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thisbluespiritThings continue much as before. I wanted to make a post, but I haven't quite the brain for reviews or the like, so here are two random quick things:
1. Back when we were all making top 100 lists,osprey_archer did a picture books one, and there was a discussion in the comments about US vs UK picture books, so I did a UK one, with the best/most popular/influential picture book illustrators I could think of (up to 2010 when I stopped being a children's librarian and, indeed, anything much), but it took ages to try and make sure I wasn't missing people and put all the covers on, and then I kept forgetting I'd made it.
It's here for those who like clicking on books in a list.
(I apologise for the lack of 2010s and 2020s; but I have not kept up at all! Also I included picture books only for the most part, with a few honourable exceptions, so this means there are very few early reader type books & no comics, but there are picture books for older readers. It needs to be an unorthodox size and shelved in the kinder boxes! Also, I focused on illustrators not authors. Plus a tiny handful were just personal favourites, but it is my list. ;-p)
2. I was talking about Outrageous, the U&Drama/Britbox TV series about the Mitfords last time. It continued to be excellent and it finally occurred to me that I could link the trailer, which would be helpful:
1. Back when we were all making top 100 lists,
osprey_archer did a picture books one, and there was a discussion in the comments about US vs UK picture books, so I did a UK one, with the best/most popular/influential picture book illustrators I could think of (up to 2010 when I stopped being a children's librarian and, indeed, anything much), but it took ages to try and make sure I wasn't missing people and put all the covers on, and then I kept forgetting I'd made it.It's here for those who like clicking on books in a list.
(I apologise for the lack of 2010s and 2020s; but I have not kept up at all! Also I included picture books only for the most part, with a few honourable exceptions, so this means there are very few early reader type books & no comics, but there are picture books for older readers. It needs to be an unorthodox size and shelved in the kinder boxes! Also, I focused on illustrators not authors. Plus a tiny handful were just personal favourites, but it is my list. ;-p)
2. I was talking about Outrageous, the U&Drama/Britbox TV series about the Mitfords last time. It continued to be excellent and it finally occurred to me that I could link the trailer, which would be helpful:
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Date: 2025-07-27 01:27 pm (UTC)I got a pathetic 7. I wasn't sure if I'd read some of the classics or they just looked familiar because of their fame:S
I'm glad 'Outrageous' kept being good to the end!
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Date: 2025-07-27 01:55 pm (UTC)I got a pathetic 7. I wasn't sure if I'd read some of the classics or they just looked familiar because of their fame:S
Aww. And don't worry! I wasn't expecting people to get many; I think it was mainly that there was interest in seeing a UK one expressed by someone when
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Date: 2025-07-28 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 07:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 07:56 pm (UTC)Untrue! Once a children's librarian, always a children's librarian! <3 As for the other bit, yeah, I get the feeling of not being anything much, but... also untrue! <3
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Date: 2025-07-27 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-07-27 11:47 pm (UTC)I washed out the most on the American childen's picture books lists when people were doing them, so I threw myself at yours for the sake of statistics and it was also catastrophic! 29 out of 100. I am glad you included Judith Kerr's Mog, though, because I read it in my grandparents' house instead of a library.
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Date: 2025-07-28 07:47 am (UTC)(29/100 was about the highest I got on most people's lists of anything, lol. Catastrophic would be the stunning 0/100 I got on your noir list!! XD XD XD)
ETA: Mog is important! (And not to be confused with Meg and Mog, heh.)
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Date: 2025-07-28 09:02 am (UTC)Hah! Thank you. It's an honor. I did spend much of my time as a child in libraries.
(I had to look up a bunch of them to see if I actually had read them or if the titles/art just looked familiar and it could go either way. Some I had just never heard of, although I don't know what my excuse was in the case of Six Dinner Sid.)
(29/100 was about the highest I got on most people's lists of anything, lol. Catastrophic would be the stunning 0/100 I got on your noir list!! XD XD XD)
Fine! I still note that people have different tastes, which is the point of this meme!
