Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359109 times)

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #840 on: August 01, 2010, 12:04:43 PM »


Welcome to Author! Author!  

This is a game in which the contestants match their wits with a  challenger, who suggests a character in literature, non- fiction or fiction. The challenger may or may not provide more clues, his prerogative,, and never more than one a day.


Once a day the challenger will say if the guesses are correct or not. The winning contestant gets lots of acclaim and the chance to pose the next challenge. If he does not want to post a new challenge he can say so and whoever does can begin a new game.

Of course you could look these up on google in an instant, what challenge is that? The  idea is to rack one's brain to try to remember where this particular character appeared and who wrote about him/ her. Should be great fun.

The challenger also has the option not to mention the name of the character, but only a description.


Authors used so far:

Author, Book, Character, Challenger, Post#

Atwood, Margaret, The Blind Assassin, Gumtree, #277
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, #158
Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, JoanK, #342
Blackmore, Richard, Lorna Doone, Lorna Doone, Frybabe, #462
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, Gumtree, #252
Buchan, John, 39 steps, Richard Hannay, PatH, #396
Carroll, Louis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice, JoanK, # 426
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Don Quijote, PatH, #701
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Christie, Agatha, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot, JoanK, #752
Clancy, Tom, Hunt for Red October, Frybabe, #553
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson, PatH, #380
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda, Gumtree, #190
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Bustopher Jones, PatH, #110
Essex, Karen, Leonardo's Swans, Isabella d'Este, Mippy, #591
Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte Saga, Irene, PatH, #615,620
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  537
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
Mitford, Nancy, roshanarose, #839, 840
O’Brian, Patrick, Master and Commander, Jack Aubrey, JudeS, #319
Orwell, George, Frybabe, #97
Peterson, Roger Tory, Field guide to the Eastern Birds, Mockingbird, JoanK #202
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
Spark, Muriel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Brodie, Gumtree, #671, 672
Steinbeck , John, Journal of a Novel, Gumtree, #53, 60
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, JudeS, #631, 632
Stone, Irving, Depths of Glory, Camille Pisarro, Gumtree, #802
Tolkien, J. R. R., Lord of the Rings, Frodo, PatH, #238, 241
Trollope, Joanna, The Best of Friends, Sophie, Mippy, #218
Tyler, Anne, Digging to America, Maryam Yazdan,Mippy, #735
Vreeland, Susan, The Forest Lover, Emily Carr, Mippy, #364
Wethers, Beck, Left for Dead, Ginny, #29
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173













I think Roshanarose beat me to it.  My guess is Nancy.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #841 on: August 01, 2010, 04:25:58 PM »
You've got to be right, Roshanarose and Gumtree.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #842 on: August 01, 2010, 07:28:37 PM »
Wonderful, we have two winners ! Thank you, Roshanarose and Gumtree.
PatH, you were  so close with your guess of Evelyn Waugh.

My clues, as you saw,  pertained exclusively to the prolific author, Nancy Mitford, none were about her work (because that might have taken too long). Most popular among Nancy Mitford's satirical, semi-autobiographical novels are The Pursuit of Love and its sequel, Love in a Cold Climate.  

From her fiction  --  which V.S. Pritchett hailed as "helping to begin an aristocratic revival of English literature" --   Nancy Mitford "brought a new talent to the study of history" (according to Louis Achincloss) in her finely observed  histories of  Madame de Pompadour; The Sun King; Voltaire in Love; and Frederic The Great.

She had a home in France for many years and died in Versailles at 68, childless. On the subject of children she said : "I love children, especially when they cry, for someone will take them away ..."  Hmmmmm

The  non fiction book  to which I referred  in my earlier post  today is The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell.

There were six sisters in that large family and one brother, who - at 10 or 11 - was sent to boarding school and died in Burma in the last days of the war.
Nancy's younger sister Jessica (known as Decca), an avowed Communist, also turned to writing, went to live in America and wrote inter alia   The American Way of Death and the memoir Daughters and Rebels.

There'd be so much more to say about sisters Unity and the spectacularly beautiful Diana,  both of whom came under the spell of Hitler --- but this is not the time or place.   So I'll stop.

Thank you for being here.


roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #843 on: August 01, 2010, 11:14:38 PM »
Thank You Straudetwo for the opportunity.

Oh well - Off I go to reacquaint myself with my chosen book.

