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Original poster

I think I'd quite like to live in a Golden Age Murder Mystery

54 replies

PolkadotsAndMoonbeams · 02/02/2019 22:23

Other than the actual murder.

But I quite fancy living in a big house and having a dashing suitor called Henry who motors down at the weekend. We'd play tennis or throw drinks parties, and neighbours would come for afternoon tea.

There'd probably be an unmarried aunt (possibly with a tragic backstory) and a terribly clever younger sister at Girton.

At some point I'd probably have my hair bobbed and shock the aforementioned neighbours while my mother said "it's a phase these modern young girls go through".

My flat is doing a good job of standing in for a big draughty house (I'm writing this from bed under several blankets) so really I think I'm
partway there already!

What book would you disappear into if you could?

OP posts:
Mookie81 · 03/02/2019 20:09

I'd go back to 1743 and be 'forced' to marry Jamie Fraser Grin

Mokepon · 03/02/2019 20:16

With you totally, OP.
But I'd definitely be upstairs. I'd have 3 darling children I'd see for 10 minutes each evening and the rest of the time they'd be attended by nanny.
I'd speak to the housekeeper daily to sign off the next day's menus and she'd rely my changes to cook who I'd never see as I'd not want cooking smells on my clothes.
I've thought about it rather a lot Blush.

RedHatsDoNotSuitMe · 03/02/2019 20:18

I want to be in NancyJoan's book!

It's been mentioned upthread, but I quite fancy being in a Jilly Cooper bonk-buster. I'd get to have loads of sex with inappropriate but very good looking men!

It's low-brow for this thread, but I'd love to go to Hogwarts

littlebillie · 03/02/2019 21:36

Op you can't be a girl with a bob, but a Gal with a bob.

littlebillie · 03/02/2019 21:38

Any of the Mortains but probably Cassandra

BeachtheButler · 03/02/2019 21:45

Parthenope you CANNOT sack Bunter. (You can give Wimsey's sister Polly a slap though).

BeachtheButler · 03/02/2019 21:49

I'd like to be the mysterious Colonel who appears from time to time with an unspecified Govt. job and bizarre reasons for being on the scene ("Butterfly hunting, old boy. Wonderful butterflies in Wolverhampton, ye know!")

Parthenope · 03/02/2019 22:01

Ok, Beach. Do you think if I addressed him as Mervyn, or maybe Merv, he’d just quit of his own accord? Grin

Happy to smack Mary/Polly for you, if I can give Peter’s awful SIL, the current Duchess, one too.

Do you suppose anyone’s ever written fanfic in which Peter and a knowing Miss Climpson have a dalliance? There must be loads of Peter/Bunter.

Patroclus · 03/02/2019 22:03

Mysterious Colonel always turns out to be a German Agent, Bolshevik or IRA.

IrenetheQuaint · 03/02/2019 22:05

There is indeed a LOT of Lord Peter/Bunter slashfic Grin

MartaHallard · 03/02/2019 22:12

Mysterious Colonel always turns out to be a German Agent, Bolshevik or IRA.

Not Agatha Christie's Colonel Race! He's a bit of a mystery, but has an Intelligence background (probably knows Lord Peter).

DragonKiller · 03/02/2019 22:12

I'd go into the Great Gatsby. I like the fashion. I like the parties.

XmasPostmanBos · 03/02/2019 22:16

I'd like to live in a P.G Wodehouse novel provided Jeeves was on my side and I wasn't burdened with difficult Aunts.

DareDevil223 · 03/02/2019 22:20

Can I be in a radio drama? I have a long standing love of the Paul Temple detective series and I'd love to be his glamorous, former journalist wife Steve.

All cocktails, nightclubs, car chases and fancy hats. Bliss.

Hockneypool · 03/02/2019 22:25

I haven’t read these books, just heard them on the radio, often when I’m cooking and doing chores - the Paul Temple affairs and mysteries.

I’m not sure about Paul Temple but I would like to be Steve Temple. Living in a an Art Deco mansion block in 1930’s London, with Charlie going all the household stuff. There’s a lot cocktail drinking, hat and dress buying, driving fast cars, nightclubs and dancing and a bit of investigating. I think I could live this life.

tshirtsuntan · 03/02/2019 22:25

I'll be Cassandra Mortmain please.

Hockneypool · 03/02/2019 22:26

Like your thinking Dare Devil!

DareDevil223 · 03/02/2019 22:32

Snap Hockneypool!

Scandaloso · 03/02/2019 22:38

@NancyJoan I AM BROKEN HEARTED THAT THE WAR TOOK ANTHONY FROM YOU BUT OH SUCH JOY I FEEL KNOWING YOU FOUND HAPPINESS AGAIN WITH GILES!

I HOPE SWEET SHY GILES IS A DEMON BETWEEN THE SHEETS

Would read the heck out of that book Grin

Scandaloso · 03/02/2019 22:44

I think I might be a character in an EF Benson book. Not sure I'd want to be Mapp or Lucia but I'd be a well shod lesbian lady of independent means. No husband bossing me about or any of that awful childbirth business. I would live with my 'very great friend' Daphne Dalrymple and we would scandalise the local community by wearing trousers, having gin with our lunch, and inviting the 'fast set' up from London for the weekend.

Ali1cedowntherabbithole · 03/02/2019 22:55

Would love to be a glamorous, witty and slightly naughty character in a Christie or DL sayers novel. The one who marries the dashing but limping war hero once the murderer had been uncovered.

Or Harriet Vane.

TinselAngel · 03/02/2019 22:56

I'd like to be one of the parents in the Chalet School books who is "threatened" with TB. (I won't get it though).

I will be forced to have a year of absolute rest in a mountain sanatorium. I will be fed a wholesome diet, and my bed will be wheeled out onto the balcony once a day for me to take the air.

I will pass the time writing letters, and reading the classics. I will have a beautifully embroidered bed jacket to keep me warm.

Yes I have thought about this a lot.

TinselAngel · 03/02/2019 23:00

Oh! I forgot the crisp, clean sheets! I will have those daily of course.

CarolinePooter · 03/02/2019 23:25

I love Patricia Wentworth novels (1930s). Miss Silver, retired governess turned sleuth, is such a great character. She wears a brooch containing locks of her parents' hair and never bows to fashion in any way. She is forever quoting Tennyson and carries her knitting everywhere. People dismiss her as an old maid character, but of course nothing escapes her!
Many of the heroines of Patricia Wentworth books are quite down on their luck, working as maids or milliners due to family misfortune. Of course they inevitably get tangled up in adventures with eligible or eligible-adjacent young chaps. Quite often the former nanny of said chap is now his housekeeper. When the pair arrived bedraggled and exhausted at his flat (having just seen off some wrong 'uns and been shot at) nanny rushes round running hot baths and warming milk. A touch I particularly like is when she tucks our heroine into bed with TWO hot water bottles. Oh my god, the luxury that summons up. It's made me realise I've been leading a needlessly spartan life all these years. I now take a minimum of two hot water bottles to bed with me, and it is excellent.
I know these books aren't on a par with Sayers, but a great comfort read and often free or cheap on kindle ;-)

WhitherShallIWander · 04/02/2019 06:30

I wouldn’t mind being Agatha Troy- so accomplished & married to the gorgeous & clever Rory

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