My favorite bit of Dorothy Sayers is the begining of Busman's Honeymoon, in which the reader gets to meet Lord Peter Wimsey's mother through her (warm, witty, slightly cracked, but incredibly sane) letter writing.*
So today there I was at the library booksale, and it being a beautiful June day, there were few customers (worst booksale ever) and I was mildly disheartened.**
But then I went and visited Sounis, where I found this link to letters writen by Sayers from various characters to each other (including a gem from Lord Peter's mother) that had been published in The Spectator in the early years of WW II.
Happy!
*Because of something Lord Peter's mother said about how nice it was that Harriet gave her and Peter time alone together, I did the same the first time we visited my soon to be mother-in-law in England and she thought I was being unfriendly. SIGH.
**though pleased to take back into the fold some unsold books that I had donated to the sale even though I didn't want to so as to increase the number of books at Friends Preview night (as explained here)
I love, love, love Lord Peter ;) Love all of Sayer's characters, but, I've always loved Lord Peter's mother too!!!
ReplyDeleteOh, that part of the book is indeed very lovely. I remember that. It's excessively lovely. No wonder Peter's fond of his mother. When she's so lovely! I love it when she says something about Peter and Harriet "kissing madly in a punt, poor things". Hahahhaha. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI love Lord Peter's mom too. She is all the things you said and needs to be as she is Peter's mom. Can you imagine having him for a child????
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting the information about the Wimsey Papers -- I've wanted to read these for years!
ReplyDeleteLiz
these are AWESOME!! I am going to read them a little at a time to savor the pleasure. Thanks so much for finding them!
ReplyDeleteI am sorry your booksale didn't go as well as you might have liked, but nice to have found the Dowager's letters, isn't it. Did you know that they were made a part of the novel that A Presumption of Death by Jill Paton Walsh. I haven't read it yet, so I can't say anything about it. I did read the letters.
ReplyDeleteI too an a big fan of Peter's mother.
I have not read ANY Dorothy Sayers (I know), but just last week I checked out The Documents in the Case, which came up somewhere (?). Should I start there or with another one??
ReplyDeleteNooooo, don't start with that one! The first is Whose Body?
ReplyDelete