Crosswords

Bill is reading the book of short stories, titled Lord Peter.  (I’m back onto Harry Potter; no point in owning them all if I’m only going to read them once, right?) 

He remarked that if Dorothy Sayers had any failings as an author it was her fascination with puzzles.  I admitted that after the first explanation of how to decode the messages in Have His Carcase, which was admittedly very clever, I skimmed over the rest until the story resumed.  She tells more than the average reader wants to know about patterns of bell peels for churches in The Nine Tailors.

My last office was in Milburn House in Dean Street, Newcastle, next door to the St. Nicholas Cathedral and working past 6 pm on Wednesdays was impossible, because of the bells.  Dead annoying if you were trying to meet a deadline, but then the whole building was shut and locked with lights out at 7pm as I recall, so there were some limits to the insanity of work hours.  But back to Dorothy Sayers.

Apparently puzzles were very fashionable during the inter-war years.  Crosswords were first invented in 1890, they only became widespread after WWI.  More than wide-spread:  they were the latest craze. 

Imagine a world without crossword puzzles.  Not that I do much with them.  For all that I love words, I’ve never been any good at crosswords and crosswords in a (still) foreign culture – I get nowhere at all.  Mom loved them, though my Dad preferred the daily cryptoquote; he showed off by doing them in his head and writing the answer all at once.

One wonders what all those crossword fanatics did with their time and brains before crosswords came along?  Probably all those useful and practical things that people did before computers were invented…

Truth and Fiction

Bill is still reading Phryne Fisher books and I’m also into VI Warshawski these days.  Funny thing is, they all mention Wimsey, Millhone or Marlowe at some point.  It’s a small world, detecting, even in fiction.   I expect it's a small world in real life as well.  Bill and I were surprised to see this business sign in Nice, but a Google search easily finds detectives in your area, should you need one.  

 

Funny enough, they list the same sort of work that you read about in the novels...

Margery Allingham

I've been fortunate in my selection of books the past few years, discovering new authors and topics of interest, most relating in some way to the inter-war years.  All aspects of history, fashion, politics, personalities, fiction and writers from this era appeal to me.  One exception stands out, sadly, and that is the Campion books written by Margery Allingham.

I like the Campion TV series, starring Peter Davison.  Bill thought to acquire these as we'd enjoyed the Peter Wimsey DVDs so thoroughly.  It was the DVDs that led me to  purchase a couple of Campion novels for Bill's Christmas gift one year.  Even though we've collected most of the set, they don't get any better (you'd think we'd learn).  We decided it was that Allingham somehow managed to avoid telling much about Campion's lifestyle or about him as a person at all.  It's a clever trick to both make him the solver of the crime and an almost incidental character, but I'd be the last to say she's not clever.

For this reason,  I really enjoyed reading about Allingham's life (Margery Allingham: a Biography by Julia Thorogood -  her biographer apparently revised the book and married a Jones since publishing the library book I read.)  

It's been a while since I read it, but I remember that both her parents were writers and an aunt was a publisher.  She wrote from an early age.   Though 'middle class', her family lived on the financial edge, a writers income always being uncertain.  This seemed to get continually worse the older she got and I got out of sorts with her about it.  


She seemed to have settled on the man to marry without much consideration of alternatives and the lucky man was Philip ('Pip') Youngman Carter.  His career was apparently illustrating the dust covers (most of which have not survived) of her published books; that and spending her money.  I never could warm to him, frankly.  


They lived in a grand house in small village in Essex, or rather she did.  

