Article - 18 of the most gripping Gloucestershire writers

[Pauline]

SoGlos - 18 of the most gripping Gloucestershire writers
Spanning poetry and prose to screenplays and sagas, see which 18 names have made SoGlos’s hot list of the most gripping writers in Gloucestershire.

My friend, and former landlady, Sue Limb comes in at #15. In the 80s she had a regular column in the Guardian that was published as a book - Bad Housekeeping and More Bad Housekeeping. Out of print, unfortunately. I got copies a few years ago when it was still in print. Currently she is writing books for teens.

I have not read Laurie Lee but have a lovely old copy of Cider With Rosie waiting for me to get around to it.

I did not read her Harry Potter books, but I enjoyed JK Rowling's Casual Vacancy and her two detective novels written under another name.

I have not read any Jilly Cooper because her books are what I would call trashy (or so I have read). I should read one and see. She lives nearby.

I have read most of Katie Fforde's books, but they are very lightweight and I would not have read them if they were not set in the Cotswolds.

I have read most of Joanna Trollope and like them. @Kathy is a Joanna Trollope fan and got me reading more of them.

I know where the W.H Davies house is in Nailsworth! His poem Leisure is a good one for the Cotswolds:

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
Wikipedia - Leisure by W.H. Davies

 

[Lisa in Ottawa]

I adore Joanna Trollope and what have been coined as "aga sagas". I think she deals with contemporary issues facing a certain segment of British Socidty (the midle class) well and her last several books h have explored some difficult issues.
They are quite different from her early works such as The Rector's Wife" But I still find her a cosy read in that her characters are mostly decent people and nothing terrible happens. Most of her novels have been set in smaller villages but she has used london in her most recent publications.

 

[Pauline]

Joanna Trollope lived in Minch, but left the Cotswolds over 10 years ago and moved back to London.

 

[Lisa in Ottawa]

Joanna Trollope lived in Minch, but left the Cotswolds over 10 years ago and moved back to London.

She lived in Minch! No way! That's more exciting than having George Clooney for a neighbour. I knew she'd moved to London. I think this occurred when her marriage ended. Now I want to go back and reread her old novels. But I doubt if I will.

 

[Terry]

I love love love that poem!

 

[Pauline]

It looks like Joanna Trollope was born in Minchinhampton and her grandfather was the rector there - see her website. But I thought she lived there as an adult before moving to London. Maybe @jonathan knows?