Tea or Books?

#140: Our 10 Favourite Books from 10 Years

It’s time for our favourite 10 books from 10 years of ‘Tea or Books?’! https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/tea-or-books-140.mp3 Rachel and I have looked through the books we read for the first ten years of the podcast and have each picked our ten favourites – thank you for everyone who suggested this fun idea. Do get in touch at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com if you’d like to suggest anything for further episodes. Find us above, on Spotify, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get podcasts. Here are our top tens, with the episodes in which they first appear, if you’d like to read more. Don’t read this if you don’t want spoilers! RACHEL’S TOP TEN 10. Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson (ep 137) 9. Guard Your Daughters by Diana Tutton (ep 8) 8. A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair (ep 36) 7. The Lark by E. Nesbit (ep 56) 6. Father by Elizabeth von Arnim (ep 91) 5. A Compass Error by Sybille Bedford (ep 47) 4. The Heir by Vita Sackville-West (ep 45) 3. A Pin To See The Peepshow by F. Tennyson Jesse (ep 34) 2. Four Gardens by Margery Sharp (ep 102) 1. One Fine Day by Mollie Panter-Downes (ep 13) SIMON’S TOP TEN 10. Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee (ep 20) 9. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (ep 137) 8. Enbury Heath by Stella Gibbons (ep 107) 7. The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola (ep 130) 6. Four Gardens by Margery Sharp (ep 102) 5. The Semi-Detached House and The Semi-Attached Couple by Emily Eden (ep 48) 4. The Sweet and Twenties by Beverley Nichols (ep 52) 3. The Diviners by Margaret Laurence (ep 103) 2. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (ep 20) 1. Greengates by R.C. Sherriff (ep 31) The other books and authors we mention in this episode are: Giving Up The Ghost by Hilary Mantel On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf Small Bomb at Dimperley by Lissa Evans Dark Like Under by Alice Chadwick Emma by Jane Austen The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee Mamma by Diana Tutton The Young Ones by Diana Tutton Excellent Women by Barbara Pym Westwood by Stella Gibbons High Wages by Dorothy Whipple Babbacombe’s by Susan Scarlett The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim Five Windows by D.E. Stevenson The Stone of Chastity by Margery Sharp A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford Messalina of the Suburbs by E.M. Delafield A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence Cluny Brown by Margery Sharp The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning Crooked Cross by Sally Carson

#139: 10th anniversary special! O Caledonia vs The Sundial, and celebrating 10 years

Shirley Jackson, Elspeth Barker, and your emails – welcome to episode 139 of Tea or Books?! https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/tea-or-books-139.mp3 Can you believe we’ve been going for ten years? It’s wild to me! In the first half of the episode we compare two gothic-inspired novels – O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker and The Sundial by Shirley Jackson. In the second half, we share lots of lovely, lovely emails from you guys. We asked about the books and episodes that stand out from our first decade – and were so touched by everyone who got in touch. Apologies for the handful of people who messaged after we’d recorded. I’m afraid you aren’t in the episode, but we were grateful for the messages of course. You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. Because there are so many books and authors mentioned in this episode, I’m not going to do a full list – but if you’d like anything clarified, do ask in the comments.

Help us celebrate 10 years of Tea or Books?!

https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/10-year-bonus.mp3 A super quick mini-episode – well, not really an episode – asking for your contributions to the next episode of ‘Tea or Books?’. It will be TEN YEARS since Rachel and I first put an episode out into the ether – I can’t believe it’s been a whole decade, and I’m so thankful to everyone who has listened, commented, emailed, reviewed etc over the time. Will you help us celebrate? In the next episode, I’d love to share your contributions – are there books we’ve suggested that you’ve read and loved? Are there topics you particularly enjoyed? Anything that we can use to celebrate 10 years in style. Do send in your voicenotes or emails to teaorbooks@gmail.com, or put any highlights into the comment section on this blog post. (Please do, otherwise it’ll be a very quiet first half of the episode!)

#138: Do We Care About Authors’ Personal Lives? and The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne vs The Beautiful Visit

Elizabeth Jane Howard, Brian Moore, and authors’ personal lives – welcome to episode 138! https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/tea-or-books-138.mp3 In the first half of the episode, we do a question that Lindsey suggested: do we care about authors’ personal lives? It takes us to questions both of ethics and of privacy. In the second half, we pit The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore against The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard. You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. The books and authors we mention in this episode are: Recommended! by Nicola Wilson Hugh Walpole J.B. Priestley Sylvia Lynd Clemence Dane Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield Blue Postcards by Douglas Bruton Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico Stasiland by Anna Funder Crooked Cross by Sally Carson Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer Virginia Woolf Stella Gibbons Enid Blyton Neil Gaiman Mary Lawson The Other Elizabeth Taylor by Nicola Beauman Jane Austen Dorothy L. Sayers Don’t Look Round by Violet Trefusis Echo by Violet Trefusis Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey Elena Ferrante Crome Yellow by Aldous Huxley J.K. Rowling Nothing To See Here by Kevin Wilson Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater John Keats Percy Shelley Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann Invitiation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann R.C. Sherriff The Doctor’s Wife by Brian Moore The Great Victorian Collection by Brian Moore O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker The Sundial by Shirley Jackson

#137: Resolved or Unresolved Endings? and Perfection vs Catherine Carter

Resolved endings, Pamela Hansford Johnson, Vincenzo Latronico – welcome to episode 137 of Tea or Books?! https://www.stuckinabook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/tea-or-books-137.mp3 In the first half of the episode, we take a suggestion from Lindsey – do we prefer resolved or unresolved endings? In the second half, Rachel and I see how successful our suggestions for each other were (from the end of last episode) – Rachel asked me to read Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes, and I asked Rachel to read Catherine Carter by Pamela Hansford Johnson. You can get in touch with suggestions, comments, questions etc (please do!) at teaorbooks[at]gmail.com – we’d love to hear from you, even if I’m quite bad at replying quickly. Find us at Spotify, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. If you’re able to, we’d really appreciate any reviews and ratings you can leave us. And you can support the podcast at Patreon. The books and authors we mention in this episode are: The Spring Begins by Katherine Dunning Some Must Watch by Ethel Lina White aka The Spiral Staircase The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White Persuasion by Jane Austen Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf The Waves by Virginia Woolf Memento Mori by Muriel Spark Villette by Charlotte Bronte I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie Immortality by Milan Kundera Atonement by Ian McEwan The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard Elizabeth Goudge The Honours Board by Pamela Hansford Johnson An Error of Judgement by Pamela Hansford Johnson The Unspeakable Skipton by Pamela Hansford Johnson The Unbearable Bassington by Saki An Impossible Marriage by Pamela Hansford Johnson Christopher Isherwood A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence The Beautiful Visit by Elizabeth Jane Howard The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne by Brian Moore