I am hoping for some new authors myself her!

Miss Read

Angela Thirkell

The Provinical Lady

Margery Sharp

E. F. Benson

Nancy Mitford

Elizabeth Jane Howard

Mrs. Appleyard

Not pimping my shelf! I won't give mine up.

Thanks for your list! I see an unfamiliar name there (Mrs. Appleyard) that I will have to search for!

I would like to add Rebecca Shaw. I am just finishing up the fourth of her "Barleybridge" novels (Country Affair, Country Wives, Country Lovers and Country Passions) which have been very enjoyable and definitely fall into the same genre as the above.

Cool! Thanks.

I accidently bought Mrs. Appleyard's Year a number of years ago at a Goodwill in Washington, DC, for a dollar. It has cost me a pretty penny since tracking down her cookbooks. They come in and out of print. For some, the library is a good source. She also wrote a good series of kid's histories. Her real name is Louise Andrews Kent (1886-1969).

I usually have a Mrs. Appleyard as a book by my bed. Wonderful reading. Her recipes are all tangled up with observations on life, refinishing furniture, her children, and life in Boston and rural Vermont. She will stop in the middle of some recipe, hands floury, something frying in butter, to talk about her husband's preferences in peas or salads! She is very amusing and all the recipes are wonderful.

Mrs. Appleyard's Year isn't a cookbook per se, but it has a lot of talk about food. The best deal is a 3 in 1 book called Cooking with Mrs Appleyard.   It has the first cookbook (which she says she wrote because she was tired of copying out recipes for people. I t also has The Summer Kitchen and The Winter Kitchen. Here's the amazon review:

In the old house at Appleyard Center, Mrs. Appleyard has delighted generations of Appleyards, friends and drop-ins with thousands of meals. These three books in one, which have charmed readers for decades, share with the reader, Mrs. A's best dishes and warmest memories. Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen contains everything a cook would want to know about preparing and serving every kind of food for any occasion, with savory recipes and reminiscence. Mrs. Appleyard's Summer Kitchen and Mrs. Appleyard's Winter Kitchen take you through a year of picnics, family feasts, emergency dinners, late-night snacks and luxurious breakfasts. All cookbooks are more or less good at telling you what to do. Mrs. Appleyard's joyful celebration of the best food and its loving preparation makes you realize why you do it.

Great, Sally. I just odered 4 books from you. From your shelf I see we have read many of the same things.