Norah Lofts Message Board
Barbara posts on 1/25/2009 9:11:01 PM
Hi Mary , Karen, nice to be back. I do like Goodreads but will always come back to Allreaders for serious in depth NL stuff!!. I can't remember an earlier Fennel ref than in Merravey either. It'd be lovely if Madselin had one in the 11th C, but that's my wishful thinking.
(New para- when WILL this board's creator let us write properly !!)
Do you think the young widow in the Old Priory might not have been the would-be poisoner? It could have been old Marie, doing it off her own bat. Our chestnut haired hero hoped so anyway.
(New Para)
I liked your explanation for your granddaughter too Rita, addressed the core issue nicely, without the hard parts! Did you make her a princess out of habit? They are so obsessed with princesses ( and fairies ) at that and younger ages aren't they? For the baby-boomer amongst us -were we? I can't remember being so , it was more your Grace Darling and such like. And then when I discovered Angela Brazil and school stories I was transported to the world of the Upper Fourth and its heroines, as far removed from my working class school actuality as a princess would be.
Karen posts on 1/25/2009 3:47:04 AM
Mary, the first mention I remember of the Fennels is from Bless This House, when Alice remembers her friend, the little boy shepherd, who is sent to bring back Fennel sheep from Ockley. When the sheep are lost, he is blamed and hangs himself. Is there an earlier mention? Of course there are a number of references to them during the Civil War in several books.
Mary posts on 1/22/2009 10:58:09 PM
Rita, Kylie will probably laugh when she reads The Old Priory and discovers the real situation! However, she may be very disappointed to read that the 'princess' then tried to poison her sailor! {New patragraph] Speaking of The Old Priory, I was a little puzzled when I read it, because it had seemed to me that the Fennels had ALWAYS lived there! As I think about it, however, I can't remember any mention of their being there earlier than the Debvorah Fulger episode of Bless This House. Can anyone add more here? [New paragraph] I LIKED the Gad's Hall books! Altough they weren't up to seme of her earlier ones and left some loose ends, I remember being so glued to one of them that I actually tried to take it with me when I went running! But those loose ends still tantalize me. Are we supposed to infer that the narrator of the outer/contemporary narrative (Jill?) is descended from Deb? I remember that a woman Jill meets soon after her azrrival in the area says that she's Di's great-grand-daughter (or another 'great'?) and that there's still a 'Dr. Taylor,' clearly Caro's descendant, in the community. So shouldn't there also be a descendant of Deb in the picture? Another loose end is the feelings between Jill and George Thorley. Did they go on loving each other from afar and being satisfied with gifts like potatoes, or did the exorcism also exorcise those feelings? I refuse to believe that they ever had an affair! Finally (and theis si less of a loose end than a plain oversight on the author's part, I think), George's wife is called Kitty in one book and Doris in the other. Any explanation? [New paragraph] Barbara, I definitely like her novels with totally contemporary settings much less than her historical ones. Still, there are chord-touching little moments even in those. I remember the feelings of the policeman in The Claw when he comes to arrest (can't remember the characters' names) and sees the little girl "putting a doll bonnet on a resigned looking dachshund." Then there's the curious fact that, until the character shifts from rape to murder, his crimes have an increasingly POSITIVE effect--his first victim is shattered,maybe for life; his second, a lesbian, philosphically shrugs it off as a learning experience (so that's what it's like for straight people); and the third, Lolah, who had been unable to become pregnant, now does and is delighted. But I rather wish NL had stuck to the past!
Rita posts on 1/22/2009 6:16:32 PM
My 7 year old great grand daughter Kylie has just discovered the joys of reading and is a real book addict. She wanted to know about the book I was currently reading or rather rereading. In respect of her tender years and understanding, I told her it was about a princess who wanted a pretty red haired baby. And one day she saw a handsome red haired sailor and she remembered that babies often look like their fathers,as Kylie does.
And guess what. She fell in love with the sailor but he had to go far away.
She asked if I would give her these books when I die, because she wants to read that story. I think she just began to see that people leave behind their possessions when they die, so I said I would do that.
I just wonder, will she remember how Granny glossed over the plot of The Old Priory if and when she gets this book from me!
Barbara posts on 1/22/2009 5:19:35 PM
Goodreads readers , sorry, this is a redundant comment ... I have just recieved Women in the Old Testament. Now I want to spend the day with it ,and of course I can't. There are two dogs looking at me pleading with me not to get involved before their morning walk. There is a cat whose thyroid condition ( and senility) means she thinks she wants feeding every two hours . And in any case I am spending the day with my sister...By the time I get back tonight, I dont feel I can decently tell Michael to stop talking to me , I want to read. Goodness, the trials of a NL addict........
Cassie posts on 1/22/2009 2:40:48 PM
I liked Gad's and can't wait to read "Haunting". I guess we all have our favorites. I've read a tad bit of "Haunting" and it seems to go on where Gad's left off so you may not like it either...
BarbaraH posts on 1/21/2009 8:38:20 PM
Hi All.
I agree Karen, I didn't really like it much either. My least of all favourite is The Claw, in which I think NL had lost her delicate touch altogether. I have never re-read it and prefer not to think of it as hers at all.
Karen posts on 1/21/2009 1:40:43 PM
I have to say, I did not like 'Gad's Hall,' and have not read 'The Haunting of Gad's Hall.' What do you think about it?
Cassie posts on 1/17/2009 10:08:58 AM
According to Wikipedia, it's the same book.
Gabi posts on 1/16/2009 12:46:43 AM
I've been over at Goodreads and other sites for a while. We're reading the 'Haunting Of Gads Hall'. I got it from the library a long time ago but it's no longer there.
What is there, is one called 'The Haunted House'. I haven't seen this before. Can someone tell me if it is another name for 'The Haunting of Gad's Hall'?'
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