 

Carter spent a fair amount of time (and money) in London, with other women.  I gather he had rather a chip on his shoulder about her success.  Perhaps had he married someone less gifted his own, supposedly substantial, talent would have shone and he would have been a better person, less indolent.   I see from Carter's biographical sketch that he did in fact illustrate some of the Wimsey and Maigret books and wrote several of his own, largely autobiographical, ie Drinking for Pleasure (Is there any other reason?)  His section of the Margery Allingham Society website provides a fascinating sketch of the man, and draws this conclusion about his personality:

The main source for a view of Youngman Carter's personality is his autobiography, All I Did Was This, published posthumously in 1982 in a limited edition. He writes with impressive recall of his early life and admits that much of his character and outlook was determined in his boyhood. Throughout his life he appears to have divided his fellows into 'good chaps and stinkerinos', and how one regarded him must clearly depended on how one was regarded by him. He is variously described as cynical and sardonic, forthright and formidable, and 'appallingly selfish'. He had 'uninhibited prejudices' in which he delighted, 'a bee in his bonnet about trespassers' and a boyish relish for 'private games', often at the expense of others. To those who incurred 'the full and scabrous vigour of his distaste' he was an implacable and 'vitriolic' enemy.

The house was sufficiently big and she sufficiently hospitable that it was always full of visitors and this put an awful strain on her writing.  Carter was known for his parties and  seemed to think it fair to invite, send or bring the herds to 'his' country castle and drop them on Margery to entertain.  Of course she was also required to keep churning out the books to pay the bills.  I started to say 'and to give him a dustcover to illustrate' but it turns out he actually did this for many noted authors.  


Her Society's website describes more of Campion's world than hers, but does say:  

Youngman Carter's touching account of his wife in his preface to Mr Campion's Clowns (1967) gives a picture of a gay and generous woman, with kindness and courage and a rare gift for friendship. Though not an orthodox Christian, she was 'deeply religious' with her own tenets of belief. She was greatly attached to her house and garden and loved to share them with her many friends. Her publicity invariably implied that her marriage was entirely satisfactory but, in fact, it was threatened by her husband's restless philandering and extreme social ambition. Both took their toll; and continued ill-health and serious tax problems compounded her difficulties. Youngman Carter designed the wrappers for most of her books and he helped to plan some of the earlier ones. After her death he achieved in Cargo of Eagles and his own two sequels a lively pastiche of his wife's characteristic mode.

She struggled with her debts, her weight, her health and her writing.  She died relatively young at the age of 62.   If there is any justice, Carter only outlived his famous wife by 3 years (I acknowledge that I am rather hard on him).   In thinking about Allingham's interesting but less than happy life, it led me to think more about the author of the amazing Wimsey stories.  It turns out that Dorothy Sayers had a pretty interesting life as well...but that would have to be another post.

Culling and Consuming

We did some re-organising of a room the other day that involved moving two bookcases.  In the process of removing and replacing the books, Bill decided to actually chuck a few, which rather surprised me.  That is, he put them in the pile of books I'd started for further listings on Amazon.  What surprised me about this was that a few of these books were gifts and Bill has always in the past expressed reluctance to part with gifts, even gifts he doesn't particularly want.

I have a certain amount of sympathy for this as I have tended to keep pretty much anything my Mom or my Aunt Rita made for me.  I've even kept most of what Rita bought me in the last 10 years or so, and only recently managed to part with a fleece outfit that, while comfortable, struck me as being a bit young for me.  It was a wrench, I'll admit.

So, when Bill decided to pitch a 2008 Diary that Will Change Your Life (but I don't think it did), I was pleased to see him moving on a bit (even though I gave it to him).  Our tastes in reading material overlap quite a bit (Harry Potter, Peter Wimsey and the like) but I've never been able to stomach a whole Terry Pratchett, I'm just not wired up that way.  Some of the books Bill chucked I had just assumed were sort of in the Pratchett vein, but apparently not.  We've both agreed to sell our Campion collection as well, as we don't seem to enjoy re-reading them like we do the Wimsey books.  

I rarely get a gift I don't like, but sometimes they are surplus to requirements.  I tend to put them into a drawer of a filing cabinet and look through it when I need a gift at short notice or for someone I don't know well, but I don't tend to re-gift very often.  


I've been in a use-it-all-up mode for most of this year and have stopped buying anything until I'm out or down to the last bit on hand.  Having acquired most of the body lotions in Rita's and Ella's collections, I thought I might have a lifetime supply and every time I got to throw out an empty container it almost seemed like time to throw a small party, but it looks as though I'll soon be pulling out that Christmas gift from the Body Shop...if I haven't given it away.  


