disclaimer: I may have used books I read last year or the year before that even..... One time on vacation: Gently By the Shore Alan Hunter Weekends at my house are: Malice Domestic Sara Woods My neighbour is: The Secret Adversary Agatha Christie My boss is: Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout My superhero secret identity is: Matriarch Anne Edwards You wouldn't like me when I'm angry because: He Shall Thunder in the Sky Elizabeth Peters I'd win a gold medal in: Original Sin P.D. James I'd pay good money for: A Deadly Brew Susanna Gregory If I were President, I would: have The Key Patricia Wentworth When I don't have good books, I am: The Blue Last Martha Grimes Loud talkers at the movie theater should be: Death in the Stocks Georgette Heyer

Kathy, I think in this context Dolly is/was homosexual slang for attractive or pretty. It was always 'understood' that the Royal Palaces employed many 'gay' servants, especially so in the late Queen Mother's household. Back-Stairs Billy was a well-known character there. There is a 'job description' Page of the Backstairs, but his name was used in a wider context, upon which I am not prepared to elaborate . . . this being a family site. William Talon aka Backstairs Billy

Last night I watched Selma (free rental on Amazon Prime and YouTube). We're discussing it in a Zoom class today and I'd left it till the last minute. I was totally unprepared for its impact. Some of it was difficult to watch but I needed to see this. I went through a lot of Kleenex.

Re Some Tame Gazelle. I lol’d numerous times throughout. I am a Pym fan. Here is a review of her writings. “The plots are not particularly where the pleasure resides in reading Pym’s work: it’s in the scrupulous examination of relationships, not just of burgeoning romances but also of the setbacks and personal mortifications we all experience in the real world, but which tend to be overlooked in fiction. It’s easy therefore to dismiss Pym’s novels as lightweight or prissy; this is a mistake. She has the psychological insight and ironic technique that’s reminiscent not just of Jane Austen, with whom she’s often compared, but also of that great anatomist of the female psyche, Flaubert. Her style and tone are quite different, of course, and her novels can be categorised as light comedies of manners. But this is to overlook the subtlety of her characterization and the richness of her portrayal of the unsung heroines of suburbia.” I will add the odd and also lol, wonderful Pulitzer Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy O’toole.