Some Fretwork and the Interminable Christmas Play at the Chalet School

Damn! I paid £8.27 on Kindle for mine.

I didn't know there was such thing as What We're Reading. Uh-oh, squoodles of hours of extra procrastination time have hoved into view on the horizon.

In the CS usage. Not a general practitioner. In CS terms they are a very good thing ans must be married immediately, although are not quite such a good catch as a TB specialist.

I think it probably has to belong in What We're Reading, but with a quick bit of helpful context explaining that we are a bona fide MN quiche, although obviously a nice Chaletian one who always sheepdog welcome new girls.

Does the RoW discussion thread belong here in Children's Books or over in What We're Reading? We might attract other readers in What We're Reading but they may not understand constant CS references as to how Joey would immediately have picked up on Louise's problems and sung her to sleep or scattered feathers or explained to her that GPs* are a Bad Thing.

• In the CS usage. Not a general practitioner. In CS terms they are a very good thing ans must be married immediately, although are not quite such a good catch as a TB specialist.

But Rosli is a Coadjutor. Surely in Ofsted terms the ratio is 1 Coadjutor: 397 children?

I think Ofsted also raised concerns about the number of kidnappings that had occurred from Freudesyurt.

It's OK, panic over. Rosli has written a 197-page strategic plan for the development of the nurseryurt. She's currently running it up the flagople to see if anyone salutes.

Right, I have finished Regiment of Women and I would very much like to talk about it. Please can we have a discussion thread for it filled with spoilers?

Wait for meeeeeeeeeeeeeee - I've only just started my re-read. Don't say anything interesting until I get there.

Right, I have finished Regiment of Women and I would very much like to talk about it. Please can we have a discussion thread for it filled with spoilers?

I think Ofsted also raised concerns about the number of kidnappings that had occurred from Freudesyurt. Am having second thoughts about leaving the singleton there. Could he be a lamb?

The situation that always annoys me (apart from Len being basically sold to the grasping reg entwhistle) is poor Josette. She was going to university and instead gets dragged to Australia and both get and Sybil get stuck there with Aussie husbands. Bit grim.
Oh I hate this too. Trying to be generous, I imagine EBD thought it might be wonderful to have a family trip like that, and for both sisters to find lovely husbands and be able to both start a new life in Australia etc, but I don't like it at all, I don't think it sounds right for Josette, and I also don't think it sounds much like Madge. Is this all part of the same rush to tie up the more important loose ends, which I think is why Reg ends up all but dragging Len down the aisle in her school uniform? (So perhaps ideally the Australia trip would have happened after Josette had been to the LSE and Sybil had been to her needlework school?)

Great drama in the Freudesyurt nurseryurt, my lambs: OFSTED have visited and raised serious concerns about ratios, what with Rosli looking after 37 young Maynards on her own, and all the angels' and reindeer's offspring on top for the Christmas play and rehearsals. I think they're hoping another Pfeiffen might be able to pop round to help out. Everyone is so devoted to their beloved Jo, after all.

Don't feel sad, Margot - you may have lost your lovely window view (what is the Mongolian equivalent of the Jungfrau, please, so that I can better picture this?) but the dainty cretonnes bespattered with spinach are so lovely to look at too.
No, not the Harry Potter railway - DS not yet old enough for that - it's the Strathspey railway, which looks suitably scenic and apparently involves mince pies at Christmastime.

I am brimful of CS-related things I want to earnestly blog about and fanfic I want to write, probably badly. And DLS on kindle and Gladys Mitchell in the post. And Regiment half-re-read. This enthusiasm is a direct result of having too much boring work to do at the moment, and once those deadlines are past and I no longer have to look at work stuff in the evenings, I will undoubtedly lose the thread of all the things I wanted to read and write and think about... I am tempted to tell my boss that I am working myself into a brain-fever, or whatever it is that Mary-Lou does in Three Go, and that I need a week in San to recover.

I must have wandered off and couldn't find my way back from the old thread! As a consequence I've lost my coveted window cubicle in Spinach and just have the green leaves scattered across the curtains to gaze at

Nell is it the Harry Potter railway you're going on?

This is the second DLS conversation I've had on here recently. I think she needs a thread of her own.

Yes, JPW has a couple of real howlers in the book set in wartime, and lots of minor things in the ones set in the 1950s. She's such an experienced writer, I'd expect better.

May I point Sayers fans to this site? www.fadedpage.com/index.php
And Josephine Tey fans, too. (Note that I'm being careful with my English in case the Abbess is listening.)

Oooh, please can I be chief Strip the Willow-er? As a Scot I am naturally excellent at ceilidh dancing, and talk about sitting to the north or south of the hearth, and wear full kilt/sporran/Glengarry at all times, and pronounce all my Bs as Ps. I must also be referred to as a 'wild Highlander' at all times. Och aye the noo! Fit like?

Please may I have a part in the play too? My singing voice is terrible, though - what did they do with non-singers? Do I get to be something dull like Head Programme-Seller instead, like Jessica Wayne, who was of course thrilled to bits?

Completely coincidentally, I have just been having a Dorothy L Sayers fest myself! I particularly rate Have His Carcase and Murder Must Advertise - Wimsey's ability to piffle, as Harriet says in Strong Poison, is particularly appealing and displayed to its best in these. Gaudy Night is brilliant but I royally screwed up my own university career so it makes me feel a bit inferior. I am always terribly afraid that I'm one of those precocious early-blooming intellects with no staying power that Harriet and the Dean deplore at the beginning. I also feel the villain is a bit of a cop-out in that. Can we have a DLS discussion thread after Regiment of Women? I keep going back to Five Red Herrings too, and Strong Poison, and the one that's mainly about Miss Climpson - I can't remember the name but it's the one about the old lady called Cremorna Garden. I think the earliest ones, like Whose Body and The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club and Clouds of Witness are good but not a patch on the later ones. They were good enough to utterly hook me when I first encountered them a few years ago, though. At the moment I'm on Thrones, Dominations, which I've only read once before. It's the one that DLS left unfinished and it was completed by Jill Paton Walsh after her death. I'm tying myself in knots wondering how much was written by DLS and is therefore canon and how much is JPW.

Yes, the Josette thing. Even weirder is the way Miss Annersley lets her know she won't be going to St Mildred's as a passing comment with all the others around.

Peggy and bride both wrote a panto I think.

The situation that always annoys me (apart from Len being basically sold to the grasping reg entwhistle) is poor Josette. She was going to university and instead gets dragged to Australia and both get and Sybil get stuck there with Aussie husbands. Bit grim.

I fainted but matey had smelling salts handy and bought me round without summoning the doctor. Did you ever hear of such a thing?

I'm going to Joey's for English tea tonight. She'll sort me out.

Something like this, perhaps Emily

must get grip on real life

Suspect my straight hair and face that could never be mistaken for anything other than English, plus shocking Naomi Elton- plus levels of atheism, will condemn me to Sheep: Noises Off.
Or joining Tom Gay/Jack Lambert types in building scenery. Much more my thing!

Imp Given that I'm a well bred Chalet School girl I would hate to be accused of rudeness, and have therefore purchased book two without delay.

I've also just started Peveril of the Peak on the basis that Vb were reading it in Ruey. It seems a very long book to choose to read with a class...

So, Princess is chief reindeer-donkey, the Bettany / Maynard clan are all the Marys / Jospehs / Jesuses / chief soloists. Any other good parts going?