David Vis

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David Vis is currently reading

A Blindefellows Chronicle

by Auriel Roe (Goodreads Author)

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Reading for the 3rd time

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David Vis said: " I really liked Blindefellows — a generous serving of Olde Engeland, a complete carvery mounted with pneumatic Yorkshire pudding and salty brown gravy.

I’m fond of Wodehouse and Waugh and MacDonald Fraser, so this was a natural fit. Some of the stories I really liked Blindefellows — a generous serving of Olde Engeland, a complete carvery mounted with pneumatic Yorkshire pudding and salty brown gravy.

I’m fond of Wodehouse and Waugh and MacDonald Fraser, so this was a natural fit. Some of the stories reminded me of my mercifully brief stint at an English public school, without the caning and humiliation. I laughed out loud at the oozing duck juices; the skull design resembling a happy hamburger; the mouth hanging open like a chicken with the grapes; Matron Marion’s effect on men’s brains; the “garibaldi line” at Watkins Biscuits — which lands with such a thump it makes me laugh even now; the scourge that is the excrement of the domestic dust mite (and it’s metropolis); the amusing names of people and cheeses; the vivid characters, and what characters; “I’ve just trumped and followed through” — fabulous.

I know about the Wild Weasel and de Havilland Vampire, the ticking, the counterpane, the periwigs, the government cheddar, so it felt like familiar territory. I was half expecting to see a reference to Brooke Bond tea cards. But I also learned quite a bit, which is always a pleasure. Monkwood… who knew? Wade Whimsies… so that’s what those little figurines are called. Shagreen!

The allusions are many and varied, the vocabulary expansive. The stories have a range and scope that vaults from high comedy to darker fascist references; a mix of tickles and stings — Fraulein von Ravensbruck, a concentration camp, mentioned in the same line as Oswald Mosley, a plank-to-the-head moment. I find so much of modern fiction to be limited and claustrophobic. Not Roe's.

Favourite stories: The seizing of the library with the supporting flock of sheep; the creamery; the Turkish student who ends up teaching the teacher; Matron Marion and her sexual vortex; the French holiday. There are poignant moments too, like when the eternally likeable teacher Japes starts loosing his japes to dementia, or the aging, ever-so-correct Sedgewick getting steamrollered by his infatuation with the buxom Hungarian.

Call me a fan. Audio book version needed. On to Roe's second tome: Let the Swine go Forth. ...more "

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— Sep 09, 2020 04:48AM

Sep 09, 2020 04:49AM · see review