarious and thoughtful perspectives on the quandaries of educated, ambitious women in a world not yet ready for them. This new edition includes an introduction by Stacy Marking.

Much Dithering


Dorothy Lambert - 1938
    The few people who saw it from charabancs on morning or evening or circular drives said: “Isn’t it peaceful?” or “Isn’t it quiet?”. And some said they thought it was a lovely place to be buried in, but while they were alive they preferred a place with more life, if you knew what they meant.The unlikely heroine of this delightful comedy of manners is Jocelyn Renshawe, young widow of the local squire, “a specimen of human cabbage” who “fitted into her surroundings so completely that she was hardly noticeable.” But she’s about to be noticed a bit more—by her jaded, much-widowed mother Ermyntrude, who breezes in on the look-out for her next conquest; by her aunt and mother-in-law, who have decided she should marry Colonel Tidmarsh, an elderly (and extremely dull) retired Army man; and by Gervase Blythe, a mysterious acquaintance of Colonel Tidmarsh’s, who arrives in town and rescues Jocelyn from a rainstorm before coming under suspicion as a jewel thief.One is safe in assuming that Jocelyn is about to leave her mouldering existence behind, but how she does so is the sparkling, cheerful plot of Much Dithering.

Waterwoman


Lenore Hart - 2002
    She understood that her mother was ill and needed to be taken care of. That her father was a waterman, a life she envied. And she understood that her little sister, Rebecca, was unabashedly beautiful. And she was not. When Annie's father suddenly dies, no one questions which sister will take his place aboard the family oyster boat. And for the first time, Annie falls comfortably and easily into the only place in life she thought she could ever fit in-as a waterwoman. And then she meets Nathan... "Sensuous [and] funny...Hart's flavorful dialect, her knowledge of working the water, and her understanding of the complexity of relationships-particularly the ones between sisters-are masterful." (Sheri Reynolds, author of The Rapture of Canaan)

Young Mrs. Savage


D.E. Stevenson - 1948
    After his death, life is hard, fighting back loneliness and eking out a meager pension. So when her brother Dan, newly demobbed from the Navy, arrives to whisk them away to the seaside, Dinah can at last find peace - and, when she least expects it, love.

Mothers and Daughters


Leah Fleming - 2009
    Crete, present day. A woman anxiously awaits the arrival of someone who could change her life for ever…Lancashire, the 1950s. Three young girls make their way in a brave new post-war world. But can they escape the trappings of the past?Bookworm Connie dreams of university. Brought up on myths about her mysterious father, her life is turned upside down when she accidentally discovers the truth about him.Former ugly duckling Joy is determined to snare a man now she's finally a swan. Winning the "Miss Mercury" competition she bowls over local heart-throb Denny Gregson. But she quickly finds he's not all he seems…Convent-educated Rosa is a born rebel, desperate to flee the strict nuns for a life on the stage. But sometimes you need to be careful what you wish for…As all three girls face heartbreak and tragedy, can they learn from the mistakes of their mothers? Or will history repeat itself?For everyone who loves Maureen Lee and Maeve Binchy, this emotionally charged tale of that most special relationship of all will capture your heart.

The Foolish Gentlewoman


Margery Sharp - 1948
    Light, humorous novel in the usual Sharp style, Isabel Brocken, a sentimental English widow, extends her hospitality to a rather mixed group of friends and relatives who have been left without living quarters by the war.

Apricot Sky


Ruby Ferguson - 1952
    "It was a wedding Mysie once went to. The bridegroom never turned up and the bride swooned at the altar.""Have you practised swooning?"It's 1948 in the Scottish Highlands, with postwar austerity and rationing in full effect, but Mr and Mrs MacAlvey and their family and friends are too irrepressibly cheerful to let it get them down. There's Raine, newly engaged to the brother of a local farmer, and Cleo, just back from three years in the States, along with their brother James, married to neurotic Trina, who smothers their two oversheltered children. There are also three MacAlvey grandchildren, orphaned in the war, whose hilarious mishaps keep everyone on their toes. There are wedding preparations, visits from friends, an adventurous hike, and frustrated romance. But really the plot of the novel is, simply, life, as lived by irresistible characters with humour, optimism, and affection.

Ten O'Clock Horses


Laurie Graham - 2000
    The first avocado pears are appearing at the greengrocer's, people are thinking about carpeting their lavatories and boxing in their banisters, and Ronnie Glover, housepainter, husband and father, is feeling the first vague stirrings of discontent with his life. Then, out of the blue, the fabulous, sophisticated (and married) Jacqueline bursts into his life and teaches him to tango. She seems to offer everything he ever dreamt of. But is it all too good to he true?

