Britannia all at Sea, chapter 7

Jake proposes! "I have brought you here [to a small room away from the party] to ask you, in peace and quiet, to marry me, Britannia." By Betts standards, that's not a bad proposal. Of course, she's wildly surprised, because she assumed he would marry the tiresome Madeleine.
It's a family party, including Madeleine, who has been invited for so many years that they think it would be rude not to invite her. She's furious at Jake's attentions to Britannia, and for once I have some sympathy. It wouldn't have killed Jake to pull her aside and say, "look, I've been taking you around for years, but now I'm going to propose to Britannia." Though if he had, it would have lessened her wrath and made it less likely she'll cause trouble in chapter eight or nine.
It won't be hard to cause trouble; Jake proposed, and Britannia said yes, but there is no formal announcement or ring yet, possible because Britannia wants to talk to her parents first. Seems reasonable to me, but as I said, it might be left that way so Madeleine can cause trouble in the next two chapters.
This chapter is filled with antiques. At dinner, they eat off seventeenth-century silver. Relatives of Jake's receive antique jewelry from Sint Nikolaas, and at the end of the chapter Jake shows Britannia his house, including antique furniture and paintings commissioned in the nineteenth century. In other words: old money.

mad apologies!

I've been unable to find my copy of Britannia All at Sea for months now, so I finally unbent and did the thing I'd promised myself I'd never do: bought it online. Before now, I'd always gotten my Bettses in person, either through friends or through lucky finds at used bookstores. This took all the serendipity out of it, but it was driving me crazy not to blog. So as soon as I read the next chapter, I'll post - which should be funny, because I barely remember the plot! I'm sure it will come back to me.

One Pair of Feet

I've just finished Monica Dickens's One Pair of Feet this evening. It's fairly funny, telling about Dickens's first (and, as it turns out, only) year of nursing school. She went during World War II, which puts her training not too far off that of Betty Neels. I was struck by the similarities: weeping junior nurses in the sluice, tyrannical (or fair and kind) Sisters, remote surgeons. I don't know that I'd recommend it, because Dickens uses some of-her-time but racist phrases occasionally. But I thought of Betts and longed to read some of her books with competent Sisters after reading One Pair of Feet!

avocado pears

On Thursday I was talking with some friends. One of them, a fellow Anglophile, mentioned avocado pears. I asked what they are, because Betts heroines eat them sometimes. I've always had a mental picture of some interesting fruit plate, possibly including pears, shaped to look like a pear.
Well, it turns out that an avocado pear is - an avocado. How anticlimactic! I'd have to check the OED to suss out how they got that name, given that pears have seeds and avocados don't. Weird.

Betts on jezebel.com

You know how amused I am by Betty Neels books. You probably didn't know - why should you? - that I like jezebel.com. So I was delighted to see Betts mentioned on jezebel.com!

article about Harlequins

I haven't forgotten about this blog, but I don't know where my book is. A Betts heroine would have kept up with posts - but then again, a Betts heroine would never be a blogger, because it would take time away from the gardening/antiques shopping/sighing after the Betts hero.
Anyway, there's an interesting article (note: graphic language here and there - read at your own risk!) here.

Britannia All At Sea, chapter 6

I went out for lunch today. To my dismay, I'd brought the wrong book with me, so I had to dig to the bottom of my bag for Britannia so I could read something. Britannia is carried up the stairs by Jake, who diagnoses a sprained ankle (which is confirmed by X-ray the next day). So he keeps her at his house for the next few days, even though she was on the point of going home. She persists in believing that he doesn't love her. Because it's St Nikolaas, his family comes, so he meets his sisters. One of them doesn't like Madeleine, either.
Was this recap boring? Yeah, so was the chapter.