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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Authors you would like to meet
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
Both dead, alas, but:
1. Wilkie Collins, younger contemporary and friend of Dickens. Collins invented wonderful devices for murdering his characters, and actually built at least one...to see if it would work ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Goodness! Where, when? Details!
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Ah....my apologies.....I've given incorrect information, having failed to check my sources beforehand.
In his labyrinthine and mysterious melodrama Armadale, Collins does indeed have one of the characters attempt to murder another by introducing poison gas into a sealed bedroom.
The author and a friend saw something similar attempted on a dog 'for the edification of tourists' whilst on a visit to the Grotto di Cane near Naples in 1853. Collins recorded in a letter to his brother that he had, out of compassion, had the experiment cut short before the dog died.
William Wilkie Collins (1834-1897) is best known for The Moonstone and The Woman in White , but wrote numerous other novels, some of which are easier to read than others. Well worth the attempt, though, IMNSHO.
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Sorry to double-post...Wilkie Collins' dates are 1824-1889, not as I quoted above.
Another of his novels - Jezebel's Daughter - also includes murder by poison (potions rather than gas).
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
I have Armadale on my Ipad, also Salummbo by Gustave Flaubert, but haven't had time to read either.
Assuming one could get past the language/cultural barriers, I would love to talk to John (of Revelations). That's a man with one crazy imagination.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
I think you might need to eat magic mushrooms (or something) to converse with St. John!
Another author I'd like to have met is H. P. Lovecraft (IIRC someone else mentioned him upthread). Quite why I seem to like authors who dispose of their victims in rather ghastly and eldritch (a good Lovecraftian word) ways, I know not...
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
It is a mistake to know too much about authors; Lovecraft was like many of his period an anti-Semite. Many writers are very unsatisfactory people in real life.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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Albertus
Shipmate
# 13356
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Posted
Of course, because you'd like to meet someone doesn't necessarily mean you think you'd like them as a person. I'd have been very interested to meet Hitler and Stalin (both of whom I suppose do count as authors of a kind), but probably just the once would be enough. Also, though not a comparable person, Barbara Cartland, simply because I heard her being interviewed on the radio and she came across as so gloriously and battily and self-confidently larger than life.
[ 18. October 2016, 15:21: Message edited by: Albertus ]
Posts: 6498 | From: Y Sowth | Registered: Jan 2008
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
Or Philip of Macedon. They excavated his party service in Greece, and he seems to have been quite the kegger.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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andras
Shipmate
# 2065
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Posted
Robertson Davies for starters; he taught me to write (not literally, but what a wonderful exemplar he was). Read The Manticore if you don't know how good he is!
Then Ursula le Guin, Plum, Trollope, Swift, Virgil, and the unknown author of Gawain. Should be quite a bash!
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God's on holiday.
(Why borrow a cat?)
Adrian Plass
Posts: 544 | From: Tregaron | Registered: Dec 2001
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
H.G Wells, George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. That would be my dinner party.
I would expect some arguments.
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take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Brenda, HPL was indeed a racist of his time. So too were Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers - I daresay there are/were many others.
I think I'd enjoy discussing the Great Old Ones with HPL over dinner, though!
Ian J.
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
You can meet Le Guin any time -- she lives in Oregon, although she is pretty frail now. Yet another of those writers who should live forever.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
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Sandemaniac
Shipmate
# 12829
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Posted
I'd quite fancy getting Gildas to the table, if only to ask him why the hell he didn't get any real history in,instead of just having a rant.
AG
[ 18. October 2016, 19:03: Message edited by: Sandemaniac ]
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"It becomes soon pleasantly apparent that change-ringing is by no means merely an excuse for beer" Charles Dickens gets it wrong, 1869
Posts: 3574 | From: The wardrobe of my soul | Registered: Jul 2007
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
Stephen Leacock. But they'd better not serve soup at this dinner party, or there'd be way too much spluttering!
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Joshua Slocum would have some amazing tales to tell.
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
I'm told Alan Garner tends to hide from visitors when his house is open to the public, but if you could get him to a dinner table I bet he'd be a fascinating guest.
And while I'm thinking of children's authors, I'd like to have Rosemary Sutcliff, Henry Treece and Geoffrey Trease at the same table to compare notes on children's historical fiction! Geoffrey Trease used to live in Malvern and was reputed to be quite a gentleman - and I once met a man who knew Henry Treece, who told me that he had been diagnosed with a weak heart - so he'd given up his job, packed his family into an old car, and careered around Europe for a year!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
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Teekeey Misha
Shipmate
# 18604
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Posted
Who would I invite to my dinner party of the vanities?
- George Orwell and Josef Conrad are the authors of my three favourite books, so they're a must.
- Dornford Yates, because I own all his works (almost each of them in first edition, because I am that sad person about whom you've heard.)
- Dorothy L. Sayers, because I do like a good murder mystery and DLS is Agatha Christie with brains.
- Graham Greene (or anyone who's written decent spy stories/thrillers - except Dan Brown and Ian Fleming, neither of whom the butler at Misha Dvorets would allow over the threshold.)
- Anthony Hope, because one day I will be offered the throne of a Balkan kingdom.
- Someone classical but I'd limit myself to one and I can't decide if I'd prefer Tacitus, Livy or Seutonius. (I think Pliny would be a bit of a bore/boor.)
- Anthony Flew, just because.
- Dostoyevsky, because I'd like a bit of Russian input.
