Inaccuracies in fiction

[HoppyHat]

Do they bother you? I realise I am annoyed/disappointed by simple "mistakes" which surely a decent editor should notice?

A couple of examples

A very very popular novel. Set in modern day London. Character regularly gets the bus from A to B along a named road all of which exist in real life. But they don't use the correct bus number! Nothing bad happens on the bus, the driver isn't awful, nothing libellous. So why not use the correct bus number?

I've just finished a book which I really liked. The author is American. But part of the book is set in a posh English school in the 1950s. The headteacher calls the season following summer "Fall". And says (more than once) "you need to write your sister" (or similar) not write TO.

To me these things are so obvious and quite jarring. Anyone else?

Probably cheaper to have your Christmas party in March (nods sagely).

You're perfectly right, they were all standardised by then! The author was probably remembering what happened when she was at school.

Not a book but I was very impressed a good few years ago with the script writer of a Radio 4 afternoon play. DH worked in an opticians in those days and the script writer phoned up. She asked him to talk her through the process of a patient coming in, what forms to sign, what order do things happen in, what tests were done before going in, where would certain conversations happen etc. It only took 10 minutes of her time but it made the play accurate.

could they have meant 'one of the first university offers to come in' rather than 'one of the first offers made by Cambridge?'

Because the Oxbridge cut off was so much earlier than the main ucas date (Oct vs Jan IIRC?) then someone with an oxbridge offer would probably get theirs just after, or even before (if in Dec), most of the students in a 6th form had made their applications.

So that person would get one of the first offers to university generally amongst their peers (as in the small group of people they know), as those who hadn't applied to oxbridge or hadn't got in, probably wouldn't start hearing back until feb/march time. It also would make more sense, because how would 1 individual have any clue how early other 6th formers around the whole of the UK would have received their cambridge offer, because she wouldn't know any of them! She'd only know about people in her own school.

*tbh I'm probably overthinking it and the author just wrote it as a throwaway to indicate how very clever and amazing this character was that Cambridge had her at the top of their list, and probably didn't research that a) it doesn't work like that and b) when you think about it, it doesn't make sense!

I don't suppose this is a subtle thing on the part of the author? Sometimes things are dropped in that you might have to 'read through'... indicating that the DH had been having an affair that continued well past the Christmas party, but that he TOLD everyone it was a 'one night' kind of thing?

In one of the Chalet School books, someone’s ’name is put down for Oxford’.

In fairness to EBD, I have seen this from at least one other author of similar vintage.

I have tried googling with little success...

When did University admissions going from being a financial thing to completely merit based? I just sort of presumed that the Chalet School was accurate at that time... they were smart, they could pay, they had a place.

I’m not sure EBD was known for accuracy.

In the Fairacre books by Miss Read, there’s a cat called Tibby who changes sex on a regular basis, sometimes during a book.

What a great question for some googling! I found this, which is related; it seems that the first entrance exams were in the 1820s at St Andrews and then spread.

https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/69582/how-did-one-get-accepted-into-university-in-19th-century-england

When did University admissions going from being a financial thing to completely merit based?

In Gaudy Night, 1936, there's a student, Miss Newlands, who is a 'County Council scholar', and has no other source of income. Her father, as I recall, is a minor civil servant.

Harriet Vane wasn't well off as a student - she was given her books and her clothes and £5 a term spending money. DLS herself was probably similar.

It was probably postwar that it became entirely merit based, when state secondary education became available to all, and there were more potential university candidates coming through the state system.

As a lifelong Chalet School fan and a Cambridge grad, (though I had to do boring old admissions test/interview/A-levels, rather than just putting my name down) I'd love to know how accurate this was too!

I believe there used to be lots of "closed scholarships" at Oxbridge, where colleges would reserve a number of places for students from a particular school, so then it would just be down to that school to decide who went for those spots. This was still in place when my uncles went in the late 60s/early 70s, but long gone when I applied in the early 00s. There would have been far fewer for women, as there were only a handful of women's colleges, all with much less history/significant endowments than the men's ones, but I suppose it is theoretically possible the Chalet School might have one such arrangement??

My inaccuracy is really nerdy. In Artemis Fowl, he uses a "succinylcholine chloride based tranquiliser" on the fairy. Except succinylcholine is not a tranquiliser. It's a muscle relaxant, which would render the victim unable to move or breathe, but not affect their consciousness at all - pretty terrifying if you think about it! It's used in anaesthesia but isn't actually an anaesthetic agent in itself. If you're going to be that specific about drug names, at least pick the right ones!

I teach in an old school with university honours boards around the hall. Many names have (State Schol.) after them. From roughly 1920-1960 roughly the top 400-500 students in the country got these, before the grant system was introduced. It seems they were based on exam results.

I suppose it is theoretically possible the Chalet School might have one such arrangement??

if it's the character I'm thinking of, it was a boy, and I don't think we're told what school he went to - though his sister went to the local High School, I think, before going to the CS. The CS did have scholarships which would see the holder through her higher education, as did Kingscote.

Ah, I see. Though I know several of the Chalet girls are supposed to go to Oxford - Mary-Lou Trelawney and Len Maynard at least, off the top of my head. Until they find a nice doctor to marry, of course.

I went to University in 1968 and the full maintenance grant was £120 a term. My father died at the end of my first year and the County Council wrote to my mother saying as her widow's pension was more than his disability pension, she would now have to contribute. There were no fees to pay.

Lucky you had those emeralds to fall back on, eh, Hilary?

<waves in Sayers>

I love this degree of nerdiness!

In Gay Lambert at the Chalet School, a scholarship is mentioned.

I have been reading some detective stories set around St Malo. They are quite well written with a good sense of place, but the translation (from German) is a bit strange in places. Where we would use Breton there are references to Brettonic or Brittanic. One suspect had a waterproof alibi and there are lots of references to an "affect action", which leave me scratching my head.

In Gay Lambert at the Chalet School, a scholarship is mentioned.

The Therese Lepattre, I think. But Jacynth eventually gets the Karl Anserl, which is a music scholarship.

Also Vermeer where the same table carpet appears in several painting - one from the painter's prop box.
Well to do Viennese homes would also have a Turkish carpet or kelim on the grand piano to keep it in tune. It was very much an Austrian thing as they had traded with Turkey through the Balkans. Thonet chairs were often upholstered in Turkish carpet. The carpets were always costly and a sign of established wealth.
Still never heard them called 'throws' until the 1970's 80s'. In fact I vaguely remember a lifestyle article in a colour supplement informing us that we now had to call rugs 'Throws'.
The late queen sat in the back of her Rolls Royces under a tartan travel rug until the end.

Scholarships on entry were abolished just before I got to Oxford in 1986 and replaced by merit based ones awarded after first year exams. They were a mark of prestige (had a different gown) and a small amount of money (but not meant to replace the grant)

I remember something in Gaudy Night about a scholarship student disdaining the ‘ridiculous short gown of a commoner’.

@EmpressaurusOfTheScathingTinsel In my college dining hall back in the day, there was a portrait of a foreign monarch who had studied there, with the word "Commoner" beneath his name.

If you work in this area, it’s not nerdy so much as just a load of word salad from somebody who obviously has no idea what they are talking about - on a par with “the midfielder picked up the rugby ball and ran forwards with it to score a home run”.