Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Upcoming Reprise

Monday, August 27th.
Blow Hot, Blow Cold
RDD described as a 'pin up boy', vanity plates, dog named Blot.

17 comments:

  1. Operation continues as smoke seeps in under theatre door; flames lick doorframe; chunks of ceiling begin to fall in. Purple pantsuit with fox-fur hat. Batman. Yay!

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  2. Is this one also called Visiting Consultant?

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    1. Originally published as Blow Hot, Blow Cold, and subsequently as Surgeon from Holland, Betty's approximately third published novel was finally titled Visiting Consultant. That's the name you'll find on the edition published as part of Harlequin's "Best of Betty Neels" series, with the pretty water-color of windmills on the cover.

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    2. Incidentally, am I the only one reminded of Agatha Christie's Sleeping Murder when looking at the Founding Bettys' cover of Surgeon from Holland? Sophy's gloved hands in this picture make sense of the sleepy toddler witness who thought of "monkey paws" when she saw a killer strangle his victim whilst wearing surgical gloves. At least to me.

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    3. Now that you you mention it, those do look like the 'monkey paws' from Sleeping Murder. Now I'm going to always think of that when I see that cover.

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    4. I'm so boring. They just looking like the odd sort of rubber gloves my first mother-in-law had for doing the dishes and the "rough."

      What's weird, though, is that this is the North American cover, commissioned by Harlequin back in the day. Perhaps they had those sorts of gloves in Canada in the seventies--? (Where's Betty Janet when we need her?)

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    5. You guys look at the gloves. All I see are those bright white sideburns. Just for Men haircolor would help.

      Betty AnoninTX

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    6. The cover in Australia was quite different to the Harlequin, the hero didn't look as old with white sideburns, but a lot of our covers were totally different to the ones I've seen on this site. Still the contents are the same and this was a good tale.

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    7. The white sideburns look like Chad Everett (Dr. Joe Gannon) on Medical Center.....
      Yikes, I'm dating myself!

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    8. I think we forget, here in 2012, what people looked like in 1969, when hair coloring was still somewhat daring for women and definitely shameful for men. Many people start coming in white in the 30s -- one friend did in his late 20s -- but at least in the professional class in the USA, most grab the dye bottle immediately. Max is 39, and Betty often describes her heroes as having some silver threads amongst the gold.

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    9. Silver threads. Actor Philipp(e) Brenninkmeyer comes to mind. His hair was grey with silver when I first saw him on television. Very handsome. He must have been in his late thirties at the time, perfect RDD age, so to speak. But he did not look old, if you see what I mean. Always thought he was German. Speaking German with a lovely, ever so slight English accent, but he is, in fact, a member of the Dutch Brenninkmeijer family which founded the clothing store chain C&A where quite a number of our heroines went shopping!!! Ha! He was born in Wimbledon, London in 1964 (one of the best years, right, B v S?).

      The Final Touch
      Now, hurrying towards the shops in the Kalverstraat and Leidsestraat, she decided that the time had come to buy something new and for once fashionable. She had saved for a rainy day and this seemed to be it. She chose a book and then turned her attention to the dress shops. They were all too expensive; C & A and Vroom and Dreesman would suit her pocket better. It was a pity that there wasn't time to buy anything before they closed but she studied their windows so that on her next free day she would have some idea of what she wanted ...
      (page 19)

      The Chain of Destiny

      Boutiques were out of the question; she roamed C & A and then de Bijenkorf—rather more pricey, but she liked the clothes there. The pretty dresses there were tempting, but she had to bear in mind that since she must keep in the background, ...

      An Apple from Eve
      ...
      I’m precicely the wife Tane wants, of course I understand the running of a large house and I'm a good hostess.' Her dark spiteful gaze rested for a moment on Euphemia's C & A cotton dress and the sun-hat, perched so carelessly. 'I know how to dress too.' Euphemia, aware of the look, ...

      The Fateful Bargain

      'Ten minutes,' he reminded her carefully. Emily fed Podge, washed her face and made it up rather sketchily, then tore into her only decent dress—navy blue needlecord, bought in a C & A sale. Her coat was navy blue too, almost as elderly as ...

      The Little Dragon

      'C & A were advertising,' said Constantia, 'it was in the paper yesterday...' 'I'll be home for lunch,' he told her as he got up to go. 'I'll speak to Rietje about the children before we go.' Den Haag looked very splendid in the bright, chilly sunshine. ...



      Incidentally, earlier this year, another member of the wealthy Brenninkmeijer family, Albert Brenninkmeijer, married Princess Carolina of Bourbon-Parma, Marchioness of Sala, a niece of Queen Beatrix.

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    10. Hey Hey HEY, let's watch the 1964 comments. As Mrs. Slocumbe of "Are you being served?" used to say,
      I was but a mere slip of a girl!

      B von S

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    11. Hey Hey HEY, of course you were - still are. That's my whole point. Still, if you cannot take a complement from one of your elders...
      ... meanwhile, I have done my homework for next week and re-re...re-read Visiting Consultant, and in vain did I look for white sideburns.

      He put his handsome head a little on one side—the street lamp's thin light turned his grey hair to silver—and said silkily, to madden her, 'My dear good madam, why should I wish to be familiar with you?

      'He must be quite old; has he got grey hair?' 'Yes,' said Sophy. 'It's brushed very smoothly back without a parting and he's got a very high forehead, but his eyebrows are as black as thunder clouds. His eyes are pale blue...'

      He cocked his head to one side, and the cold afternoon sun turned his hair to silver. 'You look thinner, and white and tired.' he obverved.

      There is a man vaguely resembling the man on the cover, hair wise:
      ... and he moved aside so that she could see another man with him. Almost the same height and almost as big, but somewhat younger, with black hair, beginning to silver at the edges and very bright blue eyes which twinkled delightfully. He had an astonishingly beaky nose, ...

      And that man is Coenraad van Essen.

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    12. Oops! Betty A. getting out her red pen
      compliment

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  3. Wow! The original UK cover is a full-on snog, and hero looks like he has highlights! Just saying.

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    1. You are right - and not just about the highlights! Goodness. Blow Hot, Blow Cold Mills & Boon

      I think I prefer the more boring covers.
      Visiting Consultant Mills & Boon Collector’s Edition
      Visiting Consultant Harlequin Mills & Boon

      The man on the "Surgeon from Holland" cover looks too old. Way too old, mid or late fifties?

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