Beyond the Roundels

What I've just finished reading

Tracing Your West Country Ancestors by Kirsty Gray, which was pretty much what you would expect, but useful/interesting enough from my point of view, although I am still eyeing it askance for failing to mention the Monmouth Rebellion even once. (This is not quite as bad as adaptations of Lorna Doone that skip the Battle of Sedgemoor or film it in a hilly Welsh wood*, but I am judging the lack, as you can guess.)

I also read Whip Hand by Dick Francis, which was really interesting because it's both a book in a series by the original author and sort of pro-fanfic for the TV series The Racing Game. This happened because Yorkshire TV turned Odds Against, Dick Francis's first book about Sid Halley, a jockey who injures his hand and turns to being private investigating, into a 6 part series (1 part adaptation, five parts new adventures), but the twist is that Francis really liked it and the star Mike Gwilym and was inspired to write more about Sid - the result being Whip Hand. Having now read the other three books, I was intrigued to read this (which is even dedicated to Mike Gwilym and the producer of the show). It really does try to mesh the TV continuity into the original and he keeps the casting not only for Mike Gwilym as Sid, but clearly for Mick Ford as Chico and James Maxwell as Charles Roland (so you see where I fit into this equation). (I had no idea till I read Odds Against shortly before this that there was any fundamental difference, because of the way that he actually made the two fit as closely as possible retrospectively. The books have an extra injury! I suppose this shouldn't even be surprising...)

Anyway, I liked this one the most, probably not unrelated to its being the most TV-influenced, and also because it had the most Sid & Charles, and they have a really great relationship, which comes to a point here. (Charles is Sid's father-in-law, a retired admiral with a posh house and they initially hated each other, but later became such good friends that their relationship outlived Sid's marriage to Charles's daughter. Sid's narration says things about how Charles is the most important person in the world to him, but of course they never say things like that to each other. But he tells Charles, when he turns up in trouble in this one, that he came home and they both know what they mean. <3<3<3)

(The last one Under Orders isn't as good but it does have a priceless bit where Sid introduces his new fiancee to Charles and then gets jealous because Charles non-seriously flirts with her as Charles is HIS ALONE.)


I also read another Daisy, Sheer Folly, which is a later entry into the series, but an enjoyable one - a unique restored grotto that Daisy is writing an article about gets blown up with somebody inside it. Could it be murder? Of course it could. Alec is annoyed again, because he was coming down to join Daisy for a couple of days off and instead when he arrives he has to dig a body out of an a lot of rubble underground and unofficially assist a murder investigation. It's hard being married to a murder-magnet, although a DCI of Scotland Yard is the best candidate for it, really. (Luckily, she's cute.)


What I'm reading now

I am still reading The Surgeon's Mate, and in my family history note-taking, I have started We Danced All Night: Britain Between the Wars by Martin Pugh, which is proving to be both highly relevant and readable so far.


What I'm reading next

Well, I do have another Daisy out from the library...


* Sedgemoor is situated in the middle of the Wetlands in the Somerset Levels, so you know, there could be a clue as to the landscape in that fact.

I have been a bit AWOL, but for reasons and also now I have a vid! And, all right, so it is a vid of James Maxwell, BUT it is totally a vid containing cute children and animals, paper aeroplanes, stuffed toys, random barometers, wilful destruction of property, Emma Peel kicking ass, vampires, tea and coffee drinking, two Henry VIIs, rocks, Nazis, space ships, and an actual kitchen sink. Also epic hand-holding (but not anything like as much as there could have been).

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And, at some point, I will catch up with other stuff a bit. (♥)