I've also been working my way through the odd selection of food gifts, mainly exotic oils, vinegars and preserves.  The grapefruit marmalade was interesting and I'm finding that a 2-year out of date bottle of cranberry sauce is quite nice on toast.  Not sure about that lemon curd, though...Bill might get to use that one up.


Do you feel obligated to keep any and every gift you receive?

Female Detectives

I’ve long been a lover of detective stories. I grew up in a house with stacks of paperbacks and cut my teeth on Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason and (writing as A.A. Fair) Donald Lam stories. Mom introduced me to Dick Francis and I inherited her collection of his books, which I’ve kept topped up ever since; sadly, I've just learned that Francis died only recently, on the 16th of February (yesterday as of this writing).

I’ve mentioned previously that Bill and I both love Peter Wimsey books, particularly the later ones which were incomplete until finished by Jill Paton Walsh, whose other books I keep meaning to hunt. Sadly, while the Campion TV shows starring Peter Davison are quite good, the original books by Margery Allingham were a bit disappointing. I've read her biography; she had quite a difficult life.

It turns out that my friend, Vivien, also likes detective stories, but she has two criteria: they have to have been written by a woman and the detective has to be a woman. She has discovered two series that she quite likes and has generously been loaning me these in installations each time we meet up.

One is a rather daft but amusing series by Elizabeth Peters, an amazingly prolific author whose other titles I've yet to explore. It's about a family of Egyptologists, written from the perspective of the journals of the main character, the wife, Amelia Peabody Emerson. Set in Victorian England (and Egypt), they are written very tongue in cheek and one could not really enjoy these without a wry sense of humour. It took me a while to appreciate this, but once I did I found them quite a good laugh. I’m not too fussed about Egyptian stuff, but the adventures do catch you up in the mysterious foreign-ness of the place and the plots are tricky enough to pull you through. I don’t particularly identify with any of the characters, per se, but neither do I have any trouble finishing once I’ve started.

The other series I’m in danger of having to buy myself, I’m afraid. I re-read these books 2 or 3 times before returning them. Sue Grafton titles her books in alphabetical order; she's up to U and I do hope she doesn't stop at Z! I’ve just finished F and G. Grafton writes about her 30-something year old, twice divorced, California dectective, Kinsey Millhone in a rather terse style that reminds me of my beloved Donald Lam/Bertha Cool books and something else. Never mind that I become Kinsey when I'm reading just as I move into and practically live whatever film I'm watching (Heaven help anyone who interrupts my viewing). Remember the cop-speak of the TV series Dragnet? Sort of like that. She’s even a runner (3 miles every day), how cool is that? The books can be read in any order, you get a precise of the main characters in each, but the stories are sequential and linked, so I recommend that approach.

In return for such rich reading, I have introduced Vivien to Phryne Fisher; I do hope she’ll enjoy them even half as much as I’ve enjoyed Peters and Grafton.

Writing this has reminded me that I also I love the Mrs. Bradley TV series with Diana Rigg. It has just occurred to me to perhaps look into the books it originated from, by Gladys Mitchell! See how useful it is to blog?!

My Funny Valentine

Well, Bill went and got a new car; not a new, new car, just new to him. He traded a 2005 Citroen C-4 for a 2008 Citroen Loeb, also a C-4, but a sportier model. The strange thing about this is that it is a diesel sports car. Bill said he’d always laughed at the idea of a diesel sports car until he rode in Simon’s diesel Mini-Cooper. It moves.

I’m not wild about this, I’ll admit; though I’d be the first to say it’s his money and he’s at perfect liberty to do with it exactly as he likes. I just haven’t figured out what was wrong with the last car. I thought Bill was enjoying having an automatic transmission for his hour-or-so commute down to Stockton, on the A-19, a rather nasty highway often with stop-and-start traffic.

