Yuletide Reveals 2025

[thisbluespirit]

yuletide is now over for another year! I did, in fact, have the misfortune to turn up at the exact wrong moment to catch the reveals bug on the 24th, so I saw the identity of my gift-writer, although as they were someone that I only had the vaguest idea of having seen the name around AO3 somewhere before, it didn't really spoil anything, thankfully.

I had hoped to do some little treats, as I got on and got my fic done as soon as I could, but I moved instead. However, as I cut out one section from my assignment and posted it separately in Madness, I did technically still post a treat as well!

I wrote The Winslow Boy for edwardianspinsteraunt, so I was not super anonymous really, for anyone who actually looked that far, but I had a lovely time spending a month or so rewatching the film and coming up with different scenarios from their prompts and my head for a 5 + 1 Times fic. By the end, I decided, though, that the "+1" just increasingly didn't sit right with the rest, so I split it off, hence the Madness treat.

Passing Acquaintances (8985 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Robert Morton (Winslow Boy), Catherine Winslow, Arthur Winslow, Grace Winslow, Desmond Curry
Additional Tags: 5 Times, Post-Canon, 1910s, World War I, Trains, London, Smoking, Politics, Cars, Suffragettes, Yuletide, Edwardian Period
Summary: Five ways Catherine and Sir Robert might have met again, after the trial.

edwardianspinsteraunt wanted ways that Catherine and Sir Robert could meet again post canon generally and had suggestions - the Winslows lose the case, Catherine's feminist activities get her into legal trouble of some kind, Catherine gets to go into politics, and angsty things generally - and included 5 times fic on their likes, so I ran with that. I'd had a WWI idea about them meeting on a train ages ago and adapted that for one section, and generally tried to make each section not too much like the last.

The lady councillor was an idea I'd had for a while, because that was a whole different case to parliament and already potentially open to Catherine pre-WWI. (Technically, there had been female councillors in the LCC in the 1880s, but it was a big issue and people went to great lengths to prevent them actually being able to carry out their duties and then have it prohibited by law, which had been overturned by a new bill before the film takes place).

Garden of Remembrance took the most battering into shape (& still I feel could have done with just a little sharpening up towards the end, had Life not intervened), but was also the most fun, because I vaguely thought the nearest London park (to both Parliament & the Old Bailey) would probably be St James's or Green Park or something, but when I checked, it was the Victoria Embankment Gardens - right next to the Horse Guards (where Catherine goes to see her fiance John in the film) and one of them (Temple Gardens) had a statue of John Stuart Mills (THE 19th C male suffragist) in it, which was so on the nose that I was in two minds whether or not to mention it in case it sounded as if I'd forced the location for that reason, or made it up, but you can't really turn down a ridiculously apt piece of statuary when you're handed one.

I initially had the case Sir Robert loses in the last one down as divorce, but then I was pretty sure he wouldn't be taking that kind of case, so coming up with something with a similar angle took a little bit of figuring it out until some sort of financial issue/fraud by a male relative occurred to me.

I knew moving might happen, so doing the Five Times format also meant I potentially could cut it down to one and run with that if I needed to, which was reassuring. I made good progress and was finished well before things happened, so I don't have any cut sections or anything, but I did, in my notebook, or at least in my head, therefore have a version of the latter where Sir Robert does (stealthily!) go to the suffragist meeting with Catherine; I think the first section too originally had a potential extension, but I forget already.

What is funny is that before Yuletide started, I'd been watching the film (after it dvd #3 BROKE and I had to get dvd #4), and wrote a fic that I thought might even work as a Yule-gift if things fell out that way - it wasn't useful for that, as it turned out, but I filleted one small aspect of it for the WWI piece AND of course, then got them together five other times in five other ways, so if I write something for them again soon, it will, alas, not be that one, not any time soon. It'll be the murder mystery I keep threatening, or them being married, lol.

I wanted to include the Winslows lose the case AU if I could, as I knew edwardianspinsteraunt was keen on that idea - and as I thought would it might rather put paid to any Catherine/Robert, at least for quite some time, it fitted well into the format as the "one time they didn't" (meet again) (although never at any point was that categorical). It did work out well and was maybe the most Rattigan section in the end, I thought, so I had to post it even after I cut it. (Although had I realised sooner I was going to set it loose alone, I'd have found a way to make the start a little less in media res, although tbf, it's an unlikely one to appeal to anyone who doesn't know canon).

Anyway, here it is:

and watch the things you gave your life to broken (2799 words) by thisbluespirit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winslow Boy (1999)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Robert Morton/Catherine Winslow
Characters: Catherine Winslow, Desmond Curry, Arthur Winslow, Violet (Winslow Boy), Dickie Winslow, Robert Morton (Winslow Boy)
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, 1910s, Edwardian Period, The Winslows lose the case, Yuletide Treat
Summary: The Winslows lose the case.

With the usual thanks to persiflage for the beta!! <3<3<3

Comments

[persiflage_1]

As usual, you're welcome!

