It takes Eliza three days to travel from London to outside Ullapool. According to Google Maps, it should take Eliza about 11 hours. I can see that taking maybe a day and a half (although, if it was me, I'd do it in one). All I can figure is that she must stop for tea every 15 minutes...and then stops for a trip to the loo 15 minutes later. Plus breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, tea, dinner...If it was me, I'd only take two stops - fill up with petrol, grab a bite to eat and use the loo.In hiring a housekeeper and seeing Eliza help out, Christian makes a nasty comment about keeping a dog and barking yourself. Betty used this phrase in at least one other book...the heroine is a secretarial type - the doctor sends her home and attempts to do some typing on his own - of the 'hunt and peck' variety. I haven't got time to look it up right now - does anyone remember which book?
The lodge is in a deplorable state. Someone wrote 'Dust me' on the mirror...this is the indoor equivalent of 'wash me' written on a dirty car. Not really helpful except as a way to point out precisely how dirty something is - be it car or mirror.
The whole Why Did You Hike Up the Mountain Alone You Barking Idiot? episode is really what ruins the book for me...and to make it worse, immediately afterwards Eliza gets girly about him calling her young-looking. This is so icky/weird. Well nigh unforgivable.
I have a problem with the kissing double standard. I can sort of excuse Christian kissing Eliza once - heat of the moment/caught unaware/accidentally... but come on man, get a grip - you're engaged! Christian doesn't break off his engagement until he catches Estelle swapping spit with another guy.
La Neels came u
p with the title of this book from a quote used near the end. However, when I googled the quote "When a man finds his way, heaven is gentle", all that I came up with was a line from the tv series Kung Fu. I'm pretty sure that's not the original source, but it does have a bit of a fortune cookie air to it, so perhaps it's from Confucius? Anyone?
The lodge is in a deplorable state. Someone wrote 'Dust me' on the mirror...this is the indoor equivalent of 'wash me' written on a dirty car. Not really helpful except as a way to point out precisely how dirty something is - be it car or mirror.
The whole Why Did You Hike Up the Mountain Alone You Barking Idiot? episode is really what ruins the book for me...and to make it worse, immediately afterwards Eliza gets girly about him calling her young-looking. This is so icky/weird. Well nigh unforgivable.
I have a problem with the kissing double standard. I can sort of excuse Christian kissing Eliza once - heat of the moment/caught unaware/accidentally... but come on man, get a grip - you're engaged! Christian doesn't break off his engagement until he catches Estelle swapping spit with another guy.
La Neels came u
p with the title of this book from a quote used near the end. However, when I googled the quote "When a man finds his way, heaven is gentle", all that I came up with was a line from the tv series Kung Fu. I'm pretty sure that's not the original source, but it does have a bit of a fortune cookie air to it, so perhaps it's from Confucius? Anyone? 
"Two Weeks to Remember"--Typist Charity Graham tells hopeless typist but decent medical consultant Professor Jake Wyllie-Lyon,"You don't keep a dog and bark yourself."
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that Eliza and Christian, along with implied conjugal relations result Baby Chris, show up in "Philomena's Miracle." (Improbably, she stills appears "fairy-like" after child-bearing in her thirties.)
ReplyDeleteWhat? The Great Betty didn't doom them with twins? That's her usual prescription for late 20s married gals.
ReplyDeleteAh, the roads in Scotland are narrow and steep in places with lower speed limits especially through towns. It took us a lot longer to travel than we thought, fortunately we had planned in lots of time to sight see and rest.
ReplyDeleteI looked it up and the episode it was in was spring of 1973--the book is 1974. Could it be that Our Beloved Betty was a "Kung Fu" groupie? I feel slow-motion violence and a flashback coming on.
ReplyDeleteBeware future Cinema Betty recommendations...
ReplyDeleteAlso, "Never Say Goodbye" - Isobel to Dr. Winter: "She smiled a little and her eyes twinkled. 'It's no good keeping a dog and barking yourself, you know'."
ReplyDeleteLove Betty, was looking for author of the as well
ReplyDeleteI find these men who keep it a surprise for their lady loves till the very end, a HUGE turn off. Why can't they let her know they like her, when they've known it quite some time, if they've got gleams in their eyes when they are looking at her?
ReplyDeleteIn general, I agree with you: why be nasty? But this did have a surprisingly strong beginning, with entertaining dialogue and nice interaction between the leads. His later nasty comments could be attributed to feeling trapped in his engagement. The end was a nice long scene. (Have any of the old posts examined in depth Mrs. Neels' use of the PDA to simultaneously establish and break up relationships?)
ReplyDeleteMy question on this one is, why is Estelle even at his house during that study? Is any explanation even offered? She's not a nurse or anything. Is it somehow considered normal to be hanging around one's fiance's house like that? (Ok, lots of chaperonage, and one's mansion is not, heaven forbid, Brighton, but still...). It made no sense, other than to allow that plot line to be tidied up.
B. Baersma