However, Bill has changed cars every couple of years since I’ve known him. I can’t begin to list them all. I remember a white Vauxhall when I first met him, which was pretty quick, a big estate car (known in the US as ‘station wagon’), a bouncy Jeep-like thing called a Daihatsu, and the last but one before this, a Citroen C-3 which was very cute but a cross between a standard and an automatic transmission that was weird, maybe even dangerous, to drive.

This car is a funny shape – even Bill says that – and it is fire engine red. I was used to charcoal grey, racing green or a dignified burgundy. I don’t know whether Bill likes it better for the colour or not; I suspect he does as he mentioned to me that it had red seats as well. I notice it also has something like charcoal coloured suede on the upholstery and part of the door panel and it appears that I can choose the temperature of the air that comes out of the vents on my side, which is nifty.

Another of the stranger things about these cars is that they are numbered, like collectable china, and that you can join a club and put a picture of your red Loeb Citroen with its particular number on the internet beside everyone else’s red Loeb Citroens. It’s just about the silliest thing I ever heard of….boys and their toys… mumble… grumble.

All that said, I gather Bill is pleased with his car; he said he was looking around for an ‘interesting’ diesel and these are relatively rare. He will get excellent gas mileage (instead of just really good) for his long commutes. I think the thing that really convinced him that having this car was kismet was finding it mentioned in the Peter Wimsey book he was reading the night before he went to pick it up:

“Well, that’s all, except a fragment consisting of ‘oe’ on one line…”

“Yes, well?...

“Well, I don’t know. Poet, poem , manoeuvre, Loeb edition, Citroen – it might be anything.”

Happy Valentine’s Day, Sweetie!!!

Hope you really enjoy your funny new red car!

Out of Salad Dressing

There are only certain movies and TV programmes that Bill will watch. I can't reliably put my finger on what he will or won't like. To date, I've learned that he'll watch Harry Potter, Cold Comfort Farm, Smiley's People, American Werewolf in London (I won't dignify it with a link), Lord Peter Wimsey films (I much prefer Petherbridge to Carmichael, not to mention Harriet Walter), Day of the Jackal, The Italian Job (the old one, of course), and Inspector Maigret; if you can identify the theme here, I'd love to know it.

This last series was completely news to me and I didn't realise until Bill told me that the man who plays Inspector Jules Maigret is the same as the most recent Dumbledore, Michael Gambon. Although the setting is supposed to be Paris (I'm beginning to sound suspiciously like a Francophile, aren't I?), the episodes were actually filmed in Eastern Europe. I think that just goes to show how much the old European cities have in common architecturally.

For the longest time I kept saying the name May-gret, which Bill said made him think of vinegrette; it is of course supposed to be said May-Gray. In any case, we've watched these episodes all the way through, and I'm sorry to see them finished. Until the next Harry Potter film comes out on DVD, I guess we'll be reading in front of the fireplace instead.

Wishlists

The hardest people to buy gifts for are the ones who just go out and buy whatever it is they want as soon as they want it, which is probably most everyone I know these days. Mom always had me give her a 'wishlist' for my birthdays and Christmases, from the time I was in my early teens. I would be careful to include plenty of items with a small price tag, as she didn’t have much money. That said, she was good at saving up and she liked giving me ‘real jewelry’ so big things weren’t out of the question. My list might include a new set of measuring cups (to go with the current colour scheme in the kitchen), a half slip, a record album (we are talking about the dark ages, here) and an emerald necklace. She wasn’t limited to what was on the list, but I always knew that a fair number of gifts would come from it.

I would try to give it to her a month or two in advance, but it would be compiled over quite a few months' time. A long list didn’t indicate greed, it only gave the giver more items from which to choose. This practice may have been part of my early training in frugality, come to think of it. If something was on my wishlist, I couldn’t buy it myself in case she chose that item, so I learned to wait for what I wanted.

Bill and I have taken up exchanging wishlists to save making expensive mistakes and disappointment. I’m not as good as I used to be at coming up with it early and it doesn't seem to be as long. I think it’s likely that my real wishlists now are more about things that can’t be bought, which is not helpful.

