Deborah

She certainly said that the paranormal was a common belief for the people of those periods, but I haven't come across any instances of her saying she believed in them. I'd be rather surprised to find she believed in astrology as it wouldn't fit with the sort of mind she had. Telepathy maybe.

#Dunnettcontent
Latest WG issue quoted a comparison between Dunnett and Dumas that made me grin, because I discovered Dunnett soon after I got my adult library card, by wondering what the other big hardbacks were on the shelf next to Dumas ⚔️📚

@maryb2004.bsky.social
#dunnettcontent
Per our earlier conversation, I submit that the only real Lymond’s-eye-passage we get is when he realizes that it’s irrelevant which child is which.
There are 2 other contenders - when he’s going through G’s rooms and when he’s leaving the monastery in Volos.

Good morning! On to the last in the Lymond Chronicles - Checkmate by Dorothy Dunnett - and slightly annoyed that I have to put it down to work.

"... Erskine wondered if he knew what was ahead of him. He said, 'It'll take God knows what time to get to Blois. You'll go mostly by river, stopping off at lodges and palaces and staying exactly as long as the game lasts in each place. Nothing in this lunatic country matters as much as the hunt. Fifteen thousand people, this man's father went about with, their beds, their clothes and their furniture on their backs, signing state papers on horseback and heralds running after him yearning in couples. They never stayed above fifteen days in one place, unless they were at war, and every ambassador in Europe hated hunting for life.' ..." Dorothy Dunnett, Queens' Play

#dunnett
#dunnettcontent
#historicalfiction
#earlymodern
#dunnettquote

This week, we are off, hunting with the French court.

"Where are the links of the chain...
joining us to the past?"

-Dorothy Dunnet.

I have just realized, today, that I read Dorothy Dunnett for the first time fifty years ago this summer.
Am rereading the Lymond books for at least the tenth time (retirement project!) and I am still in awe of what she achieved

I don't object to either the divining or the telepathy. I wonder if DD herself experienced anything similar and that's why she included those themes?

I object to the telepathy and I object to the divining. But the divining at least provides a bit of fun in terms of spotting the links between the two series, whereas the telepathy in CM mostly seems to convey misery in both directions

2/ Niccolo, but can't recall anyone objecting in the same way to this telepathy in the LC. Anyone got any thoughts? Or if you object to the divining to you also to the telepathy, and if not why not?

#Dunnettcontent
A question for readers.
Having recently returned to my research on Adam Blacklock I've been reading Checkmate, and am struck again by the telepathic relationship between Lymond and Philippa. Now I've often heard readers say they are uncomfortable with the divining in the House of /2

#DunnettContent tangentially

The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett... I've reread the first in the series a lot, I keep wanting to recapture the feeling I had when I first read it and suddenly realised what he was up to 😂

I'm in with The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett.
For suspense, storytelling and the accurate and perfectly researched historical background.

Dunnett didn't say he rode it *elegantly*. Just that he was on it and having what I can presume was the time of his life (to that point). I just peeked at a few videos of tourists riding ostriches in South Africa and I think a large 18-year old could do it, however brief.

Amazing and amusing as that was, I was distracted by doubt that such a large man as Niccolo could ride an ostrich without it collapsing. Almost as if Dunnett were picturing the compact Lymond as the rider rather than his forerunner.

#DunnettRelated

Puts one in mind of the exploits of the ollave Thady Boy Ballagh across the rooftops of Blois, in Dorothy Dunnett’s Queen’s Play.

www.instagram.com/reel/DH8kpK1...

Allie Therin's Viscounts and Villainy and Dorothy Dunnett's Pawn in Frankincense.

I’m also really feeling the sweetness and Northumberlandian practicality of Fippy after her interview with Güzel - that she and Kuzum may not have a terribly fulfilling future ahead of them, but they will make the best of it together.

#DunnettContent Spoilers, obviously.
Inspired by a conversation earlier today with @abbaetha.bsky.social I've just written an appreciation of the first chapter of Ringed Castle where Kate and Philippa reunite and there are some surprises!
www.dorothydunnett.co.uk/philippa-kat...

The Mouse was waiting in a long line for rice. She was crying. She thought it might run out before she reached the front. No-one left even a grain behind from their portions. The sun was relentless and her feet hurt. Dizzying, fevered thoughts flowered and faded like Damask roses from the north. She imagined being far away, under a slow fan in a cafe, ordering pastries and Sahlab, scattered with nuts. She imagined reading a newspaper, ink staining her paws. She imagined the headlines of slow starvation, of death, of genocide. She imagined folding the paper and eating her pastries, sipping her Sahlab, and she wept.

My wife was a bit embarrassed on the tube every year as I started reading on the way to the airport or King's Cross. I love the standard original covers, but this is my particular favourite:

Ha😄exact same, now got 11 months to wait for Doctor. Started the Dollys with Singing Bird/Rum, in view of the Isle of Rum, a few summers ago! (though also prefer the original paperbacks where possible..) #DorothyDunnett

Agreed! I saved them - an incredible show of willpower, this - to be my first book of the summer holiday over the course of six years.

Loved Cookie and Nanny, looking forward to Doctor on my next travels (they really suit reading while on the move!)

Yes! (Nanny, Cookie and Doctor are my favourites but I love them all.)

Crime fiction. Dolly and the Starry Bird, Dorothy Dunnet. Read in Bay of Naples! A fun break while I delay finishing the magisterial Niccolo series. Dated vocab, hard to follow? Riding the tone, I heartily enjoyed this twisting madcap caper with its food/drink/clothes/travel & the wind-in-its-hair!🚤

stares like a hungry seagull at the entire known universe in Dunnett

Very familiar feeling for #Dunnett readers