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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

The Bluestocking, where the cheese is plentiful and the Champagne is on Boiledbeetle

1000 replies

Magpiecomplex · 06/01/2026 19:20

Welcome one and all. Quick précis - women's pub, rodent staff, apparently we're sane.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
111
MarieDeGournay · 09/01/2026 15:03

lcakethereforeIam · 09/01/2026 14:53

Oops! Sorry😬

No need to apologise, it was silly me, not youSmile

DeanElderberry · 09/01/2026 15:22

the Great Recoinage of 1816

as publicised in The Toll Gate which might be my next re-read when I've finished with the Reluctant Widow.

MarieDeGournay · 09/01/2026 15:28

DeanElderberry · 09/01/2026 15:22

the Great Recoinage of 1816

as publicised in The Toll Gate which might be my next re-read when I've finished with the Reluctant Widow.

That's set me googling in 3 different directions, thanks DeanoSmile

DeanElderberry · 09/01/2026 15:30

MarieDeGournay · 09/01/2026 15:28

That's set me googling in 3 different directions, thanks DeanoSmile

you're welcome

Bowednotbroken · 09/01/2026 15:36

Ooh I love Georgette Heyer - it’s a mark of a holiday when I re-read a GH on the train on the way! (I don’t fly.)

MarieDeGournay · 09/01/2026 15:48

Bowednotbroken · 09/01/2026 15:36

Ooh I love Georgette Heyer - it’s a mark of a holiday when I re-read a GH on the train on the way! (I don’t fly.)

So two of those things are GH novels? that cuts my googling time down thank you, just leaving the 'the Great Recoinage of 1816'Smile

EdithStourton · 09/01/2026 16:15

CheesemongersApprentice · 09/01/2026 11:57

The central heating is back on. The header tank in the loft had frozen so the pressure dropped.

Phew.
We have had the boiler boys out at vast expense to trouble-shoot our system this past week. Fingers crossed that's it for a while.

EdithStourton · 09/01/2026 16:19

MarieDeGournay · 09/01/2026 13:59

The gerbils are very keen to come and help chopping trees down. Or up in this case. They'd all kitted up and rarin' to go😁

That image puts me in mind of 'I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay!'
(Never mind buttered scones...)

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Britinme · 09/01/2026 16:46

Because these threads disappear eventually so I can claim this poem isn't anywhere on the internet if I ever want to publish it, I wrote a poem that included old currency so I'll post it here for your enjoyment - a lot of us share these experiences I think.

Where I'm from

I am from complicated currency,
from classrooms of girls in gingham
summer uniforms and boys in grey shorts
writing sums that multiplied money
through farthings, halfpennies, pennies
and shillings before we got to pounds.
In our pockets, threepences jostled with
sixpenny bits, florins and half-crowns.
I am from four chews for a penny,
two for a halfpenny, or a farthing each.

I am from handwriting practice,
flowing cursive lines with split-nib pens
dipped into inkwells on scarred desks.
I am from playing outside until dark
climbing trees to make houses of scrap wood.
I am from crossing the main road alone
to buy twenty Woodbines for my mother,
and to ask the haberdasher for STs
which she wrapped in brown paper for mystery
that stayed unsolved until I was thirteen.

I am from Sunday dinners, from Yorkshire
puddings with beef, pork with apple sauce
and lamb with mint sauce I made from fresh mint
picked from a tub by the door and chopped fine
with vinegar and sugar. I am from
roast joints carved with a knife sharpened by dad
on the back step. I am from cups of tea
as a panacea for all ills,
from custard creams and digestives, when
bourbon was only a chocolate biscuit.

I am from party-line phones in the hall,
whose conversations were never private.
I am from black and white television,
showing the Black and White Minstrel Show, from
the radio tuned to the Light programme,
from Listen with Mother, Workers' Playtime,
from Sunday lunchtime comedy, Round the Horne
always followed by Gardeners' Question Time,
where wise-sounding men told us the answer
always lies in the soil. I am from people
where that truism continues to be true.

