Thank you!

[anteros_lmc]

So did everyone have a good Christmas then? Hope you all ate too much and got spoiled rotten by Santa! Thank you so much for all the lovely cards, gifts and Christmas wishes. I have a whole shelf full of cards from fangirls here! :)


Santa also brought me lots of nautical goodies including Cordingly's Billy Ruffian, which I've wanted to read for ages; a book on Dominic Serres, father of J.T Serres and war artist to the Navy, 1719-1793 and an enormous tome called Seamanship in the Age of Sail: An account of shiphandling of the sailing man-of-war 1600 - 1860, based on contemporary sources. Three hundred pages of sailing instructions for the man-of-war with chapters on theoretical principals of ship handling; making and shortening sail at sea; tacking, wearing and boxhauling; lowering and hoisting boats; etc. etc. plus an index in several languages :) The book also includes loads of line drawn illustrations and contemporary plates, and best of all there are lists of commands included for each maneuver. So if you've always had a burning desire to know the exact sequence of commands for reefing topsails I can now tell you! Okay, I won't, but I could :D I should probably apologise in advance in case I become an insufferable know-it-all arm chair sailor. However I can assure you that if you actually put me anywhere near a real sailing ship I would no doubt do a fine imitation of Horatio being seasick at anchor at Spithead ;) Of course I will also now be able to have Horatio and Archie yelling no doubt inappropriate sailing commands at every available opportunity. See forthcoming fic ;) Oh, and talking of Horatio and Archie, esmerelda_t got me a book on English Furniture Styles 1500 - 1830 so next time the boys are on shore leave I can ensure they are in a historically accurate bed ;)

However I fear Navyboys will not be best pleased with me when they discover that I also got a pirate for Christmas from partner and daughter, "because mummy likes sailors".


They tried to get me a sailor but couldn't find one so they bought me a dinky little pirate instead complete with sword, sea chest, chart, quill, rum and the most precious little sextant. Isn't he cute?! Just don't tell the Admiral ;)

ETA Huge thanks also to mylodon for passing on her copy of Shifting Sands via nodbear and esmerelda_t. I watched it on Christmas Eve and it made me laugh and squee in equal measure. As a film it, erm, leaves a little to be desired but baby Bamber is positively adorable. Suffice to say that I went to bed on Christmas Eve with a very big smile on my face! Santa was very good to me indeed :)

Comments

[esteven]

Give you much joy of your Christmas and your gifts!

Is not Seamanship a great read? I love it, but I adore Cordingly's Billy Ruffian. I read it in one go, and IMHO it is only surpassed by Cordingly's Cochrane bio. I am sure I have already recommended that. You can tell I am a Cordingly fangirl.

How cute is your pirate!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Seamanship looks fabulous! I think I shall be spending many happy hours with it :) Everyone I know who has read Billy Ruffian has adored it so I'm looking forward to reading it myself. I really enjoyed the Cochrane biography, though I had to give Mr Cordingly a ticking off for spelling the name of my home town wrong ;)

How cute is your pirate!
Isn't he adorable?!

[esteven]

So the editing was sluggish. *shakes head and tsks*

I will be looking forward to hear your opinion of Billy Ruffian. Maybe you will not like it at all?

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Oh I'm sure I will enjoy it very much and I'll certainly let you know what I think of it when I read it :)

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

That's a very cute pirate!

I had a last minute panic over not having bought any Lego for Dad, but he seemed happy enough with his board game (reproduction of a pre-war game about car journeys).

I didn't get any research books specific to my current project, but Mum has promised to read Deborah Devonshire's latest (one of her presents) next, so I can borrow it as soon as possible.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Love your icon, lol!

I didn't get any research books specific to my current project
*nosey* What's your current research project then??

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

*nosey* What's your current research project then??

I like people being interested in what I'm up to! It's the life and times of a large Derbyshire estate from the late 1930s to the mid 1970s, although mostly the 70s for actual novel-writing purposes.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Ooh that sounds interesting! Am I allowed to ask the name of the estate?

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Much of my research is focussed on Chatsworth, because I know it well, but my fictional estate is a little further south, roughly where Carsington Water is in reality.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I've never been to Chatsworth but I've read the Mitford letters, what a strange life that family led.

my fictional estate is a little further south
You have your own fictional estate?! I'm impressed! :)

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

The Mitfords were an odd family indeed, although Deborah always comes across as remarkably down-to-earth, all things considered (she has chickens in her back garden! she caught my/her lambs when they escaped! etc).

