Feminists who are Lord Peter fans......

I got distracted and took far too long to post that

I only know how to pronounce it because of the radio adaptions, unless they were wrong too Its Bail-e-ol isn't it?

In one of the books (can't remember which), Peter says he pronounces it in a non-obvious way. Think it was either 'deeth' or 'dee-ath'

How do you reckon Death was to be pronounced? In Murder must Advertise, I think, someone gets a shock on hearing the name so I figured it was death but I used to know someone called D'eath pronounced Dee-ath.

Whew I had Balliol right.
I'd say Bree-don

On a side note, on looking up Winifred Holtby, I'm glad to find out that Virago books is still going strong.

Bay-lee-oll

How do you pronounce Bredon?

So, how do you pronounce Balliol?
I'm nervous now.

Holtby's best friend Vera Brittain had a very difficult first delivery and post partum period. Her son was very small and struggled to thrive. She was prone to melancholy at the best of times. That may well have influenced characters in South Riding. Holtby's mother was in local government but didn't help her daughter at all. She had to get minutes and agendas out of the wastepaper basket to use as source material. She also probably would have stopped South Riding being published if she could but it was Brittain who was her literary executor and she ensured it happened.

Meant to say that in South Riding (Winifred Holtby) there is a very detailed description of a woman with what at first reading looks like bipolar illness but is probably PMDD/PND. I wondered if it was drawn from life. The character's end is bleak, a saddening read.

I enjoyed Dorothy Sayers when younger but find her a tiresome read now because of the combination of common or garden and intellectual snobbery. However I probably learned to use the term tiresome from authors of her era. My last holiday read was South Riding, which I found alternately gripping and annoying. Later this week I'm going away with the first three books of A Dance to the Music of Time, it will be interesting to see how that stands up, it's more than 40 years since I read it and I'm hoping for interesting parallels with the world today. Sorry for rambling derail.

Harriet Walter is Harriet Vane for me. I was totally star-struck when I met her once - like meeting the real thing

Gnu Gaudy Night was rushed and I agree with tobee that the ending was particularly disappointing. I missed the nephew too and also Reggie Pomfret, who is quite important in getting Harriet to see that Peter's devotion might be genuine. I would have loved to see the harpsichord episode onscreen.

Edward Petherbridge was really a bit too old too but I love him - ever since I saw him play Newman Noggs and Vershinin at the RSC - and he's so good it doesn't matter too much. Except that, if he'd been younger, they might have allowed him to do the beach ride in HHC - which is another significant episode in the relationship.

On the whole I loved the Petherbridge adaptations - he's so much more true to the character than Carmichael, who really should have resisted the temptation to do them when he was clearly too old for the part. You would never in a million years buy the image of Carmichael diving from a height into a fountain as Wimsey does in "Murder Must Advertise".

However, for me Gaudy Night was the one disappointment of the Petherbridge series - not for the performances, but because they really didn't allow enough time for it. One more episode to fill in the gaping gaps left from the original book could have made all the difference.

Lol InvisibleUnicorn, wish my DH would properly appreciate Sayers. I liked seeing the Flat Iron Rock on screen as I'd never been able to picture it properly in my head. What I still can't picture is how the conspirators got the ring into the rock.

I've never watched any of tv adaptations. They sounds like a delectable way of entertaining myself when the dreaded insomnia hits. Where should I start, or doesn't it matter when one already knows the books?

Btw Anyone else have a fondness for Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club?

Anyone else find the ending of Gaudy Night Petherbridge/Walter disappointing and rushed? The climax of their relationship after all that and you're, kind of, aaaaaahhhhhhh! Letdown!

Also, I know they had to make cuts but I think it's a real shame they left out the character of St George. He was like a mini Peter and a bit more naughty or is it just me?

@catkind you have DH's utter respect as as soon as I mentioned the door, he agreed.

He is also in awe of me finding a group of similarly obsessed individuals and has happily settled down to watching the end of Have His Carcass in bed on the iPad.

I have loads I want to say, but DH has just made it home from work 🙄

So in the meantime, I shall just put my surprise at how large the flat iron rock is portrayed? I had in my head from the descriptions a much smaller rock, but it's like a small mountain 😏

I will have to re read.

I was also most disappointed with a ping pong scene rather than a picnic and washing up in the stream.

Her attitudes to Jewish people were ahead of their time too. Some characters (usually unsympathetic ones) mention unpleasant stereotypes which would have been normal at the time - references to "yellow financiers" for example (grim). But she writes Jewish characters far more sympathetically than most of her contemporaries. The Levy family in Whose Body are portrayed as fully rounded, sympathetic figures and there are favourable references in several books to inter-faith marriage - interesting, given that DLS was such a devout Christian.