The Pearl-fishers


Robin Jenkins - 2007
    But how will they respond when love seems to blossom between local man Gavin Hamilton and the beautiful pearl-fisher Effie? The Pearl-fishers is a classic love story and the master storyteller’s last novel.

The Granville Sisters


Una-Mary Parker - 2005
    When war is declared, the love lives of the Granville girls suffer. Rosie's husband is killed during the Blitz. Then Lousie falls in love with Jack, a sixteen-year-old evacuee from the slums of London. When she falls pregnant, she is sent to Wales in disgrace. The girls? mother, Liza, can only pin her hopes on Charlotte now . . .

Jane and Prudence


Barbara Pym - 1953
    They couldn't be more different: Jane is a rather incompetent vicar's wife, who always looks as if she is about to feed the chickens, while Prudence, a pristine hothouse flower, has the most unsuitable affairs. With the move to a rural parish, Jane is determined to find her friend the perfect man. She learns that matchmaking has as many pitfalls as housewifery...

Highlander’s Trusted Traitor


Alisa Adams - 2020
    When their paths cross, Keith feels like thunder hit him! Yet he knows that he is the last man Rose would ever marry.Desperately trying to get her out of his mind, Keith wonders through the castle and witnesses something that would make Rose faint!Keith will use all the courage he has to tell Rose the truth. The result? Not only does Rose not believe him, but she sees him as the treacherous liar.Thus, still hidden in the shadows, Rose's most trusted companion is beyond suspicion planning to kill her...Will Rose finally trust her only true ally or will she condemn herself to doom?"Highlander's Trusted Traitor" is a standalone story by best selling author Alisa Adams, packed with mystery, betrayal, and romance, set on the beautiful backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.

Memento Mori


Muriel Spark - 1959
    Beneath the once decorous surface of their lives, unsavories like blackmail and adultery are now to be glimpsed. As spooky as it is witty, poignant and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more.

Train Through Time Books 1-3


Bess McBride - 2013
     The first three bestselling time travel romances of the Train Through Time Series are now available in a boxed set at a discounted price! Book 1: A Train Through Time Book 2: Together Forever Across Time Book 3: A Smile in Time A TRAIN THROUGH TIME: College teacher Ellie Standish thinks she's on a sleek modern train heading to a conference on women's studies in Seattle, but she awakens from a night's doze to find herself on a bizarre historical train full of late Victorian era reenactors who refuse to come out of character. When the leader of the group—one handsome, green-eyed Robert Chamberlain—finally convinces her the date is indeed 1901, a skeptical Ellie rejects any eccentric theories of time travel and presumes she is smack dab in the middle of a very interesting historical dream. She turns the directorial reins of her dream over to one smitten and willing Robert, only to realize that dreams cannot last forever. Someday, she must wake up to reality, though Ellie no longer has any idea what reality is. She only knows that Robert must play an important part in her future. But how can he...if he's only a figment of her imagination or worse yet...a man who belongs to an era long past? TOGETHER FOREVER ACROSS TIME: Stephen Sadler reluctantly attends the Seattle wedding of Robert Chamberlain to Ellie Standish, the woman who had captured his interest. There he says goodbye to the woman he thought he had fallen for. Only a few weeks later while traveling on a train, Stephen is confronted by the vision of a strange wild-haired woman in a pair of snug-fitting trousers called “jeans” who claims she doesn’t know where she is or how she came to be on his train—until she sees the date on the newspaper, that is. Dani Douglas cannot travel through time! Her mother in Montana is ill, and she has to get back to her. But the crystal clear blue eyes of handsome Stephen Sadler hold her captive in 1901, and she doesn’t know how to leave him...perhaps forever. Stephen realizes that Dani and Ellie have much in common, but where Ellie simply captured his interest, Dani has captured his imagination and his heart. Unlike Ellie though, Dani cannot stay, her mother is ill. Stephen doesn’t know how he can let her leave him...perhaps forever. As the train hurtles back and forth across the rails, Stephen and Dani struggle to find a way to be together forever across time. A SMILE IN TIME: Annie St. John and her sister, Marie, decide that the three-day train ride from Chicago to Seattle to catch their Alaskan cruise was a bit too much, and they swear that next time, they’ll fly. But “a bit too much” doesn’t begin to describe what they find when they wake up from a short doze on their sleek modern train. Over a hundred years before, Rory O’Rourke heads back to Seattle from a photo shoot in Montana on the Oriental Limited. When a young woman in tight clothing called ‘capris’ falls into his arms, Rory finds his hands full with not one, but two young women who claim they must have traveled back in time. Rory scoffs at the idea, but his innate chivalry will not allow him to resist the pleas of the young women for help. Available Now as Single Books: Finding You in Time, Book 4 of the Train Through Time Series A Fall in Time, Book 5 of the Train Through Time Series Coming Soon: A Summer in Time, Book 6 of the Train Through Time Series