All Episodes

#154: Independent Publishers vs Big Name Publishers and Two Virginia Woolf Novels

#153: Do We Care If Writers Exaggerate? and When The Cranes Fly South vs Only About Love

#152: Novels about women’s home life vs work life, and The Professor’s House by Willa Cather vs The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout

#151: A Q&A special! (part 2)

#150: A Q&A special! (part 1)

#149: Do We Like Campus Novels? and Two Books By Muriel Spark

#148: Is There A Right Time To Read A Book? and The Dutch House vs The Party

#147: Quality vs Quantity and Two Books About Artists

#146: Our Top 10 Books of 2025

#145: Younger vs Older Authors and Rhine Journey vs Fenny

#144: Simple vs Ornate Style, and Sylvia Plath vs Janet Malcolm

#143 : Do We Avoid Books That Will Upset Us? and Agatha Christie vs Ethel Lina White

#142: Can We Like A Character Who Makes Stupid Decisions? and Other People vs A Five Year Sentence

#141: Do We Care About Weather in Novels? and Crooked Cross vs The Spring Begins

#140: Our 10 Favourite Books from 10 Years

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

Help us celebrate 10 years of Tea or Books?!

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

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

#136: Does Reading Make Us Better People? and And Then There Were None vs The Invisible Host

#135: Can Literary Fiction Be A Comfort Read? and Enter Ghost vs Lady Living Alone

#134: Our Top 10 Books of 2024

#133: Do We Have Reading Rules? and Two Willa Cather Novels

#132: Interview: Edward Carey on Edith Holler

#131: Do We Read Deeply or Shallowly? and One Year’s Time vs Which Way?

#130: Do Books Need Romance? and The Ladies’ Paradise vs Babbacombe’s

Tea or Books? #129: Authors Who Wrote Too Much vs Not Enough and A Room of One’s Own vs A Bookshop of One’s Own

Tea or Books? #128: Do We Read Plays? and Fifty Sounds vs The Housekeeper and the Professor

Tea or Books? #127: Do We Have Guilty Pleasures? and A Clergyman’s Daughter vs The Vicar’s Daughter

Tea or Books? #126: Should Books Be Banned? and Lessons in Chemistry vs Dear Mrs Bird

Tea or Books? #125: Do We Read Celeb Memoirs? and Day vs Landscape in Sunlight

Tea or Books? #124: Our Favourite Reads of 2023

Tea or Books? #123: Critical or Charitable Reading? and Sheep’s Clothing vs Harriet Said…

Tea or Books? #122: Mary Lawson novels w/ Mary Lawson!

Tea or Books? #121: Should Books Have A Message? and Two Jane Gardam Novels

Tea or Books? #120: Travel Inspiration from Fiction or Non-Fiction? and The English Air vs The Morning Gift – with Claire / The Captive Reader

Tea or Books? #119: Amateur Sleuths or Professional Detectives? and Women Talking vs Drive Your Plow Over The Bones Of The Dead

Tea or Books? #118: Do We Read Children and Adult Books By The Same Author? and Lucy vs The Buddha in the Attic

Tea or Books? #117 w/ Lucy Scholes – Do We Like Unnamed Characters? and Ex-Wife vs Sally On The Rocks

Tea or Books? #116: Do We Like Books About Sport and Quick Curtain vs It Walks By Night

Tea or Books? #115: Do We Like Books About Bookshops? and Quartet in Autumn vs Journal of a Solitude

Tea or Books? #114: Linear vs Non-linear Narratives and Winter in the Air vs A World of Love

Tea or Books? #113: Do We Like Literary Retellings? and South Riding vs Ruth

Tea or Books? #112: Best Books of 2022 and They Were Sisters vs The Three Sisters

Tea or Books? #111: Do We Care What Characters Look Like? And Good Behaviour vs Full House

Tea or Books? #110: Do We Care Where Characters Work? and A Helping Hand vs The True Deceiver

Tea or Books? #109: Boarding House Novels vs Living Alone and Heat Wave vs Heat Lightning

Tea or Books? #108: Books with Bite or No Bite; Late and Soon vs A Game of Hide and Seek

Tea or Books? #107: Do We Care What Characters Read? and Two Stella Gibbons Novels

Tea or Books? #106: Book or Movie First, and The Feast vs Grand Canyon

Tea or Books? #105: Big Families vs Small Families and Animal Farm vs Nineteen Eighty-Four

Tea or Books? #104: Do We Care What Characters Dream? and William – an Englishman vs The Great Fortune

Tea or Books? #103: Thinking vs Feeling and Moon Tiger vs The Diviners

Tea or Books? #102: Do We Read Books about Grief? and Five Windows vs Four Gardens – with Claire The Captive Reader