I use Bill’s wishlist to give me clues about what else I might surprise him with. This is where Amazon is helpful. Knowing he liked books and films about Dorothy L. Sayers’ character, Lord Peter Wimsey, I guessed he might like Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion, and I was right. Once I've decided which items I will buy, I share the remainder of Bill's list with his 3 children; he has to struggle with my list alone.

I gave Bill my birthday wishlist a few days ago – and I’ve added a couple items as I’ve discovered them. I’m quite looking forward to what surprises await me in a couple of weeks.

What would you put on your wishlist?

Cold Comfort Farm

Last night Bill and I watched this film that we taped off the TV several years ago. We both love it, but for different reasons each time it seems, mainly because we keep recognising the actors from other films we like. It has a great cast, but because I have limited exposure to TV and films I'm only recently discovering many of them:

Kate Beckinsale - VanHelsing
Ian McKellan - Lord of the Rings
Eileen Atkins - Cranford, Cold Mountain, Gosford Park
Stephen Fry - Gosford Park
Joanna Lumley - Absolutely Fabulous, Shirley Valentine
Miriam Margolyes - Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets
Sheila Burrell - Gaudy Night (Lord Peter Wimsey)

Stella Gibbons wrote the comic novel, Cold Comfort Farm, in 1932; the film was made for TV in 1995. Several of the films and TV series Bill and I really like are set in the 1930's in England. I love the clothes, he enjoys the cars and we both like the grand old houses. I'm not sure either of us would choose to live in that time between the big wars (though the upper class lifestyle looks pretty comfy) but the romanticised version is luscious.

I looked at Amazon in the US for this -- they wanted $65 for it, which, much as I love the film, is ludicrous! It's much more reasonably priced at £4-6 at the British Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk). Credit cards manage the currency exchange and even with postage, this isn't a bad price. Mind that the DVD region type can be played on your machine. I don't seem to have a problem with either Region 1 (US) or 2 (Europe) on my DVD player, which probably means I'm violating 16 international laws.

If you get to see this film, or any of the other films or series I've listed, I would highly recommend them to you.

The Quiet (Lazy) Life

Someone I used to work with asked me the other day what I did with all my time. He couldn’t believe I hadn’t dived right into doing consultancy work, lecturing at local universities, etc. I don’t think he appreciated how angry I was when I left work. [Rant deleted]

So, what do I do with myself these days? Bill has a new job just now, the first 9-5 M-F he’s had since I’ve known him. That means the alarm goes off at 6:15 (and again at 6:30). I don’t really mind, as I’m often awake just before then now that the sun rises earlier. I do doze a bit though, until he brings me a cup of coffee before leaving at 6:45.

I should say now that were it possible I would just about live my whole life in bed. Propped up with lots of pillows and lots of coffee (and sometimes toast or an oatmeal smoothie) I can happily while away hours reading a book, some magazines, playing or writing on my laptop or writing in my notebook (mostly lists). Now that I can practically do that all the time, it does seem less of a luxury. Since I have to get up for more coffee and to feed myself, I’m usually up sooner than I was at weekends in the past. There’s no really set pattern. Some days I’m opening the kitchen curtains at 7:30, others not until 10:00.

I’ve semi-adopted the Flylady approach. I get dressed, usually in jeans, a long-sleeved t-shirt, a wool sweater and trainers/sneakers. [I finally worked out why Flylady insists on lace-up shoes: they’re harder to kick off and slump down onto a couch with a book]. I dress warmly as the heat comes on just long enough for Bill to get up and out and I leave turning it back on for as long as possible. I make the bed [for probably the longest number of consecutive days in my entire life] and tidy the bedroom, then the bathroom and then the kitchen. If I haven’t already had breakfast, I generally do that before the bathroom and the bedroom [Is this fascinating stuff, or what?] I usually sometimes do a load of laundry each morning; make sure we have either bread (we make our own) or muffins for Bill’s breakfast and figure out what we will have for dinner that evening.

