My Favorite Authors

 Gretchen Joanna (fellow blogger and friend) asked me recently about my favorite writers, so here they are, with a bit of commentary:

Favorites from years ago:

MFK Fisher (Will I read my collection of her books again in my lifetime? Maybe!)

Anthony Trollope (I may read his Barchester series once more.)

Miss Read (I still enjoy her occasionally.)

Tasha Tudor (I still have a collection and look at them sometimes.)

Mary Stewart (Stewart is a tried and true favorite for about 45 years, esp. her Merlin trilogy.)

Gladys Taber (I wish she wrote fiction!)

Angela Thirkell (She's wonderful, and I enjoy nearly all of her books and plan to read her again. I particularly enjoy her books set immediately after WW2.)

Current Favorites:

Josephine Tey (My absolute favorite! I slowly dole out her novels so as not to read them up too quickly.)

Mary Stewart (See above)

Angela Thirkell (See above)

Elspeth Huxley (I loved her African trilogy.)

Elizabeth Goudge (I did stop reading two of her books mid-book that I did not enjoy enough to keep reading: The Child from the Sea and Island Magic. But her The Scent of Water is one of my all-time favorite books.)

Ngaio Marsh (light reading)

Sigrid Undset (Lavrensdatter trilogy)

Occasional Reads:

Rosamunde Pilcher (only when there's nothing else to read)

GK Chesterton (I haven't read much of him yet, but he remains on my list.)

Margery Allingham

Alexander McCall Smith (only Botswana)

I base my love of a writer on his/her voice -- the sound of the words, the flow, the vocabulary, the sentence and paragraph structure. I don't enjoy writers who are too flowery, too hokey or colloquial, or too self-aware. I want a writer for whom writing seems an easy, natural action; I don't want to hear the "work" of editing in the text.

The setting of a book is also important to me. I love houses, and if there's a big country house in the story, I'm partially hooked. I enjoy a bit of history (not too much of that) and a bit of romance. A strong heroine is a plus, and I enjoy a book told in 1st person narration.

This list doesn't include the classics that remain on my shelves (Austen, Homer, Chaucer, etc.), nor does it include the many single beloved volumes from various authors. I also have a good selection of poetry and anthologies.