I have absolutely no idea what I would put on a hundred-book list of important or influential picture books of my own. I certainly had some, but I feel as though I would have to struggle for a hundred whereas with regular children's books I kept having to prune and then still finding titles I had forgotten afterward.
ETA: Mog is important! (And not to be confused with Meg and Mog, heh.)
Looking up how many more books were published in the Mog series than I had remembered reminded me that even though I have read the fact multiple times, I keep forgetting that Judith Kerr was married to Nigel Kneale, mostly because they seem to belong to completely separate fictional universes.
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Date: 2025-07-28 05:27 pm (UTC)Picture books are harder unless you've had some particular reason to keep up with them - so many of our own favourites were read too long ago and buried deep in the memory for a start. So I think that's very natural. I was just paid to know something about them for 10 years, plus I was an active member of the Youth Libraries Group and had to nominate titles for the Greenaway award, in addition to my stint as a judge. So I damn well should be able to come up with 100 - and even so I was rusty enough that it took me a while and a lot of Googling.
I keep forgetting that Judith Kerr was married to Nigel Kneale, mostly because they seem to belong to completely separate fictional universes.
I have done the same thing! Fact duly noted and then immediately filed away under obv not true because impossible. XD
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Date: 2025-07-28 08:17 pm (UTC)We did have copies of a fair number of my formative ones in the house, but most of them are in storage, which also makes it hard to refer to them for purposes of a meme. (I have obviously been thinking about it since last night.)
I was just paid to know something about them for 10 years, plus I was an active member of the Youth Libraries Group and had to nominate titles for the Greenaway award, in addition to my stint as a judge.
I still think that's very cool.
I have done the same thing! Fact duly noted and then immediately filed away under obv not true because impossible.
There are even kids! They probably belong to a universe of their own.
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Date: 2025-07-28 05:17 pm (UTC)Anyway, I got 15 on your list, although there were definitely some illustrators I'm familiar with but not that specific book (Quentin Blake, for instance, I know through Roald Dahl). And I actually just encourage Rosie's Walk TODAY because my mom was reading it to my niece!
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Date: 2025-07-30 08:05 pm (UTC)15 is pretty impressive! \o/
And I actually just encourage Rosie's Walk TODAY because my mom was reading it to my niece!
Ha, what a fun coincidence!
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Date: 2025-07-29 07:19 am (UTC)I've definitely read Rosie's Walk, which leaped out at me from the list. I haven't given it a thought in years. (Also Meg and Mog, but not, as far as I can recall, Mog.)
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Date: 2025-07-30 08:09 pm (UTC)Also Meg and Mog, but not, as far as I can recall, Mog.)
They are very different but equally well-known, so you would think people could have been more organised about names.
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Date: 2025-08-01 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-01 07:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-01 07:37 pm (UTC)18)GETTING IT! by Rhonda Nelson
Catherine Winslow has a secret that could ruin her-her boyfriend doesn’t sleep with her! She decides to spice up a conference and sets a seductive trap. Only it’s not her boyfriend’s bed she ends up in...
Robert Morton can’t believe it when a strange woman surprises him in the shower and starts to berate him for not seeing to her needs. But the more he’s around her, the more Robert's inclined to give the sassy woman a taste of what she’s been missing...
189) Her Perfect Candidate by Candace Shaw
Co-owner of an up-and-coming interior-decorating firm, Robert Morton loves being a single man on the fast track to success. But everything changes when a flat tire brings Georgia senator Catherine Winslow into his life. The sinfully sexy politician needs the right man to clean up her image. And with Robert's fine eye for detail, he just may be the man for the job.
Catherine's reputation as a player could cost her her chance at a U.S. senate seat. But when the cameras catch her and Robert in a kiss that's all too real, it's not only her future candidacy in jeopardy. As the lines between politics and desire begin to blur, how much will she risk to transform their passionate pretense into a landslide for love?
31)CHASING SECRETS by KELSEY ROBERTS
Silhouette Intrigue
Unlawfully wedded?
Catherine Winslow would do whatever it took to prove her innocence - and Robert Morton was the key to clearing her name. His testimony had sent her to jail for a crime she didn’t commit and she could never forget what he had cost her. Catherine had escaped to find justice...but her salvation meant marrying a man she couldn’t trust.