I have a list of deadlines that I’m working on. Right now the next ones are to be ready for Bill’s birthday, have the house decent for his sister’s arrival from Australia and have my back garden plan completed, all roughly due about the same time. After that is getting US taxes filed. Before this there were things like renewing car insurance and my passport. I tackle the deadlines when the morning chores are done. If the deadlines are well on their way, I might spend the morning majority of the day reading blogs. Blogs are the best time-waster since Freecell and are completely addictive; I crave the next post from my favourite blogs like I used to crave cigarettes.

Sometime between 11 and 1 I get hungry for lunch. On a good day, I will go down and make a pot of veggie soup, chopping some of whatever is on hand plus a tin of tomatoes and a sprinkling of some kind of spices. On a bad day, ‘lunch’ is more a series of trips to the kitchen lured by cheese and crackers, leftover sausages or a guilty rustling up of fried potatoes and onions.

After lunch I sometimes do the Flylady un-cluttering routine for either the prescribed 15 minutes or longer if I get carried away, which is surprisingly easy. I may sit down and write about an idea I had for this blog or write a nice long email to a friend. If the weather looks good or I have a touch of cabin fever I might walk to the library. If it’s not a running club day and I am sufficiently recovered can actually walk again, I might go for a brief jog around the park or on the beach to top up my quota for the week (so far so good).

I try not to go food shopping too often, as we have been working on consuming the vast stores of food we already own. Now that we’ve come through the Millennium, had no earthquakes or tornadoes locally and we are out of pandemic flu season, my survivalist instinct is ebbing slightly and one can almost see the back of some of my cupboards. Bill and I don’t always agree about the dates on packaging, but that’s less of an issue now that I’m the chief cook. I figure what he doesn’t know (probably) won’t hurt him.

However, if there are good deals in the ‘sales’ flyers or we are getting low on something important like hot chocolate or marmalade, I will go shopping. I usually walk to one of two stores, each being about a two mile round trip, and take my backpack. If it’s time for a big shop, about once every 4-5 weeks, then I’ll take my car and stock up at several locations.

I do what Bill calls 'cookery' when I'm in the mood. In our house this means new kinds of foods that generally create lots of washing up but which hopefully are worth it. So far these have included things like blackberry pie, blackberry and apple crisp, carrot cake, cabbage rolls, homemade tortillas, spicy shark steaks, salmon puff and a broccoli and Stilton puff (all bar the last were declared successes).

On a running club night, dinner is either a peanut butter sandwich or a couple of muffins and some milk; refuelling soon after running aids recovery and I like something in my tummy before going to the pub where the food is over-priced and mostly disgusting. [This has turned out to be largely about food! May explain why I'm not losing weight...] Those nights we usually get home about 9 and I’m pretty much ready for bed. I’ll have a cup of warm milk and read for a while before turning out the lights.

Other nights we’ll have dinner around 7, wash dishes together and then go watch one of a series of videos we’ve collected. My taste and Bill’s are pretty much opposite (my favourite movie would be something like Braveheart; his is probably American Werewolf in London) but we’ve discovered we both like science fantasy (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Van Helsing) and pre-war detectives (Mrs Bradley, Peter Wimsey, Albert Campion) with the odd other film here and there, ie Cold Comfort Farm.

Before we got into videos we usually sat in the front room by the fire and read or I might do some needlework. I think we should do a bit more of that rather than keep buying new videos at the current rate. I’d also like to go for a walk after dinner like we used to; we don't take near enough advantage of living in a pretty area. I'm sure we'll do more of that as daylight lengthens.

Other interests I've spent from some to a great deal of time with include sewing and crafts, genealogy research (for both historical and living family members), crochet, reading and a little bit of gardening.

This is only Bill’s second week in the new job, so we’ve not yet reaped the benefits for our weekend social life. My weekends are of course much the same as my week days except that I spend less time on the Internet as Bill likes to play Spider on this computer.

A lazy lifestyle? You bet. Solitary? That, too. Quiet? Absolutely. This is me-time and I make no apologies. I may become more sociable, more involved in future, I may pick up some sort of income generating work, I may become more industrious around the house and garden.

Or I may not.