NotAtMyAge · 09/01/2026 17:06

FarriersGirl · 09/01/2026 13:56

Gosh I remember old money too. I was in primary school when decimal currency came in. I can recall paying for a weeks worth of school dinners with a half crown, 6 [old] pennies a day. That is 2.5 pence for the younger members of the Bluestocking. Yes that makes me feel old🙁

Decimal currency came in the week before I gave birth to DD, which makes me old enough to remember farthings still being legal tender. While I'm at it, I can remember the end of rationing in 1954 and more importantly for a 7 yr-old the end of sweets rationing the year before. 😁

NotAtMyAge · 09/01/2026 17:11

Britinme · 09/01/2026 16:46

Because these threads disappear eventually so I can claim this poem isn't anywhere on the internet if I ever want to publish it, I wrote a poem that included old currency so I'll post it here for your enjoyment - a lot of us share these experiences I think.

Where I'm from

I am from complicated currency,
from classrooms of girls in gingham
summer uniforms and boys in grey shorts
writing sums that multiplied money
through farthings, halfpennies, pennies
and shillings before we got to pounds.
In our pockets, threepences jostled with
sixpenny bits, florins and half-crowns.
I am from four chews for a penny,
two for a halfpenny, or a farthing each.

I am from handwriting practice,
flowing cursive lines with split-nib pens
dipped into inkwells on scarred desks.
I am from playing outside until dark
climbing trees to make houses of scrap wood.
I am from crossing the main road alone
to buy twenty Woodbines for my mother,
and to ask the haberdasher for STs
which she wrapped in brown paper for mystery
that stayed unsolved until I was thirteen.

I am from Sunday dinners, from Yorkshire
puddings with beef, pork with apple sauce
and lamb with mint sauce I made from fresh mint
picked from a tub by the door and chopped fine
with vinegar and sugar. I am from
roast joints carved with a knife sharpened by dad
on the back step. I am from cups of tea
as a panacea for all ills,
from custard creams and digestives, when
bourbon was only a chocolate biscuit.

I am from party-line phones in the hall,
whose conversations were never private.
I am from black and white television,
showing the Black and White Minstrel Show, from
the radio tuned to the Light programme,
from Listen with Mother, Workers' Playtime,
from Sunday lunchtime comedy, Round the Horne
always followed by Gardeners' Question Time,
where wise-sounding men told us the answer
always lies in the soil. I am from people
where that truism continues to be true.

Oh, that rang SO many bells for me. Thank you. 💕

Magpiecomplex · 09/01/2026 17:15

Afternoon all. You lot have been chatty! I've been invigilating ALL AFTERNOON and accordingly have designated today a non-diet day. I'm cold and bored and I have marking to do this weekend.

OP posts:
EmpressaurusKitty · 09/01/2026 17:32

Bowednotbroken · 09/01/2026 15:36

Ooh I love Georgette Heyer - it’s a mark of a holiday when I re-read a GH on the train on the way! (I don’t fly.)

I love Georgette Heyer too!

My favourite is Cotillion but there are so many good ones. I listen to her audiobooks at the gym & got a hopeless fit of giggles the other week when I was listening to Sprig Muslin while doing deadlifts. Many confused stares.

MarieDeGournay · 09/01/2026 17:38

Magpiecomplex · 09/01/2026 17:15

Afternoon all. You lot have been chatty! I've been invigilating ALL AFTERNOON and accordingly have designated today a non-diet day. I'm cold and bored and I have marking to do this weekend.

Go for it, Magpie, you've earned it!😃

The Bluestocking, where the cheese is plentiful and the Champagne is on Boiledbeetle
SionnachRuadh · 09/01/2026 17:42

I keep meaning to get into Georgette Heyer, but I never get round to it.

I've been on a Simon Raven binge, and he's a very niche taste these days. Raven is enormous fun but after reading him I always feel like I need a bath.

