Book picks similar to
Touch Not the Nettle by Molly Clavering


fiction
furrowed-middlebrow
scotland
cottage-core

The Enchanted April


Elizabeth von Arnim - 1922
    They find each other—and the castle of their dreams—through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.The Enchanted April was a best-seller in both England and the United States, where it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection, and set off a craze for tourism to Portofino. More recently, the novel has been the inspiration for a major film and a Broadway play.

Tilly Trotter: An Omnibus


Catherine Cookson - 1972
    It follows the fortunes of a young girl from a small village in Tyneside, to a new life in America as the wife of a wealthy man, only to return and encounter the enmity of her former neighbors and townspeople.

The Calgary Chessman


Yvonne Marjot - 2011
    To Cas, torn between Scotland and her New Zealand home, the object seems as odd and out-of-place as herself. Intrigued, she begins to search for its origins, thinking it will bring a brief respite from isolation. Instead, the Calgary chess piece opens the door to friendships and new hope. Her son, meanwhile, brings home his own revelation to shake her world.

Nights at the Circus


Angela Carter - 1984
    She is also part woman, part swan. Jack Walser, an American journalist, is on a quest to discover the truth behind her identity. Dazzled by his love for her, and desperate for the scoop of a lifetime, Walser has no choice but to join the circus on its magical tour through turn-of-the-nineteenth-century London, St Petersburg and Siberia.

Something Fresh


P.G. Wodehouse - 1915
    Blandings has impostors like other houses have mice. Now there are two of them – both intent on a dangerous enterprise. Lord Emsworth’s secretary, the efficient Baxter, is on the alert and determined to discover what is afoot – despite the distractions caused by the Honorable Freddie Threepwood’s hapless affair of the heart.

Nelly Kelly


Lena Kennedy - 1981
    Forced to keep house for her autocratic, charming father, Nelly toils in a sweatshop to keep her family fed and clothed. But when life is hard, Nelly has friendship, dancing and her early dreams to cling to. Dreams which slowly crumble as marriage, the war and a lost baby are followed by the heartache of a lost love. Fortune may crush her proud spirit but when faced with a crisis which will test her courage to the limit, no tragedy can change Nelly Kelly's determination to be her own woman.

The Spuddy


Lillian Beckwith - 1974
    The fishermen call him The Spuddy. The only person to care for him is Andy, a young dumb boy. For both of them their meeting brings friendship after loneliness. But when they become friends with Jake, skipper of the Silver Crest, events take an unexpected turn...

Way to Go


Alan Spence - 1998
    First US publication for the Scottish Spence.Neil McGraw is a lad in Glasgow, an only child, the son of a dour undertaker permanently embittered by his wife's death during childbirth. Whenever the boy misbehaves, he's locked in the basement among the coffins, so it's not surprising he asks every body: What happens when you die? Against his will, he finds himself learning the trade. This is less gloomy than it sounds. The story moves at a good clip as the resilient Neil experiments with drinking and dating.The crisis comes when his dad finds him and his girl making out in a coffin. Soon, it's Neil's turn to lock his old man, dead drunk, into the basement, before hightailing it to the London of the Swinging '60s. A friendly queer, Abe Morris, offers him a crash pad, no strings attached, where Neil finds drugs, straight sex, and Zen. The party ends when Abe, stoned, is killed in traffic and Spence abandons conventional narrative to send Neil hopscotching around the world before depositing him, 15 years later, beside the funeral pyres of the Ganges. Here, he gets very sick but is rescued by a vision in a sari: Lila, a Londoner, back home for her father's funeral. The two fall in love and marry, lickety-split, before Neil is summoned back to Glasgow. His father has died, leaving him the business, which Neil gives a hippie twist, producing brightly painted coffins in unusual shapes, with Lila a business partner.The mood is light and buoyant, but novelistic concerns (what makes Lila tick? why do the couple decide not to have kids?) are shelved in favor of a scrapbook of original last rites, seasoned with Eastern mysticism. There's an appealing freshness to Spence's writing; too bad he gives up on credible plotting and characterization.