Life is a funny old duck.  Tomorrow I am having lunch with my beautiful daughter and I had promised her that I would lend her "the chosen book" as she is also a fan of the author.  She can have it after I have finished - again!

How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #844 on: August 02, 2010, 03:42:05 AM »
Good one Roshanarose - Looks like the Aussies have cornered the market  ;D

Looking forward to your quiz...
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #845 on: August 02, 2010, 05:10:51 AM »
 Traude - Aha! Amazing to find someone these days who has read V.S Pritchett. I first read him aeons ago when I was flirting with Prosper Merimee's Carmen and Henry Murger's Scene's de la Vie de Boheme and found his essaysvery helpful. Still do.

Thanks for the Mitford quiz - interesting choice of author...
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #846 on: August 02, 2010, 08:38:20 PM »
1.  Author:  Wrote a 3 volume work at the age of 15 which included one biography and several plays.  (Unpublished)

Book/Character:  I was very badly treated as a child by one parent.  That parent wanted me to "harden" and thought I was too "weak and gentle".  I was regularly beaten.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #847 on: August 04, 2010, 06:16:16 PM »
roshanarose, I'm not ignoring you, just stumped so far.  My first thought was David Copperfield, but I can't find that Dickens wrote so much stuff at such an early age.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #848 on: August 04, 2010, 07:51:57 PM »
Christopher Paolini wrote his first Eragon when he was fifteen, but that series is a dragon fantasy. I'm sure he hasn't yet written a biography.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #849 on: August 04, 2010, 07:55:07 PM »
And besides, Eragon was published (to incredible success).

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #850 on: August 04, 2010, 07:59:04 PM »
Oh, I thought she was saying the plays were unpublished.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #851 on: August 04, 2010, 10:54:06 PM »
I haven't read Eragon yet.  Is it good?  Sorry, Pat H, not Dickens.

Author:  Had formal training in History at a Teacher Training College.

Book/Character:  As an "escape" from my parent's cruelty, I devoted myself to reading.  I excelled in arts and languages.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #852 on: August 04, 2010, 10:55:23 PM »
My thoughts wandered into the past when the curricula were based on the classics.  But no guess has formed.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #853 on: August 05, 2010, 07:41:17 AM »
Roshanarose I haven't read Eragon yet but I did see the movie. Not bad for a youngster. I'm not a big fantasy reader.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #854 on: August 05, 2010, 10:10:22 AM »
I haven't read Eragon either, just glanced at it.  It shows the author's youth, but it's supposed to be a good job.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #855 on: August 05, 2010, 10:38:11 AM »
One of the Bronte sisters, maybe?

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #856 on: August 05, 2010, 11:25:45 AM »
Don't think any one of the Brontes could be said to have   "Had formal training in History at a Teacher Training College" even though they worked at governesses - at least Anne & Charlotte did - and Branwell was a tutor.

This one has me puzzled.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #857 on: August 05, 2010, 10:14:43 PM »
Not one of the Brontes.

Gum:  Having you puzzled on this board is a change  ;)

Author:  Lives in Surrey, UK.  When trying to convince publishers to publish a book at one time, the author submitted a large book 1024 pages long and single-spaced. However, the author was rejected because there was said to be a "world paper shortage".

Book/Character:  I was sent away to stay with a very influential woman who became a maternal guiding light for me.  During my stay I met one young woman of whom I was completely in awe, as her erudition outshone mine.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #858 on: August 06, 2010, 12:17:26 AM »
Your Surrey hint ignite  the Arthur Conan Doyle name in my mind. His home was there.
Is it so?
The character would be Sherlock Holmes

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #859 on: August 06, 2010, 04:32:32 AM »
Surrey - J.M. Barrie lived there - but I gather from the clues that the author is still living...
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #860 on: August 06, 2010, 06:54:50 AM »
Those clues ought to be dead giveaways.  Why am I not getting it?

