Why read A Different Sound?

Book cover of A Different Sound: Stories by Mid-Century Women Writers

Book description

These remarkable short stories from the 1940s and 50s depict women and men caught between the pull of personal desires and profound social change. From a remote peninsula in Cornwall to the drawing rooms of the British Raj, domestic arrangements are rewritten, social customs are revoked and new freedoms are…

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The British Raj

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Why read it?

1 author picked A Different Sound as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Lesley Glaister

Author

I adore this collection of women’s short stories, all written in the forties and fifties. It gives a great scatter-gun indication of the mood and moral atmosphere of the times.

The mixture contains stories by familiar writers – Daphne du Maurier’s "The Birds" is here – as well as writers who’ve been largely forgotten, like Frances Bellerby, whose delicate story "A Cut Finger" made me cry.

Reading short stories makes a welcome change from the journey of a novel, especially when I’m busy. One a night makes a perfect bedtime treat.

From Lesley's list on relationships and sexuality in post-World War II Britain.