AIBU Books - Part 3

[MoominMymbleandMy]

I can't get into the old thread so I think we filled it up! I hope everyone finds the new one.

So nice, shiny new thread, nice shiny new AIBU.

AIBU to be jealous of my DH's correspondence with a stranger?

Pogle, I feel I ought to know yours but I'm not getting anywhere.

Maria, this isn't ringing bells at all now. Doh!

Evening all

CJ, I was sure you were going to be Mrs Danvers - poo! Need more clues now.

Moomin yours seems to ring a distant bell but I can't get it at all.

DD2 now has a stomach bug and DD1 was sent home from school with a headache and a temperature. I've not taken the big red cross off the front door yet.....

Evening! I think we all thought CJ's was Mrs Danvers,she's obviously too clever for that!

Sorry to hear your family is still plague ridden,Poledra - are you better now?

I don't think anyone else will have read mine - but it's one of the books I haven't already done where I can recount the plot without having to re-read the book first!

...it's an unusual mission,but the War Office seem to think it's important - they're sending me with a Major in SOE and 2 other chaps...

Poor Poledra, you must be so sick of one bug after another

Pogle, I was definitely on the wrong track there (again). Another clue, please?

...And when I went back she had vanished! And on my for sale notice someone had written: "I bort this slave for 5p. Isidor Turkish dog and slave-trader," and there was the money on the side of the well. I'm worse than Joseph's brothers because at least they got properly paid...

• Crikey Poledra, you and yours are in the wars! Hugs and drugs and full dispensation to BU (not that you are, but dispensations anyway ) sent your way.

Pogle, I can't remember the details of what I'm wittering about enough to be sure they mesh, but are the members of your family inordinately fond of sleep?

Otherwise, more clues all round, please!

Now, some time back I wondered whether I was BU to be annoyed that that trouser-wearing anthropologist woman wasn't pulling her weight in the bathroom-cleaning department. Now I think of it, I think she wears trousers; she certainly wears a loud jersey (striped, I think). And I'm not sure whether she fails to pull her weight or I merely suspect that she won't. Certainly her domestic negligence irritates her husband. But then, he palmed her off with some yarn about dowdy Wrens with ill-fitting uniforms!

Oh, I am so lost. I think a few have gone by that I just didn't get, and I'm completely flummoxed here. Still, at least it gives me the chance to use the word flummoxed.

And really, as if I would be so obvious if I was Mrs Danvers. Mwahaha ... I am a retainer, though, and female.

Pol, I do feel for you. Keep your chin up and yes, feel free to B as U as you like on here xx

PS Moomin, who was your bedridden dreamer/artist?

Feeling flummoxed too. More clues everyone, please!

CJ, the artist/dreamer was from Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr, a very haunting and bizarre novel for 10 and up. It was also a TV series sometime in the 70s, I think, and an arthouse film in the 80s. It deserves to be a lot better known than it is.

...I shall have to run away. I can't go home and tell Mama and Papa I've sold Lisbet to a slave trader...

Thanks for clearing that one up, Moomin.

Are you distantly related to Pippi Longstocking?!

Oh, what a very clever CJ! Yes!

No wiser on your old retainer, I'm afraid.

AIBU to think that witches should not be hairdressers?

< yawns - 'night, all!>

Right, now I've got some serious catching up to do.

Pogle, did we get your SOE one? If so, I need to know what it is, must add to list.

llandb, I'm still stuck on your trouser-wearing anthropologist and now you're throwing witches in, too!

My notMrsDanvers character is quite taciturn, not given to chatting. Still bound to the master's first wife, who of course is still around ...

CJ... hmmm... that is a tantalising clue but I remain stumped.

Sorry, the witch thing is another one because I felt that Mrs Trouser-wearing Anthropologist had done her dash and it was time to throw in another hair-sacrificer

Trouser-Wearing-Anthropologist: well perhaps I should go easy on her. She may be an academic slattern with the gall to have a dishy hubby to boot, but not every Woman can be Excellent, can she...?

Witchey - well she did rather hack off my locks without permission. And I hadn't even finished making the ladder!

Rapunzel! Minx!

Are you Mildred for your other one, llandb?

CJ, no, we haven't got Pogle's SOE agent, or Polly's SOE agent either. And I could do with more help on your retainer, please.

AIBU to sleep my way to the top?

Evening all!

...we have to rescue a cow,not just any cow - a pregnant pedigree Jersey cow - so I'm really more a cowherd than an SOE agent...

I think Polly's might be Restless (William Boyd) - are you there ,Polly?!

More clues ,CJ and Moomin?

I think I need to give up Mumsnet and do a lot more reading - have had far too many books added to my must-read list since this started...

Oh and Moomin - where is your sibling selling person from,please??

Totally agree with Pogle - though the tottering dusty everthing in it half-read three-wide stack next to my bed is big enough, thankyou, without my adding to it.

(Fear not; it's a nearly-floor-level futon, so the stacks ain't that high and therefore won't sustain too much damage when they ultimately tip )

Moomin - thankyou; the witch also thinks I'm a minx for entertaining the prince

And yes, I'm Mildred - now, wouldn't you rather live with (er, forgets Barbara Pym's real-life cat's name) than Everard?

Evening all!

Any cat would be more exciting than Everard, llandb!

Pogle, the SOE mission to rescue a cow sounds fascinating but I'm sure I haven't read it. How could anyone forget that storyline?! But I think I need to (and my house is filled with tottering piles - need a new bookcase, then need to work out where to squeeze it in among the others)

My sibling seller was in honour of llandb's return from the land of Nobel prizes and was Mardie's Adventures by Astrid Lindgren - much more satisfying than Pippi to read aloud because it is all so credible, as well as being funny.

...I don't think I am BU. There aren't really any other ways to rise to the top for a woman in this society. And my true love won't marry me...

Fanny or Moll, Moomin?

The master's new wife is a quiet little thing. Well, technically she isn't his wife yet - but the wedding is soon ...

Hi CJ, neither would you believe, though I did have a spell in Newgate during one of my lowest points.

Still sounds very Rebecca-ish but I think that's the cunning way you're framing your clues. So, is the master's new wife-to-be a mousy, plain governess?

...He won't marry me because of my low birth even if I did save his life...

Moomin, are you Fortunate?

Yes, the new wife is the governess they brought in to look after the French brat. Well done, Moomin!

Phew! I think Grace Poole is quite sinister though not in the Mrs D league.

...I wouldn't describe myself as fortunate. Being pregnant and deserted at 16 certainly wasn't a piece of luck. But then escaping from prison and going on the stage was...

Do you think you might manage to sleep your way to the very top, Moomin? I gather it's possible to have quite a merry time at Court?

Mine is a book called Appointment with Venus - Venus is the cow,and it's set on a fictitious Channel Island called Armorel.It's a lovely book,was my parents,prob from just after the war!

Yet another one to watch out for. I'm getting a lovely, long, to-read list from this thread. It's better than Slightly Foxed!

Yes, well done, Pogle! Now, wouldn't you think a girl who raises herself to the rank of Duchess by her own efforts, even if they were mostly horizontal, should be rewarded with the hand of her true love in the final chapter? Even if he was a rotten snob.

AWBU to ban our girls from reading this best-selling novel about an immoral adventuress? It may stimulate their interest in history but we fear it will give them ideas.

Well really it's harder to think of fictional scenarios where girls are encouraged to read novels about immoral adventuresses...! I'm sure it would've been frowned on at Kingscote,but can't remember if it specifically was,IYSWIM!

AIBU to love my pig?