Th think that Miss Climpson should have been in The Nine Tailors

[Jemima232]

Miss Climpson did not appear in this book.

The purpose of this thread is to examine why this oversight occurred.

The Chalet School books may be mentioned if people wish.

Marie can I advise you to start a thread about the window bed?

Stick it in AIBU for the full range of outraged responses.

(entitled, lucky to have the services of an NHS hospital, and cue ninety three people telling you YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVU)

Allington it is time for LPW to step up to the plate and pay for Marie to avail herself of the services of a private hospital.

Or possibly for Bunter to chat up the nurses and persuade them to give Marie the window bed on the promise of a second date (or agreeing to go to church with them.)

I have to join this thread now you have mentioned Brat Farrar. One of my favourite comfort reads. Along with Gaudy Night. Been thinking about Busman's Honeymoon. Must have been weird for Harriet to get used to the level of intimacy Bunter had in their lives.
Hope you are feeling OK Marie.

While on Tey, best one is The Franchise Affair. IMHO.

DLS is on the cusp of being too involving to qualify as comfort reading for me - I tend to close each volume feeling dissatisfied with my own life.

I went through a phase of continuously re-reading all the John Hannay books by John Buchan. Gloriously exciting and ridiculous at the same time.

But to return to female authored books worth saving for life events requiring major literary rescue, may I suggest:

Caroline Blackwood - Great Granny Webster. It’s like a tiny knife ...

Helen DeWitt - The Last Samurai. Utterly breathtaking. Ignore the rubbishy chick-lit paperback cover, try to get the hardback.

Marghanita Laski - Little Boy Lost. Do. Not. Flick. To. The. End.

Do. Not. Flick. To. The. End

That's me bollocksed, then.

I always flick to the end. It drives DH mad.

I did that with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. In Waterstones. #worldsbiggestfool.

And through Meg Rosoff’s What I Was. Badly wanted to start my life over again that time.

And remember a thing called a DVD? And how selfish family members sometimes left the the thing at the end - so you had to scroll back to start watching from the beginning? Three words: The Usual Suspects.

Quarter mentions books written by females. I expect that you will all know about this publishing company, that specialises in books by neglected/forgotten 20th cent women writers - and a few overlooked men writers too . But just in case not - it's a treasure-trove, and the whole (very informative and strikingly-well illustrated) catalogue is available to browse online:

www.persephonebooks.co.uk/

(I have no connection with the company - I've just enjoyed some of their books.)

(I was confident someone else would mention Persephone Books!)

Another two sadly out of fashion woman writers- Rumer Godden
and Antonia White.

Just passed Persephone a constant source of inspiration !

Love Rumer Godden and Antonia White. Frost in May is a great favourite of mine.
So getting back to Lord Peter and Harriet - in Tallboys (short story) they have three boys Bredon, Roger and baby Paul. I am just reading the wartime letters and Roger seems to have disappeared. I can't remember how but Jill Paton Walsh also has a different arrangement of sons.
Any thoughts?

I can’t remember Jill Paton Walsh’s disposition of children, but I do remember that Bunter’s son Peter was included in the group. And Mary’s two lived with Harriet at Tallboys during the war.

Surely Unnatural Death contains the solution to Marie’s window problem. Though like Have His Carcasw it may be medically unreliable

@YesThisIsMe

Ah, but the post-mortems on the victims were also unreliable so it is possible that the murderer had truly discovered that old chestnut, beloved of mystery writers an untraceable poison

Now that I'm reading that sentence, it does not make sense. Whether or not PMs were unreliable in the 1930s, a genuinely untraceable poison would still be untraceable.

MarieVanGoethem

So sorry to read that you are in hospital

and that your eyes are too tired to read.

Have you come across the kindle/audible sync? Read if you can, then switch to listening. Really is bliss.

I'm a big fan of DLS and JTey

When you have finished those, there is a link to Tey in Nicola Upson's very readable work.

Project Gutenberg www.gutenberg.ca is a brilliant source

Pure escapism (sorry kindle only, couldn't find an audible version ) *eva ibbotson's the secret countes"

Surely Unnatural Death contains the solution to Marie’s window problem. Though like Have His Carcasw it may be medically unreliable

The Unnatural Death method is theoretically possible but difficult to do in practice (again, trying to avoid spoilers). But the murderer in Unnatural Death was hamstrung by the context in which s/he was operating - a hospital offers many more reliably lethal possibilities

I love Cousin Hallelujah Dawson. I am so glad that he got the money in the end.

And the murderer in Unnatural Death nearly saw off Miss Climpson.

She might just as well have done, really, as Miss C. is only referenced briefly in subsequent books.

Oh my - the denouement to To Love and Be Wise is magnificent! Loved it. Absolutely loved the way it gained pace and stature. And the way the truth was staring one in the face, so to speak.

“the denouement to To Love and Be Wise is magnificent!”
It makes me so happy that you love it. That moment in the first chapter is so telling once you know, isn’r It?

Totally!

I always wondered why Hilary Thorpe's Grandfather and Father were "Sir" whatever it was but her Uncle when he inherited wasn't. OK she got the land and house but surely Uncle would have got the baronetcy?

I always wondered why Hilary Thorpe's Grandfather and Father were "Sir" whatever it was but her Uncle when he inherited wasn't. OK she got the land and house but surely Uncle would have got the baronetcy?

Is that from DLS herself, or one of the continuation novels? I don't remember being told the title of her uncle in The Nine Tailors. You are right that baronets have the title Sir. Miss Twitterton would never have got this wrong

Wasn't the To Have His Carcase problem a biological inheritance issue rather than the consequences of that specific condition? The symptoms valid, the associations not possible?

Re - TNT and the Thorpes - I think that a baronetcy can only be inherited by the eldest son born in wedlock of a baronet.

So Uncle Edward (Hilary's grandfather) remained Mr. Edward Thorpe.

I am willing to be corrected on this point.