- Some latter day historian - Mary Beard is, sadly, out because I've already done classicals and I wouldn't want her hogging my other classical guest, so any of the other decent modern historians who isn't David Starkey (whom I'm sure I'd have to kill before the soup was cleared.) Maybe that Diarmaid MacCulloch because I enjoyed his "Cranmer" and he's good on the telly.
I can only fit nine other people round the dining table. Now, if it were to be a garden party, I could invite dozens of authors I'd love to meet; I might want to meet some of them only fleetingly, perhaps just long enough to say "That book stank - what were you thinking..?" but there are others I'd lock in the library and keep here to talk to ad saecula saeculorum.
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Misha
Don't assume I don't care; sometimes I just can't be bothered to put you right.
Posts: 296 | From: UK | Registered: Jun 2016
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
I met the children's poet Wes Magee - he asked me out!!
In fact he invited me to his cottage stay with him. I acted ignorant and gently put him off!
![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
I met Geoffrey Trease; he came to my school to talk about his books and I suspect I got to show him around, because I remember talking to him individually and finding it awkward because I hadn't read any of his books.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
I've no idea what the mix would be like, but Jane Austen, if we could get her to unbutton, J.K.Rowling, Jane Duncan (Scottish author of adult and children's fiction) and a now probably forgotten writer of children's fantasy/historical fiction, Marjorie Phillips. Also Ursula Le Guin.
The common factor for me is their humanity, which shines through their writing, and the affection they show for their characters.
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Apropos of nothing much: in Czech they add the female suffix to foreign names. So there she's J K Rowlingova.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
Thanks Firenze - it gave me a giggle,
Another one wanting to meet Ursula Le Guin. I'd also like to meet Sophie Hannah to ask her to stop writing crap stories about Poirot and go back to writing her own brilliant murders.
Does anyone else loathe and detest "sequels" of favourite authors written by other people?
Huia
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Huia:
Does anyone else loathe and detest "sequels" of favourite authors written by other people?
YES!!!
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Welease Woderwick
Sister Incubus Nightmare
# 10424
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Posted
Me too.
I love Eoin Colfer but his Douglas Adams spin-off leaves me cold.
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I give thanks for unknown blessings already on their way.
Fancy a break in South India?
Accessible Homestay Guesthouse in Central Kerala, contact me for details
What part of Matt. 7:1 don't you understand?
Posts: 48139 | From: 1st on the right, straight on 'til morning | Registered: Sep 2005
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
On the other hand, the Gill Paton Walsh Whimsey continuations are very good. She has managed to bring them up to post WW2 and a second generation with a good deal of panache. But I'll be sorry when the Dowager Duchess pops it.
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Nevertheless, they are All Wrong. There's an underlying modernity about their attitudes that makes me feel they are not really an aristocrat with an Edwardian childhood and a middle class 1930s bluestocking, but a couple of Guardian-reading sociologists in disguise.
I see there are also continuations of the Campion canon. Half a page was enough to convince me those were massively cloth-eared.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
But the Whimsey continuations feature people who have been through two world wars and both travelled extensively, and are, if children of their time, aware that times are changing. Harriet was, after all, in with the 'artistic' crowd as well as the academic one, and Peter was blown up in WW1 and experienced hunger, cold and extreme danger in WW2. There is also a good deal of discussion about the old, indulged,leisured life which is acknowledged to be a thing of the past.
One of the threads running through the continuations is the adaptation Harriet makes, first to combining work and wealth, and then to the demands of wartime conditions, followed by the post war changes. There is an ongoing comparison of the old states of things with the new.
If Harriet seems to have a sociological stance on some subjects, it's worth bearing in mind that she has known real poverty -arranging meals on fourpence a day, as she comments in The Attenbury Emeralds. And Peter would not be the only well-born chap who was uncomfortable with the idea of inherited privilege.
Heavens, I can feel an essay coming on. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Those Jill Paton Walsh continuations of the Wimsey genre are still all wrong. (I have/had relatives who went through all that and the whole thing jars. My grandfather was blown up in WW1 and came back a Colonel.)
She's another one I wish would go back to writing more Imogen Quy books - her own detective heroine.
Can we want to meet people to persuade them not to continue writing poor imitations?
[ 01. November 2016, 18:57: Message edited by: Curiosity killed ... ]
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Apropos of nothing much: in Czech they add the female suffix to foreign names. So there she's J K Rowlingova.
Quotes file!
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
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Tubbs
Miss Congeniality
# 440
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Nevertheless, they are All Wrong. There's an underlying modernity about their attitudes that makes me feel they are not really an aristocrat with an Edwardian childhood and a middle class 1930s bluestocking, but a couple of Guardian-reading sociologists in disguise.
I see there are also continuations of the Campion canon. Half a page was enough to convince me those were massively cloth-eared.
I think that’s the problem. (I read way too much Golden Age Crime fiction. Yay for reissues!)
Paton Walsh does an excellent job, there are a few things that jar with the attitudes expressed in the Sayers books and the cultural commentary is off. However good the historical research and however familiar you are with the characters, you wear your own set of cultural blinkers. And Paton Walsh’s aren’t the same as Sayers.
However, if you treat the books as standalones with a new set of characters, they are really good. I haven’t bothered with other redo’s though.
The fact that Paton Walsh’s own work is difficult to get is really annoying. Paton Walsh seems rather sniffy about her children’s books, but I really liked them. I’d love an e-book version of Parcel of Patterns. My old copy got lost several house moves ago.
Tubbs
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"It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it up and remove all doubt" - Dennis Thatcher. My blog. Decide for yourself which I am
Posts: 12701 | From: Someplace strange | Registered: Jun 2001
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