Newly wedded to an escaped con and on the run from the law, Robert didn’t think things could get much worse-but he was wrong. When their quest to clear Catherine’s name turned deadly, their need to believe in each other was suddenly a matter of life or death.
50)FILM AT ELEVEN by KELSEY ROBERTS
When everybody is watching…
An impromptu appearance on a morning talk show to promote his new book turned Dr Robert Morton’s quiet life upside down. And now the brainy charmer had become a media-savvy serial killer’s next target. Even worse, the infuriatingly beautiful – and very off limits – anchorwoman Catherine Winslow was the only one he could turn to for protection. Though a string of suspicious accidents proved Robert was in terrible danger, forging an intensely passionate relationships with Catherine seemed more frightening than being found by the madman who wanted him dead. But would Robert’s fleeting minutes of harrowing fame lead to a permanent future together with Catherine… or lead him straight to the killer?
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Date: 2025-08-02 07:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-08-02 08:06 am (UTC)Yes, they were an entertaining mix of 'no, never... and yet also..." lol.
but also LOL at Sir Robert working as an interior decorator in this universe.
The generator does have some interesting new career choices for characters, but I suppose no less than fandom, heh.
And I feel like you could make something of the one where she ends up in prison falsely accused of a crime - I mean, I can’t imagine it would take too much of a stretch for her to be arrested in canonverse, either through suffragette activities/accidentally getting caught up with the militants, or through her activism for Ronnie’s case xD
Yes, and we know Sir Robert does not approve of radical suffragette action already.
It got far more off piste after that for the most part, but it did also give me these:
309) The Chateau by Karen Aldous
Can young hearts ease a restless spirit?
On the shores of stunning Lake Geneva, Catherine Winslow is celebrating her brother’s wedding – when the figure of a man appears hovering above the water, beckoning to her. Ghostly visitations do not happen to Catherine - a self-confessed control freak with her own successful property business, she prides herself on being level-headed. But as she is tormented by dreams and visions, her perfect life begins to unravel, and she knows she needs to help this ghost find peace if she’s to get any of her own!
Enter Robert Morton, an Anglo-Swiss property developer who’s sexy as hell and knows it. His arrogance annoys Catherine, but he’s the only one who will take her seriously… and the closer they come to understanding the quest the ghost has set for them, the closer they get to one another…
596) Besieged and Betrothed by Jenni Fletcher
Ruthless warrior Robert Morton has laid siege to Castle Haword, but there’s a fiery redhead in his way – and she’s not backing down!
More tomboy than trembling maiden, Lady Catherine Winslow would rather die than lose the castle. Caught on opposite sides of a war, a marriage bargain is brokered to bring peace. But is blissful married life possible when Catherine has a dangerous secret hidden within the castle walls…?
468) FROM GOVERNESS TO SOCIETY BRIDE by Helen Dickson
The Lord's convenient wife
Lord Robert Morton is in need of a governess. The man is ruthless, rude beyond belief, and Catherine Winslow wishes him to the devil... but the position is hers if she'll accept.
As sparks fly between her and the magnificent man of the house, Catherine learns, shockingly, the dark-hearted Lord is carrying the weight of ruin on his broad shoulders. Desperately craving the security she's never had, Catherine offers a proposal - in return for her secret fortune, she asks only that he take her hand in marriage...
ETA: If you use this link you should get the Winslow Boy customized option (and then you can click only that or type Catherine Winslow and Robert Morton in the two boxes at the top) and you can generate your own summaries.
In getting the link, it produced this for me, so I was rewarded:
493) The Bride's Seduction by Louise Allen
Miss Catherine Winslow assumed she would never marry. Then Robert Morton, Earl of Mortenhoe, proposed a sensible, practical, passionless match. Catherine knew it was madness to accept his bargain when she had tumbled head over heels in love with him but his honesty touched her. Perhaps she could risk her heart...
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Date: 2025-08-02 07:11 pm (UTC)Catherine - a self-confessed control freak with her own successful property business, she prides herself on being level-headed. That's not an altogether inaccurate depiction of her character...
