Cambridge literature

[girlyswot]

I've been thinking sporadically over the last couple of weeks...

And now I've written that sentence, I really want to end this post there.

...that it would be nice to be reading some Cambridge books while I'm here. I often like to do this - I took The Nine Tailors with me for a memorable holiday in Norfolk; Persuasion when I visited Lyme Regis; one of Bill Bryson's books about America when I was in the US; Outlander in the Highlands and so on. But I've been struggling to come up with any. Which strikes me as odd. I have several very much loved Oxford books - Gaudy Night, The Ready Made Family, The Subtle Knife, and so on.

What am I missing? What would you recommend? Preferably fiction, set at any time within the last 800 years. Though if you have a particularly splendid non-fiction book set in the city that you want to suggest, I'm open to that too.

ETA: Suggestions of Cambridge poems also welcome. The only one I can think of is The Old Vicarage, Grantchester.

Comments

[white_hart]

Rosamund Lehmann's Dusty Answer is partly set in Cambridge, and I suspect might be your kind of thing. And PD James's An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (which I didn't think was brilliant, but it was OK). And Porterhouse Blue, but that may well not be your kind of thing.

topicaltim suggests The Glittering Prizes although he thinks it only begins in Cambridge. And The Common Pursuit by Simon Gray (not the FR Leavis one!), although that's a play.

Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has a lot of Cambridge in, too.

In return, can you think of any Northumbrian books for me to take on holiday?

[white_hart]

And re poems, what about Little Gidding?

Oh, and Kate Atkinson's Case Histories is set in Cambridge.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Kate Atkinson is one of those authors I am always meaning to read but never have. So maybe I should try that first.

Thank you!

[white_hart]

She's very good, although her humour can be very black. In fact, it strikes me that One Good Turn, which I gave up on about a year ago because I just wasn't in the mood, is set in Edinburgh, so perhaps I should take that with me next week.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I read One Good Turn before Case Histories. I thought both were excellent - although it isn't quite the Edinburgh I know (despite all the streets being real!) - a bit like Rankine's Rebus in that respect.

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh, excellent, thank you. I shall definitely give the Rosamund Lehmann a go. I did read Porterhouse Blue (or possibly another in the series) many years ago but probably I shan't bother again. Having just checked on Amazon, The Glittering Prizes is not the book I thought it was, but it looks interesting too.

The one that comes to mind for Northumbria is Credo by Melvyn Bragg, though it may not be ideal holiday reading, and I also think it needs to come with a warning that somewhere in the first few chapters is one of the most graphically violent rape scenes I've ever read. I'll see if I can think of any others.

[white_hart]

Yeah, I think I might give that one a miss. There's Lorna Hill's Stolen Holiday, but I'm unlikely to be able to track down a reasonably-priced copy in the next three days (which is rather a shame, as we'll be staying almost exactly where the book is set!).

[girlyswot.livejournal.com]

Oh - while you are in Edinburgh, you should go to the Children's Bookshop aka Fidra Books. I bet they have Lorna Hill.

[white_hart]

They probably do and are certainly on my list! It does look as though GGBP reissued Stolen Holiday recently so they might have one. It would be rather marvellous to reread it only a few miles from Seahouses!