I'm a looker-on at scenes of mayhem and violence in the Scottish Borders in the mid-ish fifteen hundreds. I have yet to understand who is who or on which side and why the hero(?) is so evil and has just tried to burn to death all his womenfolk.
All the characters quote Latin verse and play madrigals at the drop of a sporran.
It is making me feel totally undereducated. ;-)

Liz, are we meant to guess which book we are reading?

I am a young man in Williamsburg, VA in 1765, reading law and learning about government and politics while watching the House of Burgesses fight the Stamp Act that has been imposed on the colonists.

Vee - in past threads like this, we have guessed at titles if we knew them, but I don't think it's a requirement... If so, we're off to a rough start as I don't have any guesses or you or Frances' books right now! :-)

Your comment "at the drop of a sporran" made me LOL at work.... Loved it!

Mine's too easy -- a reread:

I'm in the living room of the house on Privet Drive listening to my red-faced uncle rant about me and "my kind" and looking forward to the day that I will leave this house for good.

I'm in an English seaside resort called Idensea in the 1890s. I'm a feisty young woman trying to make my own way in a man's world. (It's embarrassing to say that I have a foul mouth, not to mention my sex life.)

I'm in Roseburg, Oregon, having tracked down a man and his wife who are part of the federal witness protection program.

Mine is fairly easy too. I'm on the grassy plains near an ancient forest, surrounded by men on horseback who are on the verge of destroying my captors ( evil Orcs!).

I am in a gloomy Eastern European country, house-sitting for an old friend who has a bad case of OCD. I just got here yesterday but I am already wondering how I am going to pass the time til he returns.

The only one of these I know so far is Sarah Canary's, and which I think is the first Harry Potter book (Chamber of Secrets), although really that scene is played out in more than one book, if I recall correctly.

I'm intrigued by Carolyn_ky's book, but haven't any idea.

I myself am in Africa, where I live, having just returned from a disappointing reunion with my two younger sisters, who are twins, after a number of years apart.

Now, I'm in Yorkshire solving a murder that seems to be connected to Estonian slave labor being smuggled into England and an English girl who disappeared six years ago while on a "hen" weekend in Estonia with girlfriends.

Kathy T, my book was Typewriter Girl, the first of a new author with the pen name Alison Atlee. Elsewhere, I said that she is the niece of a good friend from school days. Amazon has the book, and it was offered in the March selections from the Literary Guild Book Club. I bought mine at her reading at a local bookstore, and it is a nice paperback. It's pretty much a romance with a feminist point of view, which I thought a little out of kilter for the 1890s.

18th century London--an "autobiography" of William Hogarth, the famed etcher.

Kathyt, , mine was from The Two Towers ( volume 2 of Lord of the Rings).

Husband and I are in Penzance, where he had been chief of police years ago. We are only here as tourists, but of course have been caught up in two deaths, some thirty years apart.

I am in the Belgian Congo with my parents and three sisters. My father has deliberately broken my mother's favorite serving plate, accusing her of wasting her devotion on things of this world.

Dedtired - That has got to be Barbara Kingsolver.

Socks12345 - Could you give us the name of your book?

************************************************************

I am in a hotel room in Dallas, being interviewed by an FBI agent. It's November, 1963. He is fuming, because, although he knows I'm telling the truth, he doesn't like what he's hearing.

I've left the Scottish borders (ie no longer reading the previous book) and now find myself in the Sudan of the 1890's taking part in the last(?) cavalry charge by the British Army against a huge force of 'mad' Dervishes. Luckily I have all the right connections, noble ancestors, friends in very high places and will go on, through my own merits, to be arguably the best-known politician of the twentieth century.

So sable, where were you on that day in Nov 1963?
I know MY politician lasted many years longer than yours. But which was the greater?

Yup -- Kingsolver.

Veer - Do you mean where was I personally? I was in the University of Chicago Hospital, being checked out for work for which I'd applied at the U of C. I was sitting in a large reception room, and the head receptionist was on the phone. She said, in a loud voice, "I always said I'd leave the country if Johnson became president." We all pricked up our ears and called out "What happened?" And that's how we found out. Later on I went home and stayed glued to the TV (black-and-white, of course) for three days. It was unreal - that generation's 9-11.