I'm having so much fun figuring out how the fictional estate works: it's the seat of the Peveril family who for the purposes of my novel came back into favour, and gained the Dukedom of Derbyshire, but never got their castles back. They live in a strange, rambling house that was originally going to be the lodge of a much larger house, but got extended by succeeding generations instead. The village within the estate is Upper Pemberley, and the village just beyond the estate boundary is Lower Pemberley. The Lower Pemberley pub is the Derbyshire Arms and bears a slight resemblance to the Devonshire Arms where I did pub quizzes with the other casual labourers from the Chatsworth farms.

At some point I really need to find the really big sheets of paper I have for Young Persons to draw on and map it all out.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Didn't Pamela Mitford keep chickens too? :)

Your estate sounds wonderful! And there is the most tenuous of tenuous connections with the research nodbear and I are doing into the historical crew of HMS Indefatigable in 1797. One of the frigate's "young gentlemen" at the time was the Hon. George Cadogan. George had a chequered naval career but went on to become the 3rd Earl Cadogan having survived seven elder brothers. In later life George was acquainted with Sir Walter Scott who presented him with a Dandie Dinmont terrier called Fenella, named after one of the characters in his novel Peveril of the Peak. There, I told you it was a tenuous connection didn't I? ;)

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about Pamela yet, although I'm sure my research will throw up something about her eventually. I know from experience that Deborah is a dba hand at catching escaped lambs!

Thanks for the encouragement about the estate. I keep hoping I'm writing about it in a way that will make readers realise why my characters will do whatever it takes to hold onto it. I need to read Peveril of the Peak: maybe the library will have it.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Anyone who can round up lambs without the aid of a sheep dog gets my respect! I've done it and I know how hard it is.

I need to read Peveril of the Peak
Between you, me and the gatepost I'm not a big fan of Scott. I read him at uni and wasn't hugely impressed. Also his attitude to Highlanders is down right patronising, though I suppose that's to be expected.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

She had Jack Russells with her! Although I suspect the 'rounding up' actually consisted of spotting the two lambs squeezing through the barn gate (in my defense I was in the middle of fixing their pen at the time), and scooping them up before their feet hit the ground on the other side.

I now have a library copy of Peveril of the Peak as the online catalogue helpfully informed me that one of the County's copies was sitting on a shelf in the branch I had to walk past anyway.

Shall see how I get on with it.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I am definitely going to have fun with these books!

*whispers* with a little paint you can turn him into a little Major M´lord Edrington!
Rofl!! You? Nuts? No! Actually I have to confess I was just looking at him last night and thinking that if I got some black nail varnish I could paint over the skull and cross bones on his hat... How on earth did you get rid of his eye patch though?! I was also wondering if I could turn him into pirate!Archie, but he'd need leather trousers for that ;)

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

Clearly S and toots realise what we all know, that Horatio and Archie are straining to realise their inner pirate!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Horatio and Archie are straining to realise their inner pirate!

Indeed the are. I am very tempted to paint the little pirate's breeches back so he can be pirate!Archie in leather trousers ;)

[vespican.livejournal.com]

Someday I'll get my hands on SEAMANSHIP IN THE AGE OF SAIL. Meanwhile I've ended up with a copy of C. S. Forester's THE CAPTAIN FROM CONNECTICUT. If you are not familiar with it, it is rumored to be the only Naval Adventure story he wrote wherein the central character is American, rather than British. I read it several years ago, and it will be up soon on my TBR file. In the future I might also look for the other book with the same name. I don't recall the author, but it is a biography of Captain Isaac Hull, captain of USS Constitution in August 1812.

Dave

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I know The Captain from Conneticut by title only, I haven't read it. I'll look forward to hearing more about it.

Seamanship in the Age of Sail is an absolute goldmine! Just let me know if you want me to look anything up any time :) Btw I checked the index for "jackass" and apparently it was American parlance for conical canvas bags stuffed with oakum which were used to plug hawse holes.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed the film. Your opinion mirrors mine exactly.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it immensely and I was still smiling at three o'clock in the morning after daughter had got up for the umpteenth time asking if Santa had been yet ;)

[mylodon.livejournal.com]

Ah, I remember those days. Great when they get to the pointr they help you do the stockings (and yes, they still want them at nearly 20).

[venusinfurs90.livejournal.com]

Aww, your daughter does sound just utterly adorable. XD Also - ee! Shifting Sands!! I really want to see that ! :D Baby!Bamber sounds too lovely for words.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I can highly recommend Shifting Sands. The film itself will make you wince but Baby Bamber is adorable beyond belief :)