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Thank you again for the Yuletide gifts, now I know you were definitely my author - I am a very happy and grateful recipient! XD

but you can't really turn down a ridiculously apt piece of statuary when you're handed one.
I know! It’s such an amazing detail it almost feels too good to be true!

I did, in my notebook, or at least in my head, therefore have a version of the latter where Sir Robert does (stealthily!) go to the suffragist meeting with Catherine
The published version is perfect as it is, but I would also pay good money to see this ending - I’m very curious as to how events would unfold, heh. (Does anyone spot him??)

I write something for them again soon, it will, alas, not be that one, not any time soon. It'll be the murder mystery I keep threatening, or them being married, lol.
Both of those options are amazing and I would love to see them in the world! <33 Out of curiosity, do you have any concrete ideas for the fic about them being married (I feel we don’t have much established relationship fic in the fandom, so anything would be very welcome!)? I’m FINALLY putting together a marriage of convenience AU myself, which also explores that possibility albeit from a very tropey and non-organic perspective.

It did work out well and was maybe the most Rattigan section in the end
Agreed - the ending lingers in the mind and tantalises in a very Rattigan-esque way, and I loved the focus on/significance of little details <33

[thisbluespirit]

<3<3<3 You are a star!

[persiflage_1]

Yeah, yeah, big flaming ball of gas! 😜

[thisbluespirit]

"but you can't really turn down a ridiculously apt piece of statuary when you're handed one."
I know! It’s such an amazing detail it almost feels too good to be true!

Stumbling over that was so funny! I checked the date it was supposed to be there, and, yep, within the period! XD

The published version is perfect as it is, but I would also pay good money to see this ending - I’m very curious as to how events would unfold, heh. (Does anyone spot him??)

Yes, it was probably more amusing-to-me than practical. In the moving hoo-ha, I think I disposed of the entire scribbly draft of this fic, but I'll find it otherwise, although that bit may have been more in my head. Catherine went in and had a word with people and snuck him in a side door, but her colleagues definitely had Comments, and he got to hear Catherine do some admin announcements and things, and then I was just: yeah, this one does not need to go onto this place, lol.

(The one thing I do have is a slightly alternate first section as I originally put in more details about the scuffle Catherine was involved in, and gave her a bruise & graze on her face, but worried in the end about unwanted bonus violence and tried out the version as posted & it was trimmer and flowed better, so that sorted that. But I did keep the other in another document & I could post that if you wanted to see it, although idk if you would really).

I’m FINALLY putting together a marriage of convenience AU myself, which also explores that possibility albeit from a very tropey and non-organic perspective.

Ooooh!! *eyes*

Out of curiosity, do you have any concrete ideas for the fic about them being married (I feel we don’t have much established relationship fic in the fandom, so anything would be very welcome!)?

I did have some, although idk if I wrote it down, but it's still in my head. I know I have Murder Plot notes. We shall have to see! I would definitely like to write a little more fanfic generally than I did last year, if it's possible.

[thisbluespirit]

*head!desk*

One of these days, I'll remember not to say that! XD

[persiflage_1]

You can try! 😜

[luthien]

*applause*

I don't know the fandom, but very well done for writing all those words!

[scifirenegade]

Well done!

(And a win for small fandoms!)

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thank you!

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, thank you!

And not to be annoying, but I think you'd likely really enjoy the film if it's available where you are. It's a very sharp, subtle character piece, an adaptation of the Rattigan play, with Nigel Hawthorne, Rebecca Pigeon, Jeremy Northam, Gemma Jones & Aden Gillett. Despite all the fic, not actually a romance, though! (Young Ronald Winslow is expelled for stealing from Osborne Naval college & when his father attempts to prove his innocence, he finds he's up against the Admiralty and the Crown and not even permitted a trial, so it centres around how the family deal with this, and the top Tory lawyer they later engage to take their case, Sir Robert Morton. The fic happens because there's such a great dynamic between Catherine Winslow, who is a political radical & feminist and Sir Robert, who she thinks is cold, avaricious, amoral & always opposing what's right.) It's just really lovely, anyway, both as a film and as a version of the play.)

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Catherine went in and had a word with people and snuck him in a side door, but her colleagues definitely had Comments, and he got to hear Catherine do some admin announcements and things

Haha, that’s such a fun alternative ending to the scene, even if it’s just an iddy version that lives in your head xD

But I did keep the other in another document & I could post that if you wanted to see it, although idk if you would really

I always enjoy more writing for this fandom so would be interested in seeing this if you ever feel minded to post it! (I think I’d be okay with reading about violence in this context - it’s violence as a result of war that’s the real trigger.)

I know I have Murder Plot notes. We shall have to see! I would definitely like to write a little more fanfic generally than I did last year, if it's possible.

Wishing you best of luck in your ficcing endeavours, both for TWB and elsewhere! <3 And I would be very eager to see a Murder Plot involving those two.

(Also I am still very enamoured with the implied backstory of “Slow Progress”, so I’ve also been pondering similarly angsty situations in which a romance between them doesn’t quite work out - perhaps I’ll write one of those down one day!)

[luthien]

That's a great cast! I will have to hunt it down.