Books that Evoke an English Summer’s Day
While it’s true that English summers can have their share of rain and cold, there are also sure to be many picture-perfect days of warmth, buttercups, and grazing sheep. It’s the perfect time to visit a country house and have tea in the bursting-with-color gardens; take a long walk on a public footpath; or spend the day exploring a new market town or village. For one reason or another, these books give me that long, English summer’s day feeling.
Miss Buncle’s Book* by D.E. Stevenson
Set in a quiet English village, this book stars Barbara Buncle, an unmarried woman of middle-ish age who finds herself in need of earning an income. The most straightforward way to earn some ready money seems to be writing a book, but having “no imagination,” she begins observing her neighbors and changing their names, writes a novel about the people in her village. To her surprise, it’s a great success, but only until said neighbors begin to recognize themselves in her book. What follows is quite a funny comedy of errors. It’s a delightful book for summer. If you enjoy it, there are more books in the series.
Village School* by Miss Read
This book about a village schoolteacher in 1950s England follows the school calendar, so the stories and vignettes take you through all the seasons, as does the sequel, Village Diary. There are lovely descriptions of an English summer in both books, a peaceful companion for a lazy summer’s day.
Summer Lightning* by P.G. Wodehouse
Who can capture a summer afternoon with the landed gentry and their bumbling relatives quite like P.G. Wodehouse? This is the fourth book in the Blandings Castle series filled with lovers’ misunderstandings, a stolen prize pig, and sparkling summer dialogue that you can follow up with the fifth book in the series, Heavy Weather.
The Littlest Library by Poppy Alexander
If you prefer something a little more contemporary, I recently listened to this book about a young woman beginning life over again in Devon in a picturesque cottage that comes with a discontinued phone booth that could become the perfect little library. There are village squabbles, a little romance, and friendship.
Watership Down* by Richard Adams
If a fantasy book that immerses you in the English countryside intrigues you, this epic tale of a band of rabbits looking for a new home might be a good fit. I found it strange at first imagining rabbits as warriors, but it wasn’t long before I got caught up in the story. The names of all the flowers in English fields and meadows stayed with me and made my walks that much more enjoyable. If you want to stay in the imaginary realm of rabbit warriors, you might also like my husband’s book for children, The Rabbit’s Arrows that takes place around where we lived in North Yorkshire.
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