RETRO READS  | Daily Mail Online

GONE WITH THE WIND

by Margaret Mitchell (Vintage £10.99, 1,072 pp)

Locked in at home, now at least we have time to tackle those blockbuster novels we never got round to. Oh, my sore aching eyes . . . yet despite 1,072 pages of agonisingly small print I was mesmerised by this American masterpiece.

Set on a Deep South slave plantation in 1861, young Scarlett, a tempestuous, flirty egomaniac, sees her privileged world of crinolines and slave labour shattered by the Civil War.

Tragedy, passion, hunger, catastrophe, families torn apart — it’s like Poldark transported to the Mississippi swamps.

Doomed to unrequited love for drippy Ashley, and to the rough shenanigans of dastardly Rhett Butler, ‘a man with lusty, unabashed appetites’ (yum, yum), Scarlett survives hunger, widowhood, burnt-down cotton fields, marital rape . . .

Certainly gripping, yes, but deplorably, cringe-makingly racist.

MARIANA

by Monica Dickens (Persephone £13, 400 pp)

The gorgeous-looking classics published by Persephone are absolute treasures. First published in 1940, Mariana features sweet Mary gamely grabbing hold of life in the 1930s. Idyllic childhood holidays in a country house with cousins, nannies and ponies results in a teenage crush, a snog and Mary deciding that kissing is ‘unpleasant and unhygienic’.

This changes as time rolls on and she survives dancing with sweaty buffoons, her jaw aching with trying not to yawn, being dumped at a university ball, a nightmare drama course, a frisky Paris interlude and fleeting romance. But will she ever find true love? It’s funny, and innocent and all very far removed from teenage life today.

THE CASE OF ALAN COPELAND

by Moray Dalton (Dean Street £10.99, 227 pp)

Nothing like a good vintage detective drama to keep you on your toes. This sparkling whodunit has everything — frustrated spinsters, nosy-parkers, adultery, arsenic, exhumation, courtroom dramatics and enough village bitchiness and tittle-tattle to make any of us want to commit murder.

Henpecked Alan, nagged by his hateful wife, goes off the rails. But is he responsible for her sudden demise? Is the vicar’s shy niece involved? Is tarty Irene — who has ‘ridden pillion on a good many motorcycles’ — telling lies? And what’s up with the grumpy vicar?

Classic crime, red herrings galore. Hurrah!