Beautiful Books: The Bloomsbury Group

This is part of a series on Beautiful Books; see the full series here.

The Bloomsbury Group is self-described as “a new library of books from the early twentieth-century chosen by readers for readers.” Judging by the blank website, the idea did not take off & has presumably been abandoned. That said, I love the covers & book descriptions of the existing titles, which are still in print.

The series includes Let’s Kill Uncle, about orphan & heir Barnaby Gaunt, who realizes he must kill his murderous uncle before his uncle kills him; and a recent purchase, Miss Hargreaves, wherein a letter to an imaginary octogenarian goes awry when the fictional woman turns up–real, in the flesh–on the letter writer’s doorstep.

Other notable books include Mrs. Tim of the Regiment, by D.E. Stevenson, author of the Miss Buncle books, and Joyce Dennys’ Henrietta books (Henrietta’s War & the sequel Henrietta Sees It Through). I’ll leave you with the description of Henrietta’s War, which epitomizes the quirky coziness of the line:

Spirited Henrietta wishes she was the kind of doctor’s wife who knew exactly how to deal with the daily upheavals of war. But then, everyone in her close-knit Devonshire village seems to find different ways to cope: there’s the indomitable Lady B, who writes to Hitler every night to tell him precisely what she thinks of him; the terrifyingly efficient Mrs Savernack, who relishes the opportunity to sit on umpteen committees and boss everyone around; flighty, flirtatious Faith who is utterly preoccupied with the latest hats and flashing her shapely legs; and then there’s Charles, Henrietta’s hard-working husband who manages to sleep through a bomb landing in their neighbour’s garden.

See the full list at Amazon.