Only connect

[desperance]

My plans for this evening include watching a rerun of "Jeeves and Wooster" - yes, the Fry & Laurie series, which I think is pretty much definitive for my generation - and also watching an episode of "House", which is of course Laurie in much different mood.

What's interesting me today, though, is that between the two I shall be rereading "The Nine Tailors" - and, y'know, that Fry/Laurie Jeeves/Wooster thing, it transposes very easily into Bunter/Wimsey; and the newly-revealed Laurie could certainly manage both sides of Wimsey, the silly-ass and the deep & bitter romantic; and it would make a fabulous counterpoint to the earlier series, and there never has been a truly satisfactory TV version, and...

Comments

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Was very tempted last week when the complete Jeeves and Wooster (Fry/Laurie) DVD collection was under £25 at HMV ... oh well, maybe next time!

[jemck.livejournal.com]

Oh glory, yes... I see exactly what you mean...

Oh please, telly gods, please!

Rather weirdly, I have been thinking about The Nine Tailors this week - not re-reading it as too busy. I have concluded it's down to my subconscious putting things together about flooding in East Anglia.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Also weirdly, m'friend pennski just sent me a book about her illustrious ancestor A J Pitman, who was one of our notable bell-ringers. Its arrival coincides with but did not precipitate my rereading of 'The Nine Tailors'. This is why we have the word coincidence, because stuff happens...

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

You know, that sounds so right it's probably really wrong--in a good way.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Excellent idea. Let's find a multi-millionaire to sponsor it!

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

(Nothing to do with your post but...) Are your Outremer books still available?

I've searched Play.com and come up with nothing. But I am not good at internets.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Still available, yes; notably, if desired, still available signed from me...

If you go to this page on my website (http://www.chazbrenchley.co.uk/buying.php) and scroll down, you will find them; click the little green shopping baskets and follow instructions, and it will sell them to you for £5 each plus £3 total P&P, which monies it will take from you via PayPal (NB you don't need a PayPal account - credit/debit card does just dandy).

If this is too much with the internets, just e-mail me (chaz at chazbrenchley dot co dot uk) and we'll sort something with a cheque or whatever.

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

That's an amusing coincidence: I've just finished reading The Nine Tailors, which was my first Lord Peter whodunit. It was all right. I quite enjoyed the local colour — my only previous glimpse of the Fen region was in the Doc Savage adventure The Sea Magician— and all the bell-ringing lingo (impenetrable gibberish, mind you, but fascinating for the glimpse it affords into a very specialized activity). I've got Five Red Herrings somewhere in the "to read" pile. Southern Scotland, after the Fen...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Mmph. 'Five Red Herrings' is my positively least-favourite Wimsey; no spoilers, but for me it lacks those things that make me love him. The one to read, of course, is 'Gaudy Night'. It is not a spoiler to say that Wimsey in love is Wimsey made suddenly human, which does make all the difference...

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Hey, I just found it on the St-Michel flea market, here in Bordeaux, together with a biography of Shakespeare by one Ivor Brown and a nice edition of Alexandra David Néel's Voyage d'une Parisienne à Lhassa, all in decent hardcover format. My thought was: "Hm, I've never read those Sayers mysteries, let's try one."

I takes them as I finds them.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

In any case, reading Gaudy Night out of sequence is eating the cherry off the top of the cake first. Better to build up to it gradually. Five Red Herrings has its impenetrabilities, too, involving railway timetables, but who cares?

Cherry picking

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

Erm... Not that I particularly like those cherries on top of cakes, but, is there any other way to eat it? You can't very well set it aside, rampage through the cake and just murder it, and then, as an afterthought delicacy, nibble daintily on the leftover cherry, can you? Well, yes, I suppose it's quite possible, but it's not practical, not to mention the fact that it's slightly gross to set aside the cherry where it can gather dust and all sort of nastiness, waiting for you to get back to it, and...

Brrrr. I can't imagine anyone would do that.

I pick the cherry on top, gulp it down, and </>then, get seriously down to business on the rest of the cake.

But then again, I'm not terribly keen on those cherries.

I do see your point about the book, though. ^_______^

[mantichore.livejournal.com]

By the by, is House really that good? I've only seen the first episode of the third season during my stay in Scotland last April, and I was disappointed: I love Laurie, and the concept of a misanthropic, sarcastic doctor seemed attractive, but the episode (about a child claiming to have been abducted by aliens and discovered to have alien blood) was rather tame, and the sarcastic hero not so much scathing as rather wet. Since I had read comments about this being the best-written series on TV currently, I was nonplussed. Mind you, no one is guaranteed against the one-off episode...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

House is absolutely my current TV love. I don't remember the episode of which you speak - which may itself speak volumes - but do give it another chance, preferably from series one; they're always best when they're fresh, when there isn't a choir yet to preach to.

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

"House" is absolutely the one thing I have to watch every time it's on. I was a goner from the first episode, really. I love "Jeeves and Wooster",too.

(I finally followed your link over from novel_in_90. Slow on the uptake, or what? *g*)

I'd like to friend you, if that's okay.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Oh, please. I like my friends, and always welcome more. Here we talk about books and cats and cooking, and whatever else happens to drift across my radar...

[footlingagain.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Books, cats and cooking is a fantastic combination.

I'm not a good cook, really (beloved is much better than me) but I do like eating.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Eating is a talent too. Like reading. If I didn't have readers and eaters, I'd be lost. Happily, some of my real-life friends combine both these skills. I suppose there must be better things than talking about books (not always even my own) across the dinner-table, but right now I'd be hard pressed to list 'em.