The governess one sounds immensely entertaining! AU where Sir Robert is a widower and single dad, takes Catherine on as a governess and she promptly decides to indoctrinate his kids with her radical ideals? :P (Hey, it's more plausible than some of these scenarios)
Miss Catherine Winslow assumed she would never marry. Then Robert Morton, Earl of Mortenhoe, proposed a sensible, practical, passionless match. For some reason, the title "Earl of Mortenhoe" sends me every time (I mean, Mortenhoe does sort of make etymological sense as an English place-name, just about, but it sounds so silly :P)
And thank you for the link! :D Here's a few that it generated for me:
643) Bound by a Scandalous Secret by Diane Gaston
A most shocking betrothal!
Robert Morton, the pleasure-seeking Marquess of Rossdale, has little interest in his birthright and even less in finding a groom. So he comes up with the perfect plan to survive the Season unscathed — a fake engagement to a most unsuitable girl!
Outspoken Catherine Winslow, the youngest of the scandalous Winslows, has no wish to marry, either. So agreeing to be Robert's temporary fiancée will grant her freedom for a little longer. But with every kiss, both Catherine and Robert must face up to what they really desire...a true match!
242) Strangers at the Altar by Marguerite Kaye
For penniless widow Catherine Winslow, marriage is the only solution. She's vulnerable yet fiercely independent, so shackling herself to another man seems horrifying! Until handsome stranger Robert Morton tempts Catherine to become his temporary wife.
Once married, Catherine hardly recognizes the rugged Highlander Robert transforms into! He sets her long-dormant pulse racing, and she's soon craving the enticing delights of their marriage bed. She has until Hogmanay to show Robert that their fake marriage could be for real…
653) Roses in Moonlight by Lynn Kurland
ESCAPING INTO THE PAST...
Catherine Winslow, antiquities dealer and adventurer, is furious when the priceless piece of Elizabethan lace she's been pursuing slips right by her, in the improbable custody of a mousy textile historian. But she will retrieve it, even if it means dragging a very skeptical, albeit adorable, Robert back in time with her. After all, she is used to living dangerously — in whatever century she finds herself.
Conscientious Robert Morton never dreamed the package his British employer gave him would lead him into places an ordinary guy should never go — like Elizabethan England —or throw him into the company of one extremely attractive, but highly suspect Highlander who not only thinks he's a thief, but insists on involving him in her mad schemes to retrieve her stolen treasure.
CAN LEAD YOU STRAIGHT INTO YOUR FUTURE...
Trapped first in Elizabethan England, then caught in a web of modern-day intrigues, Robert and Catherine are forced into an unlikely alliance by peril, never imagining that what they're forging is a timeless love....
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Date: 2025-08-03 01:41 pm (UTC)Ha, yes! Although that summary always amuses me when it crops up, because it's not entirely clear just from that whether or not there, in fact, are any children involved at all, or the heroine just decided the terrible guy obviously needed a governess to improve him.
For some reason, the title "Earl of Mortenhoe" sends me every time (I mean, Mortenhoe does sort of make etymological sense as an English place-name, just about, but it sounds so silly :P)
It's the name already in the generator, so it's extra funny, because it looks like it was meant to be for a Morton. XD
Once married, Catherine hardly recognizes the rugged Highlander Robert transforms into!
I, too, would be shocked by that development! (Mind you, I see that Catherine has also turned Highlander by the last one as well.)
And, ha, I got that last one too! I nearly used it but it seemed too complicated for flash fic (and then I immediately tried to flash fic another one that had still proved to have more logistics than was ideal).
I mean, it sounds implausible for these two, but I would have been all over a Jeremy Northam-played time travelling mousy historian trying to deal with a headstrong Catherine-like adventurer! (That summary has to be a fairly blatant rip-off of something, does't it? Outlander, presumably, I'd guess.)
Anyway, welcome to the wonderful world of the UC generator. It's a pretty infallible pick me up, whether for throwing sudden and unlikely sentences at you that make you choke and even some tantalisingly good AUs.