Lord Peter Wimsey Novels - pick one for me to read please!

I like Margery Allingham's Fashion in Shroud. One of the books I reread. And Gaudy Night too, of course. Margery Allingham a bit more silly then DLS... Sweet Danger extremely silly but also one of my favourite rereads.

Haven't read any Margery Allingham - off to look them up.

I think Gaudy Night is my favourite love story ever. It is swooningly romantic. In a good way of course! But yes, Murder Must Advertise and Clouds of Witness first.

I am almost jealous of you reading them for the first time.

I prefer Ngaio Marsh to Agatha Christie, but Rory and Troy are not Peter and Harriet. And Fox is no Bunter (with whim I am also a little bit in love).

another one who wnted sto be harriet. sadly did not read them till after university or would have applied to oxford

suggest reading the ones forst wothout harriet vane in chronological order. I love them all and re-read every so often. din't like teh scottish dalogue in five read herrings, and nt so keen The tv dramatisations of teh harriet vanes ones were fabuluos - tehe actors edward petherbridge and harriet walter were just how I imagined the characters from the books. its not really a whodunnt becaue it is usually obvous who the murderedr is, but the sories are so well written that the deductive proces is fun. Gaudy night is quite erotic (tried marjorie allingham and ngaio march - no where near as fgood

As a diversion, does anyone also like Margery Allingham?

Diversion over. Feel free to ignore. But better still tell me you like her too.

The Nine Tailors is brilliant, as are the Harriet Vane novels, as the first reply said. As long as you avoid The Five Red Herrings, which is mostly in Scottish dialect and pretty much unreadable, you should be fine. Love love love those novels.

I love these books and yes as a teenager I wanted to be Harriet and marry Lord Peter. I was keen to call dd1 Harriet but dh wouldn't have it.
Murder Must advertise was the first I read but I love them all. I notice Unnatural Death and The Unpleasantness at The Bellona club haven't been mentioned much but I think they're as strong starters as the others. I actually wouldn't read Strong Poison first. You need to fall in love with Peter first before you get in to the Harriet stuff. In which case you need Clouds of Witness in which he is blood attractive imo.
The only I wouldn't recommed people start with is 5 red Herrings. The alibi stuff is so complex and all the artists so vile, it's not the most accessible book.

I agree about the JPW sequels - they're a fun read but not a patch on the orginal.

Did anybody else give serious thought to a cloth of gold wedding dress?

Murder must advertise is still good about the industry, less US than mad men. Strong poison a good entry level. As a who dunnit Whose Body is good, I think the nine tailors a good novel per se and Gaudy Night mixes discussions about the role of women with slush.
They are usually thought provoking but as I've been reading them since I was 12 I may not be the best judge.

You may be able to tell from my user name that I love Wimsey!

I think it's really interesting seeing how he develops as a character from the early 1920s novels to the later ones. I have a particular fondness for Strong Poison. Some of the short stories are really good too (try Lord Peter Views the Body).

interesting, PrematurelyAirconditioned - 88-92!

87-90 stealth

Sorry, just seen Holly has already said it.

I think the short stories are titled Striding Folly, but I'll check when I can prize DS2 from my lap.

Thank you!

I loved them as a teenager too, and still do - I like the JPW ones as well, not quite the same but she did an amazing job! My favourite has always been Murder Must Advertise.

BellaBear - there are three or four short story collections by DLS, but the LPW one with his children in is Striding Folly.

Oooh fab! Reading the one where his brother is charged with murder. I love the historical detail. He is different in the early ones compared to the later HV ones. Far more apostrophes in his speech!

By DLS.

I read one JWP one and didn't like it. It was too easy to read and felt a bit patronising.

Damn the person to linked to that thesis. I ought to have been working. I'm firming closing this window now. Will come back this evening.

Are the HV/PW short stories by DLS? I would love to know what they are.

I love DLS too. There are also short stories featuring HV and PW with kids. At work now so can't go and dig them out. In fact don't know where among all the shelves they are. Does anyone have any advice on how to organise books at home!?

Yes, Strong Poison, or Murder Must Advertise would be my top picks, though for a book club, SP might be better

OP - Gaudy Night is the best - but not first. Definitely Strong Poison.

I love Peter Wimsey. Another one who had a teenage crush - and I also went to DL's college and spent far too much time re-reading all her books as well as other college authors - PrematurelyAirconditioned - what year?

My mother put me under immense pressure to go to Oxford because of her crush on Peter Wimsey. Fortunately for both of us I found a course there that I really wanted to do, got in (to DLS's college) had a fab time and met DH to whom I've been married for 19 years (he's not a fabulously wealthy aristo, but he is a willowy blond, so halfway there).

So that's a win for major life decisions based on unrealistic literary fantasy there .

I got the third JPW one out of the library Saturday (The Attenbury Emeralds) and read it in a day, enjoyed it.

Some of the "matey" stuff with Bunter was a bit but the book is set in 1951 - JPW is obviously trying to acknowledge that the world was changing a lot from the 20's/30's that the original books are set in. I thought it was a bit unbelievable though that Bunter's son would be at Eton with Peter and Harriet's son. I don't think I would read the JPW ones again and again like I do with the DLS ones - they are more dialogue-based, without all the period detail and characters' internal thoughts of the originals. Though DLS's early Wimsey ones didn't really have a lot about Peter's character - it was in the later books that all the literature-quoting/music-loving/book-collecting/classically educated stuff was introduced.

The only bit I didn't like in The Attenbury Emeralds was Harriet saying about her books "I know I'm no Agatha Christie or Dorothy Sayers" - I know it was a bit of an in-joke but I was thinking "Nooooo! You can't have Dorothy Sayers books in your world! You'd be reading about yourself!"

I am re-reading them too and am thrilled to discover so many Wimsey fans. I still have quite a crush on him.