Simon on Stuck in a Book has printed a list of authors A-Z Favourites and next to them a book by this particular author all the way through the alphabet and has challenged others to do the same. This is a fun exercise I have done countless times while waiting for trains, planes etc but though I have listed authors and titles have not necessarily named books I have read by the chosen on the list. That is slightly more problematical but have had a go and here is my result (some are easier than others and some have had to be dredged up from my teenage memory as well):
- AUSTEN, Jane - Emma
- BRONTE, Charlotte - Jane Eyre
- CHOPIN, Kate - the Awakening
- DICKENS, Charles - Bleak House
- ELIOT, George - Adam Bede
- FERRIER, Susan - Marriage
- GROSSMITH, G - Diary of a Nobody
- HARDY, Thomas - Mayor of Casterbridge
- ISHIGURO, K - Remains of the Day
- JEROME K JEROME - Three Men in a Boat
- KENNEDY, Margaret - The Constant Nymph (had to work my memory for this one read years and years ago. Rather purple prose if I remember correctly)
- LEVERSON, Ada - The Little Otleys
- MARTINEUA, Harriet - Deerbrook
- NICOLSON, Juliet - The Perfect Summer
- ORCZY, Baroness - The Scarlet Pimpernel
- PANTER-DOWNES, Mollie - One Fine Day
- QUILLER-COUCH, Arthur (writing as Q) - Hetty Wesley (Have to own up and say only a quarter of the way through, I looked at this totally out of curiosity as we had shelves of these in a library in Highgate where I then worked and I was intrigued. I can remember little about it so really perhaps it does not count but just have to have an author beginning with Q!))
- RENDELL, Ruth - An Unkindness of Ravens
- SAYERS, D L - Gaudy Night
- TROLLOPE, Anthony - Barchester Towers
- UNSWORTH, Barry - Pascali's Island
- VON ARNIM, Elizabeth - Vera (May be cheating here a bit as I have seen her books filed under A as well as V), so if the consensus is that she is under A then I will add VIORST, Judith - It's Hard to be hip over Thirty. I was going to put Barbara Vine but as she is Ruth Rendell thought that was pushing my luck
- WHARTON, Edith - House of Mirth
- X - PASS!
- YOUNG, Angela - Speaking of Love
- ZOLA, Emile - Ladies Paradise
Of course, the next trick is not only to have a book you have read by each A-Z author, but the book's title must also be the same initial as the author chosen - is this possible I ask myself? Some are easy, some impossible.
This is going to niggle at me now...