My Friends the Miss Boyds


Jane Duncan - 1959
    Into this remote backwater come the 'Miss Boyds'-a clutch of flighty, townbred sisters. At first they are figures of fun, but the tragedy that overtakes them arouses all the compassion of the highland people. Full of humour, incident and colour, this delightful novel brings a forgotten era vividly to life, captures all a child's excitement as the world expands around her.

Thrush Green


Miss Read - 1959
    This volume introduces Thrush Green, the neighboring village to Fairacre: its blackthorn bushes, thatch-roofed cottages, enchanting landscape, and jumble sales. Readers will delight in a new cast of characters and also welcome familiar faces as they become immersed in the village's turn of events on one pivotal day -- May Day. Before the day is over, life and love and perhaps eternity will touch the immemorial peace of the village.

Jamie MacLeod: Highland Lass


Michael R. Phillips - 1987
    Jamie MacLeod: Pondering the mystery of her father's death, watching the emotional pain of another's rejection, stretching for the elusive dreams that led her on, discovering the chance for love--all of this is JAMIE MACLEOD.

Wild Mountain Thyme


Rosamunde Pilcher - 1978
    A world that lovingly captures the ties that bind us to one another-the joys and sorrows, heartbreaks and misunderstandings, and glad, perfect moments when we are in true harmony. A world filled with evocative, engrossing, and above all, enjoyable portraits of people's lives and loves, tenderly laid open for us...Oliver Dobbs was a writer first, and a man second. To him other people were tools. Even though he had broken Victoria Bradshaw's heart once, when he arrived on her doorstep with a two-year-old son, she found she could not refuse him, and the three of them set out for a castle in Scotland. There, Victoria meets the new laird and finds her crushed spirit awakening.

Wives of the Fishermen


Angela Huth - 1998
    When Myrtle embarks upon the great and passionate love affair of her life, beautiful Annie finds only disappointment. Still their friendship survives, until a horrifying accident exposes the secret sadness, jealousy, and betrayal each has hidden over the years.

LORDS of LOVE


A.J. Blue - 2014
    More than 700 pages of thrills, humor and sensual reading pleasure from the bestselling author A.J. Blue. …Liam studies me over the rim of his coffee cup. “You could stay here for a bit,” he suggests. “What?” I am stunned. Marcus looks at Liam in surprise. “How’s that supposed to work?” “Same way it always does,” Liam replies. “Could turn out quite interesting. You like her, I like her and Alex isn’t picky.” I glare at the three of them. “What exactly is going on here?” “We often have ladies here for a few weeks. In exchange for certain services,” Marcus explains with an expression that makes me shudder. “What kind of services?” I pant, hoping the answer won’t be the obvious. “The ladies live with us and we pay them handsomely. In exchange they have sex with us. Only if they want to, of course.” Liam’s blue eyes are firmly fixed on me while he explains. I jump right up and spill my coffee in the process. “Are you nuts? Do I look like a hooker?” … It’s her 29th birthday when Kate’s life is suddenly falling to pieces. Dumped by her boyfriend and fired from her job, she decides to spend the night in a bar. There, she unexpectedly meets an attractive and charismatic young man called Liam along with his two friends. After a few drinks the three men offer her to spend the night in the guestroom of the apartment they share. What appears to be a nice gesture soon turns out to have a hidden agenda. The three men regularly pay women to live in their apartment and to render certain services. Is Kate going to accept Liam’s immoral proposal? Readers’ Comments: "An absolute must for every fan of this genre and everybody else as well." "The author is a master of erotic literature. I especially like her style of writing – never boring or elongated. Everything harmonizes perfectly from beginning to end." "One of the best sensual novels I've ever read, and there have been many." Complete Edition: Lords of Love (Penthouse of Pleasure).

Provincial Daughter


R.M. Dashwood - 1961
    Delafield