Thursday February 28th, 2013
Books in February
- The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers [Radio Play]
Another BBC radio play starring Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, from the novel of 1934, which is apparently the 9th Wimsey novel. I'm having trouble dating the recording date of this radio play, but it was also made as a TV adaptation in 1974 (which I remember seeing) with similar if not the same cast.
The plot is a bit better than the shenanigans at the Belladonna Club - but I think the criticisms of Wimsey and his world, in that they lack of realism, don't have much relevance when reviewing the stories now.
The explanation of the title is as follows: there is a tradition of announcing a death with a church bell in some English parishes. Broadcasting the age and sex of the deceased would be enough to identify them in a small village. So the death was announced by "telling" (single blows with the bell down) to indicate the sex, and then striking off the years. Three blows meant a child, twice three a woman and thrice three a man. After a pause the years were counted out at approximately half minute intervals. The word teller in some dialects becomes tailor, hence the saying "Nine tailors maketh a man", which is much recited in this play.
The bell used in this novel for the announcement is the largest (tenor) bell which is dedicated to St Paul. Hence "teller Paul" which is corrupted to "tailor Paul" in dialect. Apparently the author is acknowledging the assistance of Paul Taylor of Taylor's bell foundry in Loughborough, who provided detailed information to her on all aspects of ringing. - The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves [read by Charlie Hardwick]
I've been looking forward to catching up with the latest Vera Stanhope novel, and I'm pleased to say this was quite as good as the preceding ones. I suppose these are almost police procedural novels, except that Vera does not seem to follow the procedures too well - which makes for the interest of course. Her behaviour does not leave the bounds of realism though; she manipulates situations intelligently and does not openly flout the rules - as you would expect from a policewoman of her rank. We only know of her wayward nature (and maybe passions) through her thoughts rather than her actions. In this novel, she manages to remain in charge of the case, despite being pretty thoroughly connected with the prime suspect, and being inexplicably present at the crime scene before the police were actually called.
I do find quite a lot to empathise with in Vera, even though I don't imagine we are at all similar in character; Vera's eccentricities are quite definitely due to her childhood with her unpleasant Father, probably both via his genes as well as his bringing her up. She is painted as physically unattractive, which is not in itself sufficient to account for the lack of a man or children in her life, both of which she vaguely mourns from time to time, while those around her would be amazed to think she even noticed the opposite sex at all. A common attitude to the older professional woman, whether unattractive or not, is that they are either ignored or objects of humour. In fact, my sister once observed in the 1970s that women in business were regarded either as bimbos (if you were attractive) or battleaxes (if you were not), and I privately wonder if underlying attitudes have really changed very much since then. In hearing Vera's thoughts, we learn that she has basic desires which are not very different from a lot of other people. She is not perfect, and in her lonelier moments, (maybe every evening!), she does turn to drink, but she seems fairly at one with herself even though she feels there are some things lacking. At the same time, Vera has her eyes wide open to the fact that she would not cope well with being part of a conventional family, and through her Sergeant, Joe, we have a picture of a very robust family life drawn as a contrast.
In re-reading the above I am also struck by the fact that this description could equally apply to the Jane Tennison character in Prime Suspect (1991), portrayed by Helen Mirren as a highly attractive professional police woman. Externally, she could not appear to be more different from Vera, and yet she is similar in her doubts and insecurities revealed in her private life.
Saturday February 23rd, 2013
Unravel 2013
He's a splendid chap isn't he? Just standing around in the stairwell at Unravel, where I spent the afternoon (not just in the stairwell - though it was tempting).
It was an uncharacteristically busy day for me today. I attended the Guild meeting in the morning, and then went on to Farnham Maltings in the afternoon, as I'd agreed to meet my internet friend Sara in the afternoon.
We spent some time together mooching - visiting the knitting machine Guild's stand and discussing vintage equipment (which all participants in the conversation seemed to have). I bought some vintage crochet hooks (I don't have enough), some sock yarn from Fiberspates (I don't have enough), and some buttons (I don't have enough). The buttons were pretty interesting - Lisa (Stealthbunny) makes them uses "found" items and I bought some beauties made from polished stones containing ammonites.
After that I spent the evening with Lyn and Terry - we went out to eat at the Roadmaker Inn in Bordon which has a Gurkha restaurant - yum.
And just to finish off - George is in France currently and reported that there's a lot of mole activity.... Here are our old friends the moles at Unravel.
