I saw Litlove and Willa post about their 10 Fiction Best Friends and just knew I had to join in too.
- Maisie Dobbs. Are you surprised? She’s smart and always figures out the mystery.
- Ursula Marlow from Clare Langley-Hawthorne’s mystery series. Like Maisie, Ursula is an intelligent woman who is not going to be held back by the conventions of her time.
- Vianne Rocher from Chocolat. Can you imagine having a best friend with a chocolate shop? I’d go work for her. Ha.
- Valancy from The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery. I always find stories of characters who finally learn to live their life so fun and almost inspiring.
- Inspector Rebus from the Ian Rankin series. I wouldn’t be able to keep up with all his drinking but he does like to read and has piles of books by his chair and all around his place. I like that.
- Lala Reyes from Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros. We both share a childhood of countless road trips back and forth between the States and Mexico. I can only imagine how much we would have to talk about with regards to having roots in two countries.
- Florence Green from The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald. I admire her perseverance in trying to keep a bookshop where she clearly wasn’t wanted. Plus, who wouldn’t want to be friends with the owner of the bookshop?!
- Precious Ramotswe from Alexander McCall Smith’s Ladies Detective Agency series. I’d go visit her in Botswana, she’d invite me to a cup of tea and I’d listen to her talk about solving mysteries.
- Brooklyn Wainwright from Kate Carlisle’s bibliophile mystery series. The sleuth is a bookbinder! Of course I want to know her and learn from her about book restoration.
- Anne Elliott from Jane Austen’s Persuasion. What can I say, I just loved her and think she’d be a wonderful friend.
So those are some of my fictional best friends? Who are yours?
18 Comments
I’m not familiar with most of those characters, but I agree with you that Anne Elliot would be a devoted and wonderful friend. She certainly seemed to be everyone’s favorite in Persuasion (when she wasn’t hanging around with her icky sisters or father).
Oh I need to definitely get acquainted with these characters 🙂
I so nearly chose Maisie Dobbs! And Vianne Rocher and Precious Ramotswe are briliant ideas.
Fun! I’ll have to think about this one.
I love Valancy! And Anne Elliot! Have you seen the HBO series w/ Precious Ramotswe? I haven’t been able to get into the books, but loved seeing Botswana on my TV!
I loved the road trips in Caramelo…they were a bit like mirror images of my own family summer drives from central Texas to upstate New York. 🙂
Great post! I’d like to have Vivanne from Chocolat find my perfect chocolate…lol. I liked the idea of that.
I think Anne Elliot would make a great friend too.
I’d have to add Mr. Darcy from P&P to the list. I think he’d make a great guy friend.
And Bridget Jones would be a fun friend as well.
Precious and Vianne are great choices!!
I don’t know all the characters you’ve mentioned, but I loved the post and I am off to check some of the books you’ve mentioned because they sound like fun.
I would LOVE to be friends with Valancy! And Florence Green is a wonderful choice as well.
Nice list! I’d love to hang out with Maisie Dobbs as well (just as long we are safe!) and a visit with Anne Elliot would be wonderful.
I think it’s kind of sad that the only one of these people I’ve heard of is Anne Elliot…I did like Anne though.
Hi Everyone – loved seeing your responses and if you play let me know. I’d love to see who your literary friends are 🙂
I’d love Vianne Rocher as a friend too LOL
Great post, I might play as well!
Maisie, Ursula and Vianne would all be characters I’d like to have as friends! It’s a pity that no other mysteries featuring Ursula have been published–a little off topic, but seeing her name puts that in mind! This is a fun meme!
I feel like you’ve got your sights firmly set on what these friends can do for you – free trips to Africa, free chocolate. Very cushy arrangements you’ve set up;) Aww Anne is absolutely someone I want in my corner, but I might have Kitty and Lydia from Pride and Prejudice too – sometimes I want to have a flighty moment.
As a writer, I love your choice of Anne, especially because in that last completed work, Jane Austen was starting to branch out and write about people who weren’t rich.
And yes, although I love them, I consider Marianne and Elinor rich.
joanna – I hope you’ll play. I’d love to see your friends list 🙂
danielle – I looked on her site to see if another Ursula book was coming out and it looks like nothing so far. Darn. I really like her. I wonder if it’s a question of publishing woes type thing. I’m assuming she has the book written already.
Jodie – Sssh, don’t tell anyone but yes, I want to travel the world, have unlimited access to books, eat lots of chocolate 🙂
Shelley – I just totally understood where Anne was coming from regarding her family trying to control her. I’ve seen that plenty with some of my family and friends so I felt real sympathy towards her in that regard.
You have a great group of friends there!