Bowednotbroken · 09/01/2026 17:53

I find Georgette Heyer to be a ‘safe’ read - always a satisfying ending so I know the story isn’t just going to trickle away. I hate unsatisfactory endings! And never twee for me. I’ve read other Regency-set yarns that were anachronistic or so sugary. Yuck!

EdithStourton · 09/01/2026 18:00

One of my DC is very into GH.
So she will live on for another generation.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/01/2026 18:07

I am reading lots of easy books at the moment - nice, chick lit is all my brain seems able for at the moment. Lots of Heidi Swain, Rosamund Pilcher and Trisha Ashley.

lcakethereforeIam · 09/01/2026 18:09

My mum used to read Catherine Cookson. her books used to dominate the spinny book rack in the newsagents. They never interested small me, romance... yuck! I think I did her a disservice but I remain prejudiced against her work and other writers I've consciously or unconsciously filed in the same genre. Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer. Partly this is an attempt to limit the number of tbr books I've got. They're mostly picked up cheaply on the kindle. It's probably not an exaggeration to say I've got hundreds. Lots are the start of series so, if they're any good, reading them might lengthen the tbr list. The last thing I need is to become a fan of a new author. It's a bit of a bastard keeping up with the ones I already like.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/01/2026 18:10

I have never got into Catherine Cookson - but my real secret vice is Mills and Boon romances by Betty Neels - she has written about 160 books, and I have them hidden under my bed, in a crate. Real candy floss for the brain!

NotAtMyAge · 09/01/2026 18:11

Bowednotbroken · 09/01/2026 15:36

Ooh I love Georgette Heyer - it’s a mark of a holiday when I re-read a GH on the train on the way! (I don’t fly.)

So do DH and I. We have a well-thumbed set of all her Regency novels, plus almost all her other historical fiction. I tried one of her detective novels, but it just didn't work for me, even though I'm also a Dorothy L Sayers and Josephine Tey fan, as well as Ellis Peters/Edith Pargeter.

Britinme · 09/01/2026 18:41

I also love Georgette Heyer, though I mainly have her on Kindle these days as the paperbacks were getting tatty. @NotAtMyAge I am currently (off and on) re-reading my way through the Lord Peter Wimsey books, and have read most of Ellis Peters under both her names. I think I've only read the Richard III book by Josephine Tey though. So many good books coming out all the time and so many on my Kindle app on my iPad unread...

I also like Laurie R. King and Jacqueline Winspear (enjoyed her memoir as well as the Maisie Dobbs books). Other books I have in series include Phil Rickman, Lindsey Davis, Dorothy Dunnett, Terry Pratchett and of course the inimitable and hilarious Jodi Taylor.

Magpiecomplex · 09/01/2026 18:47

I got Killing Time and the Ballad of Smallhope and Pennyroyal for Christmas, Brit! Love Jodi Taylor.

OP posts:
AuntieMsDamsonCrumble · 09/01/2026 18:48

@Britinme Your poem described my childhood to a T. The only difference was that my school's summer dresses were polka-dot, which the teachers always said gave them a headache when they saw us en-masse!

Another Georgette Heyer fan here. I first came across her books in my teens and my favourite is Frederica, with A Reluctant Widow a close second, but I also enjoyed the ones based on real historical events during the Napoleonic Wars, such as An Infamous Army and A Spanish Bride. They were extremely well researched and written.

Britinme · 09/01/2026 18:55

The Heyer books are pretty historically accurate too. It really bugs me when I read a historical novel where the author clearly hasn't done adequate research about the period - undermines the whole novel. I wrote a review of a book called "The Yard" by Alex Grecian a few years ago, which was a novel set in the early days of Scotland Yard, which was anachronistic and inaccurate to the point of hilarity. Brownstone houses in Trafalgar Square? Pub landlords called a "barkeep"? A housewife inviting the chimney sweep to call her by her first name and offering him a cup of tea? Maybe now but not in the 1880s. And there was more, so much more.

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