Tea or Books? #101: Rachel explores Simon’s shelves

Tea or Books? #100: Q&A Special

Tea or Books? #99: Do We Like Essays? and Brook Evans vs The Crowded Street

Tea or Books? #98: Nature Writing (yes or no) and Favourite Women Prize Winners

Tea or Books? #97: Spontaneous or Planned Reading, and Tension vs Thank Heaven Fasting

Tea or Books? #96: Should Offensive Books Be Republished? and two Barbara Pyms

Tea or Books? #95: Woolf vs Austen and The Foolish Gentlewoman vs The Half-Crown House

Tea or Books? #94: Do We Care Where Authors Live? and Dusty Answer vs Frost in May

Tea or Books? #93 Do We Care What Characters Are Called? and Two Tove Jansson Novels

Tea or Books? #92: Do We Care What Characters Wear? and Girl, Woman, Other vs Life After Life

Tea or Books? #91: Familiar or Unfamiliar Settings? and Two Elizabeth von Arnim novels

Tea or Books? #90: Good or Bad Reading Year? and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn vs O, The Brave Music

Tea or Books? #89: Do we care about gardens?, and Gilead vs Home

Tea or Books? #88: Blurbs or No Blurbs, and The Remains of the Day vs Never Let Me Go

Tea or Books? #87: Biographies vs Novels about Real People and Emma by Jane Austen and Crossriggs by Jane and Mary Findlater

Tea or Books? #86: Empathy vs Sympathy and The Child That Books Built vs When I Was A Child I Read Books

Tea or Books? #85: One House or Many Houses, and A Thatched Roof vs Fresh From The Country

Tea or Books? #84: Sea vs Mountains and Her Son’s Wife vs Auntie Mame

Tea or Books? #83: Comfort Zones (Yes or No?) and Two Willa Cather Novels

Tea or Books? #82: Australia vs New Zealand and two Adrian Bell books

Tea or Books? #81: Style vs Plot and Living vs Loving by Henry Green

Tea or Books? #80: Should Authors Only Write What They Know? and Agatha Christie vs Dorothy L Sayers

Tea or Books? #79: Political Books (Yes or No?), and The Diary of a Bookseller vs Bookshop Memories

Tea or Books? #78: 19th Century vs 20th Century and Two Unfinished Jane Austen Novels

Tea or Books? #77: Fantasy vs Fantastic Fiction and Wine of Honour vs Beneath the Visiting Moon

Tea or Books? #76: Illustrations (yes or not), and Miss Hargreaves vs Miss Boston and Miss Hargreaves

Tea or Books? #75: Moral Readers or Amoral Readers and The Summer Book vs Birthday Letters

Tea or Books? #74: YA (yay or nay?) and Stoner vs The Easter Parade

Tea or Books? #73: One Chance or Many Chances, and Two Margery Sharp Novels

Tea or Books? #72: Reading at Home vs Reading Elsewhere and The Hours vs Mrs Woolf and the Servants

Tea or Books? #71: Multi-Narrative vs Single Narrative, and Period Piece vs A London Child of the 1870s

Tea or Books? #70: Simon Takes a Tour of Rachel’s Bookshelves

Tea or Books? #69: Small World vs Wide World and Blue Remembered Hills vs Seasoned Timber

Tea or Books? #68: Tact vs Attack, and North and South vs Pride and Prejudice

Tea or Books? #67: Books as Gifts: Yes or No, and Little vs Alva & Irva

Tea or Books? #66: Domestic Books vs Worldly Books and Elizabeth Bowen vs Elizabeth Taylor

Tea or Books? #65: cars vs bicycles, and Hons and Rebels vs Tory Heaven

Tea or Books? #64: WW1 vs WW2 and Coronation vs Love of Seven Dolls

Tea or Books? #63: First Edition vs Worst Edition and Parnassus on Wheels vs The Education of Harriet Hatfield

Tea or Books? #62: Internet vs Bookshop and Mr Pim Passes By vs Four Days’ Wonder

Tea or Books? #61: Do We Care What Characters Eat? and The French Lieutenant’s Woman vs Remarkable Creatures

Tea or Books? #60: married vs unmarried characters, and Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day vs Patricia Brent, Spinster

Tea or Books? #59: Hard vs Easy Holiday Reading, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle vs The Haunting of Hill House

Tea or Books? #58: Book Groups (yes or no), and The Fountain Overflows vs Invitation to the Waltz

Tea or Books? #57: save vs binge, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd vs The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Tea or Books? #56: Review vs Recommendation and The Lark vs High Wages