October Books

[slemslempike]

October
The Military Philosphers - Anthony Powell
A Comedian's Tale - Ian Cognito
Dimsie Moves Up - Dorita Fairlie Bruce
Dimsie Moves Up Again - Dorita Fairlie Bruce
Dimsie Among the Prefects - Dorita Fairlie Bruce
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Toby Young
Dimsie, Head Girl - Dorita Fairlie Bruce
Dimsie Intervenes - Dorita Fairlue Bruce
Cover Her Face - P.D. James

A Comedian's Tale (on his website, here) is a disjointed look back at his career, from the first gig to the latest, with notable successes and failures (mostly failures) along the way. Probably only interesting if you are already interested in the history of UK stand-up.

I am rather stalled on Dimsie now, as I have reached Grows Up, which is BORING. Although to be fair it did start with someone nicking a car at gun-point, but she's an adult now and there is no more trying on corsets in the lower music room (what? there's no rule, that I've ever heard, against trying on new corsets in the lower music-room)), rescuing poetry from a burning shed or suddenly finding that an escaped bear has leapt into your sports-car.

Toby Young is not exactly meant to be likeable in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, but I don't think he was intending to come across as boringly irritating as I found him. He kept banging on about how in the US women judged him on what he did, and in the UK women judged him on what he was like, and it seemed that not being judged on what he was like could only be a bonus.

Cover Her Face is the first PD James I've ever read. I enjoyed it - it took me a while to get into it, because no-one died for ages. But good.

Comments

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

it took me a while to get into it, because no-one died for ages.

Tea, all over the keyboard. :)

It's a shame you can't cross some of those books. Like, Dimsie Loses Friends and Alienates People. Or Dimsie Covers Her Face, in which she tries on her corset in the music room and is found strangled by the laces.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Well, they didn't! Chapters it went on for, everyone living.

It is a sign of how immersed I have become in re-reading Dimsie that I am OUTRAGED that you could think that Dimsie would try on a corset, in the lower music-room or anywhere else at Jane's! Dimsie, I'll have you know, was FOILING the corsetry incident. But I like the idea of the cross-overs.

[anglaisepaon.livejournal.com]

Okay, okay, make Dimsie the murderer. (Although anyone with a name like Dimsie has it coming...) She broke the rules by being fast, and EVERYONE knows that the girl who falls out of line must be brought back to team spirit or sent to coventry. Or strangled with corset laces.

Am now imagining a whole new world of school stories. Death by jolly holly sticks!

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

But you can't give up before you get to Dimsie Carries On, in which a German spy masquerades as Dimsie's children's governess and Anne Willoughby drugs another German spy with Dimsie's herbs. It also has chapters entitled "The Man Who Limped" and "Another Man Who Limped". How can you resist?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Oh, I shall be persevering! I think Grows Up upsets me as well because it's where all their dreams of wild success from school get dashed, especially Dimsie not being a doctor any more. I have enjoyed the reread, they're so funny. I was also surprised at the attitudes towards the make-up and corsets, it would have been seen as pretty much disgusting at the Chalet School.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

It is much more plausible that Dimsie might be driven to murder in the defence of the honour of the school. Miss York quite relies on her to set the tone of the school.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Ho! Do I spot a Haverfield icon?

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Bows to impressive knowledge of bookplates! No-one has ever identified it until now.

I use it for posts on school stories and for general sympathy, although it's not all that apt for the latter as they are escaping from a forest fire with concussion at the time and it's not really very soothing.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Do they overcome the concussion, put out the forest fire and save the day? I actually don't think I've ever read any Haverfield.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

Haverfield is full of angst and stoical unrequited devotion. This is The Luck of Lois. The concussion leads to tortured delirium in which Ann unconsciously reveals her contempt for Lois' shallow best friend "Wanting you to die with her! You didn't ask me to die with you". It's another eight chapters before All is Resolved.