Guess the opening lines...

I think the first one is Five Children and It. Second one Greenmantle as above.

Yes to both.

I much prefer Greenmantle to 39 Steps. I re-read it quite often, but rarely re-read 39 Steps.

Is this The Leopard?

Just checked and it’s definitely Five Children and It.

I think the first one is Five Children and It. Second one Greenmantle as above.

“NUNC ET IN hora mortis nostrae. Amen.” The daily recital of the Rosary was over. For half an hour the steady voice of the Prince had recalled the Sorrowful and the Glorious Mysteries; for half an hour other voices had interwoven a lilting hum from which, now and again, would chime some unlikely word; love, virginity, death; and during that hum the whole aspect of the rococo drawing-room seemed to change; even the parrots spreading iridescent wings over the silken walls appeared abashed; even the Magdalen between the two windows looked a penitent and not just a handsome blonde lost in some dubious daydream as she usually was.

It’s Greenmantle

The second one is John Buchan and I'm guessing either Greenmantle or The Island of Sheep.

Two for this evening:

The house was three miles from the station, but, before the dusty hired hack had rattled along for five minutes, the children began to put their heads out of the carriage window and say, "Aren't we nearly there?" And every time they passed a house, which was not very often, they all said, "Oh, is this it?" But it never was, till they reached the very top of the hill, just past the chalk-quarry and before you come to the gravel-pit. And then there was a white house with a green garden and an orchard beyond, and mother said, "Here we are!"

@@@@@@@

I had just finished breakfast and was filling my pipe when I got Bullivant’s telegram. It was at Furling, the big country house in Hampshire where I had come to convalesce after Loos, and Sandy, who was in the same case, was hunting for the marmalade. I flung him the flimsy with the blue strip pasted down on it, and he whistled.

Yes indeed I agree about that, he would certainly have been badly injured.

And yy she was writing what she knew. Which is why she writes it so well. And just proves the point I always say that your best writing will be what you know. I would get nowhere writing a novel about the Australian outback. Otoh I would be all over a newsroom-set novel in 1980s England.

And it’s the book that brings us Puddleglum
the marsh wiggle.

And I can forgive DLS much when she writes like this:
"In this place, where from morning till night a staff of over a hundred people hymned the praises of thrift, virtue, harmony..."

She was writing what she knew, of course. Unlike when she has Wimsey diving into the fountain, I don't know how he didn't break his neck, or at least do himself some serious damage.

yes indeed @SabrinaThwaite - he is much nicer after his experience being turned into a dragon :) I love that Lewis takes the same sentence and flips it.

It’s The Silver Chair (Eustace returns!).

@HelenaWilson @pollyhemlock I agree actually about the Harlequin which is a bit much as Wimsey is about 43 by then. Also the drugs stuff is a bit daft.

But I love the cricket match with Wimsey suddenly seeing red when he gets a rap on the elbow from Simmons and striding wrathfully down the wicket. Finishing with a six that breaks a bottle of lemonade.

And I can forgive DLS much when she writes like this:

"In this place, where from morning till night a staff of over a hundred people hymned the praises of thrift, virtue, harmony, eupepsia and domestic contentment, the spiritual atmosphere was clamorous with financial storm, intrigue, dissension, indigestion and marital infidelity. And with worse things—with murder wholesale and retail, of soul and body, murder by weapon and by poison. These things did not advertise, or, if they did, they called themselves by other names."

And also this :)
"Nothing makes a man see red like a sharp rap over the funny-bone, and it was at this moment that Mr. Death Bredon suddenly and regrettably forgot himself. He forgot his caution and his rôle, and Mr. Miller's braces, and saw only the green turf and the Oval on a sunny day and the squat majesty of the gas-works. The next ball was another of Simmonds' murderous short-pitched bumpers, and Lord Peter Wimsey, opening up wrathful shoulders, strode out of his crease like the spirit of vengeance and whacked it to the wide."

Ah, clearly I was reading too quickly, hadn't spotted it was a slightly different quote!

ah no. That's "There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it" - which we have already had!

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Yes! The start of many 'merry laughs'.

The School at the Chalet

Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess

I think

Here’s one.

It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.

MMA is one of my favourites for the reason given upthread, office life etc. Also I find the drug- fuelled parties interesting. Plus ca change. The Harlequin bit stretches credulity but one has to assume LPW keeps himself in trim. And yes, the famous throw that wins Lower IV A the cricket cup.

It is, @clary.Great book

Stalky and Co?

Yes, Stalky. I used to find it laugh out loud funny in places, but haven't re-read in a while.

I was going to say must be Arnold Bennett. One of those very popular and prolific authors now largely forgotten. I never got into him, though my mum liked his books.

Murder Must Advertise isn't a favourite of mine because of all the nonsense of Wimsey, who is no spring chicken by that time, masquerading as Harlequin. But otoh, it does win the cricket cup for Lower IV A.

Sorry, no but @JennyChawleigh is correct!