Christmas Pudding

I really want to share a few funny quotes from a book I read recently!

Here's Goodreads' summary:

An outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease may have terminated the hunting at the Compton Bobbins' in the Cotswolds, but it has not dampened the Yuletide spirit of the Bright Young Things who find themselves among the oddly assorted guests of the not-so young and quite formidable Lady Maria Bobbin. Hilarious misadventures abound as Lady Bobbin's serenely beautiful daughter, Philadelphia, meets the advances of the very eligible, and equally dull, Lord Lewis and of the charming but penniless Paul Fotheringay, whose terribly serious first novel has, to his dismay, just been hailed by critics as the funniest book of the year. With signature wit and gentle mockery, not to mention her acid malice for the second-rate, Nancy Mitford romps rippingly through the wold and the life of the county set in the cozy English 1930s.

 And my review:

Christmas Pudding by Nancy Mitford
 4 stars

 A clever satire; extremely ridiculous yet very good fun.
Here are a few funny quotes to give a sense of the style (I just love the last one!)

‘Were they, now?’ said Paul with interest. ‘And how are they? Happy?’
‘Wretched, I believe. Did they expect anything else? What a silly marriage that was, to be sure.’
‘Oh dear,’ said Paul gloomily, ‘it really is rather disillusioning. When one's friends marry for money they are wretched, when they marry for love it is worse. What is the proper thing to marry for, I should like to know?”

‘You are a wordily little beast, Bobby,’ said Paul gloomily, but without rancour.
‘Yes, aren’t I? It does pay so much better to be.

‘...Father’s sisters all married well, as it happens, which leaves me quite nicely connected.’
‘You’re a damned little snob.’
‘I know; I glory in it.’

'Surviving a relationship with a writer'

A funny list I saw on Writers Write:

It all Makes Sense Now

Every now and then when I'm reading a book, I come across something that I understand the gist of but all the same, don't fully understand or know.  Sometimes, I look it up and find out. More often than not though, I'm enjoying reading so much that I just don't bother.

Weeks or months later, I tend to come across those little pieces of information and suddenly everything falls into place.

In this case, I was reading some of the Brother Cadfael books. Although I knew when Matins, Vespers and Compline were, I certainly didn't remember (if I ever knew) the rest of the monastic hours. So here they are:

 Midnight:      Matins
3am:            Lauds
6am:         Prime
9am:       Terce
Noon:       Sext
3pm:        None
Sunset:        Vespers
Nightfall:           Compline

You never know when it might come it useful.

An Idea!

For the last few months, I've been doing a lot of descriptive writing. At the same time though, I've been thinking of ideas for a book.
So far, I've rejected everything I've come up with but today I had a brainwave!
I'm going to write an epistolary novel! :)
At the moment, I'm in the midst of planning my characters and settings but I'm really looking forward to getting started!

Which Austen Heroine are you?

Today, I was thinking about re-reading one of Jane's books and I found this quiz.

 I was a bit surprised but definitely pleased! Elizabeth is one of my favourite characters and she's also the one I relate to most.
Actually, I've done some other quizzes a few years ago. I always seem to get either Elizabeth or Marianne (in that order) so I don't know why I was surprised...
Remembering that makes me think about the similarities and differences between the two heroines and I think I may do a post about that sometime.