Looking for certain types of books.

I've had it in my head the type of books I want to read more of, especially this year, but I have yet to find any books for the specific types I'm looking for. I'm hoping to find books like these, that are TBSL 19th-20th centuryish? even if they're mid century, I could find them on OpenLibrary, or other public domain sites. Even if it's not public domain, please link it and I will hunt down a copy if it intrigues me enough.

a. old books of letters/diaries/journals, but specifically written about the country or by a person who is living on the farm, etc, or has moved to the country from the first time, or travelling to the country

b. early 20th century fiction set in country houses, english estates and the like, family saga types, or country house mysteries...having serious downton withdrawl. I know there's a ton of contemporary historical fiction in this vain, but I'm looking for fiction that was written possibly during 1910s-1920s, pertaining to this?

c. Time travel novels for both adults and children alike, written in the 20th century. I've found a few hopefuls on openlibrary from the 60s and 70s, but I'm wondering if there isn't more that I have yet to discover.

d. Fiction or non fiction about castles, domestic service, or the seaside.

>1 toast_and_tea:

re: b) For a country house mystery, try Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy L. Sayers. It also has a perfectly scrumptious description of a trial in the House of Lords.

re: c) E. Nesbit's Psammead novels?

a) I confess I haven't read my copy but The Egg and I is a popular non-fiction book in this group about chicken farming.
c) The House on the Strand is a favorite book of mine that includes time travel.
d) I Capture the Castle is a coming of age novel set in a dilapidated castle with an eccentric family.
I'll have to think about Downton books.
I loved your pictures of the bookstore. Welcome to the group.
b) The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie for a manor house mystery.
Edited to add the last book

I think the mysteries of Georgette Heyer would fit for the country house mysteries, although some part of them may be set in London during the season.

For country house/estate fiction, try any of Molly Keane's early works, such as Two days in Aragon, or Full house. Also The ladies of Lyndon by Margaret Kennedy.

Children's time travel - Earthfasts by William Mayne, A traveller in time by Alison Uttley, Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Fisher, The root cellar by Janet Lunn ... there are many more from the period you specify. You could try a tagmash search here on LT using the terms children's lit and time travel, or time slip.

a) There are a lot of famous British country diaries from the 18th and 19th century, try looking at the recommendations for the books below, e.g.
- Diary of a country parson by James Woodforde
- Kilvert's Diary
- Our village by Mary Russell Mitford (no relation) - magazine articles by a very sharp observer of early 19th century rural life
And of course:
- We of the Never-Never by Mrs Aeneas Gunn - classic Australian pioneer memoir
A few interesting 20th century ones:
- I bought a mountain by Thomas Firbank - a Welsh hill-farm in the 1930s
- Make a cow laugh by John Holgate - suburbanite's account of his first year running a farm - 1960s, I think.
About villages:
- Akenfield by Ronald Blythe - a Suffolk village in the 1960s
- Jorwerd: the death of the village (Hoe God verdween uit Jorwerd) by Geert Mak - a journalist's study of life in a Friesian village from WWII to the 1990s.

b)Country-house novels:
- Early P.G. Wodehouse would fit, e.g. A damsel in distress (1919) and Something fresh (1915) - the latter is very good on upstairs/downstairs stuff

For a) Dear General: The private letters of Annie E. Kennedy and John Bidwell 1866-1868 is one of my favorite books. Although it may be hard to find. They were separated by a continent, he was pioneering and she was on the east coast in a political family. He is trying to convince her to join him out west and in marriage, she is sweetly telling him that she would love to, but will not marry a man who is not of her faith. Their honesty as she explains her faith and he explains why he will not say he believes unless he really does is beautiful. All the time in loving words.

The Bidwells were a founding family here where I live, known for their compassion and forward thinking. Not perfect in our modern eyes, but part of humanity which moved us forward to where we are.

I second the motion for Dorothy L. Sayers Clouds of Witness, too.

Not quite time travel. but time slip-- The Sherwood Ring, which is YA, and Still She Wished for Company

For (a), today at a library book sale in Pennington I saw a copy of Letters of an Old Farmer to His Son, published in 1914. It's available via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=1f5EAQAAMAAJ

For (b), A. A. Milne's The Red House Mystery is set in a country house. Available via Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1872

I'll second Mark's recommendation of Wodehouse for a comic take on the manor house.

For (d), the seaside plays a role in Joseph C. Lincoln's fiction. A good place to start might be Mr. Pratt, which involves vacationers trying to get away from it all at the seaside. It is also available via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=UPQWAAAAYAAJ

If you are interested in seaside mysteries, I've enjoyed the many Asey Mayo books by Phoebe Atwood Taylor — The Cape Cod Mystery, The Deadly Sunshade, etc.

If you haven't read Agatha Christie: An Autobiography, you might enjoy it. For me, it was like listening to my grandmother tell stories from her childhood in the early part of the 1900s.

Continuing the Agatha Christie theme, I think you'd enjoy The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery is pictures and letters from Agatha and Archie Christie's trip around the world with the British Empire Exhibition Mission in 1922. Come Tell me How you live is her travels to an archeological dig with her second husband in the 1930s, written just after WWII.

I second Dorothy Sayers.

For family sagas, I can't promise to meet all of your criteria, but you could check out the books by Elswyth Thane. I very much enjoyed her Williamsburg series, which went from the American Revolution through WWII and features generations of a family fighting in these wars. I am sure there are some house parties in there.

Dorothy Sayers has already been mentioned.

Agatha Christie - not sure she has been mentioned yet. I haven't read her books in a while but I'd be shocked if there weren't house parties.

I read quite a few books by E. Phillips Oppenheim when I was young as my small town library had quite a collection of them. He began publishing in the early 1900's and don't know when he stopped, but he was prolific. One of my favorites was Miss Brown of X.Y.O.

Time Travel - my favorites were by Robert Heinlein (the whole Lazarus Long series) and books like The Door into Summer.

Good luck!

British 1930's house-party mysteries: Nicholas Blake. I've enjoyed the ones that I read.

>3 BonnieJune54: BonnieJune54 The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald is wonderful. So funny. I have read it many times. Betty writes with wit and humor about adventures in the rainy, beautiful, rainy, isolated, rainy backwoods of the Pacific Northwest. There is a good deal about the chickens, as well as chapters about a city girl trying to understand rural living, and odd-ball neighbors.

For early twentieth century country house, I would recommend The End of the House of Alard, by Sheila Kaye-Smith - written and set in 1923.

I heartily second Sakerfalcon's recommendations of Earthfasts and Charlotte Sometimes for timeslip novels.

I would also add Red Shift - though that is more about eras nteracting, and has a slightly older target age range.