Is your politician Churchill? Of course he was greater; he was the greatest! The world was supplied with the right man at just about the lowest point in human history!

Many thanks sable. Yes it was Churchill and the book was My Early Life.
And as to where I was. In the UK we are five hours ahead of US time so I was watching early evening TV news when a 'flash' came up. In those days acts of random violence were far less common over here (not so now) and I think the general view, apart from the 'human' side of the tragedy, was the amazement that such a deed would be carried out in the most powerful democratic country in the world.

I was in Armenia during the Turkish purges, but my ticket expired and I had to leave before completing the journey (the library doesn't renew ebooks-but I have to admit that the story was DRAGGING anyway) then I spent some time on the 4th floor of a brownstone among 10,000 orchids and now I am revisiting the Bellona Club.

Ccrdmrbks, have you been having some problems that you needed to visit two detectives? LOL. Well if Nero Wolfe can't solve your problem then Lord Peter Wimsey is your man! (They are favorites of mine too.)

dedtired - We were at different moments in the same book.

I am in the Berry, in the village of Chassignolles, where I've been coming for frequent visits for about a dozen years. My husband and I, as well a our young son, have decided to take a house here. I have acquainted myself with my neighbours, living and dead."The cemetery is a friendly place...
A middle-aged woman told me she had worked out, on a recent stroll among defunct neighbours, that she was in some measure related to over half the population...
In a burst of confidence she suggested to me that I might consider getting buried in the cemetery myself, 'near me, then we could chat. That would help pass the time'"

Frieda, thanks for your helpful comments and putting things neatly in focus. I think the average 'Englishman' knows about as much on US history as an American does about 'ours'.
And as for 'revisions' Churchill certainly has had his own crop of nay-sayers and of course, over such a long career, he did make several political and military blunders. Over here, usually on the way to becoming Prime Minister, a politician will have been screened for any major 'weaknesses' and those unlikely to make the grade and with too many skeletons in their cupboards, will have been dumped by their party.
I don't know if those aspiring towards High Office have to plan to live a pure and stainless life from a very early age . . . but I'm sure it helps. :-)

"I think the average 'Englishman" knows about as much on US history as an American does about 'ours'." Not sure about that, Veer. Our history is relatively short, and in terms of the system of government, in a pretty straight line. Have you any idea how difficult it is for the average Yank to learn the twists and turns and lineages of the British monarchy? Oy! We are lucky if we know Richard-John-Richard-John (thanks to Ivanhoe, and the Magna Carta), then we leap forward to Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, then it is a blur until Victoria. DH and I are doing our best to learn more by viewing BBC productions. Very complicated.

***************************************************************
Finished the book mentioned above, now am here:

I am in Jerusalem, Israel, and am the Chief Superintendent of Police. I am struggling with two murders and with a score of suspects. At the same time I am thinking about my country's history and its present circumstances and am plagued with headaches. I need a good woman in my life!

Well, I am in London searching for a murderer and a holy relic in 1384 when one of those Richards was king. And I think I'm too high class to have fallen in love with a girl who has been a chambermaid.

sable, I do appreciate the difficulties with English history as there is so much of it, but once all the kings and queens have been mastered (something that is never taught now) they are useful hooks on which to hang events, eg Richard II equals the Peasant's Revolt, Henry V, Battle of Agincourt . . . and a good film with Laurence Olivier.
Have to be rather careful with plays, films, even Shakespeare and especially Hollywood who allow themselves much dramatic licence when dealing with historical events. I understand US historians are not too pleased with some of the new movie 'Lincoln' where the 'plot' has often got in the way of the 'truth'.

In bookland I am reminiscing about my youth some 40 years ago and pondering on how we remember, or think we remember certain happenings.
Now it is 40 years on and those thoughts/false memories from my young self are suddenly coming home to haunt me.