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #861 on: August 06, 2010, 02:36:38 PM »
An author who today lives in Surrey is Kevin Lewis.  He was abused as a child.
His book"The Kid" deals with some of this experience.
He is published by Penguin Books.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #862 on: August 06, 2010, 02:42:25 PM »
Re: Conan Doyle and Surrey.
The house in Surrey called "Undershaw" designed by Doyle himself is the place where he wrote "The Hound of the Baskerville" and other stories.  There is a a group trying to preserve this  place as a literary landmark.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #863 on: August 06, 2010, 04:47:54 PM »
Hilaire Belloc studied History at one of the Oxford Colleges. Someone here (I think) mentioned his Cautionary Tales for Children some time back. Much of his work, however, was in poetry, essays, and non-fiction.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #864 on: August 06, 2010, 08:38:12 PM »
Good guesses all.  However, the author is still writing books. Will try to make it less cryptic here Pat H.

Author:  This is her first historical novel.  Up 'til now all her books have been historical biographies.  The author is well known to an international audience, including USA where she toured in February 2009 to promote a book.

Book/Character:  The erudite young woman I mentioned in my last post is actually a cousin of mine.  So also is her half brother with whom I have a close relationship.  This young man will leave me a magnificent legacy that will seal my fate.

(If I name any of these characters it will be a dead giveaway.)



How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #865 on: August 06, 2010, 09:49:39 PM »
I think I split an infinitive in my last post.  Eeeekkkk! :o
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #866 on: August 07, 2010, 03:16:04 AM »
Just to make something clear.  The individuals in the novel are real people.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #867 on: August 07, 2010, 03:12:12 PM »
It's an historical novel, so I'm guessing these characters are members of a royal family. Trying to think which one fits.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #868 on: August 07, 2010, 03:13:33 PM »
roshanarose: didn't yopur parents tell you to never split an infinative? ;)

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #869 on: August 07, 2010, 07:24:51 PM »
I think I know who it is, but I had to look her up to check to see if she wrote any fiction so I am keeping "mum". If it is who I think it is, we have run across her when we discussed Richard III.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #870 on: August 07, 2010, 07:49:51 PM »
Aaaarrrggghhh!

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #871 on: August 07, 2010, 10:34:48 PM »
JoanK:  I learned about splitting infinitives at Uni, but before then I had had a lesson from William Shatner from Star Trek.  "To fearlessly go where no man has been before".  Like licking a knife, it makes me shudder when I see a split infinitive.  Social conditioning is a powerful thing, as are TV programs. 

Yes.  They are members of a royal family.

I sense that Frybabe knows my author and her novel.

Author:  Is very active in the promotion of English, particularly Tudor, history.  Has been and continues to be a tour leader of historical tours in and around London.  The author, before writing this novel, wrote many historical biographies.

Book/Character:  I am forced into an arranged marriage.  I despise my husband.  Ultimately, my husband meets the same fate as I. 

Events move quickly after my marriage.  My male cousin dies naming me as his "heir".  I am to be Queen.





How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #872 on: August 07, 2010, 10:43:21 PM »
"To boldly split infinitives where no man has split before"

I too cringe at split infinitives.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #873 on: August 07, 2010, 10:52:46 PM »
Good one Pat.  You made me laugh.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #874 on: August 08, 2010, 03:56:53 PM »
Could this writer be Elizabeth Norton?

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #875 on: August 09, 2010, 12:04:53 AM »
I'm sorry Jude, but no.

This will be my last set of clues.

Author:  She has written biographies of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.  This book is about a character who knew both Henry VIII (she was his great-niece) and Elizabeth I (she was her cousin) and Edward (Henry's son) from whom she inherited the throne of England.

Book/Character:  I never wanted to be Queen.  It was the ambitions on those around me who forced me into becoming Queen.  Particularly, my father-in-law the Duke of Northumberland, whose greedy ambition brought about my downfall and the deaths of many. Northumberland stirred up the populace and the court by declaring that it would be unwise if the monarchy fell into the hands of a Catholic, and that I was a devout Protestant.   He didn't say, of course, that as I am married to his son that I would be easily malleable.  I think he hopes to eventually put his son on the throne in my stead.  England had never had a woman as monarch before, except for Matilda, who ruled for a very short time.  

When my great-uncle died he had made it clear that the line of succession was to be Edward first; Mary second; and Elizabeth third.  His orders were actually made into an Act of Parliament.  When the second in line learned that I was to become Queen she raised and army and marched on London.  My father-in-law, my husband and I were all sent to the Tower under orders from  Mary that we should be beheaded as traitors to the realm.  Mary felt guilty and decided that I should not die, on the condition that I converted to Catholicism. I refused.  She was then convinced by her advisors that it would be dangerous for the future of the monarchy, if I should be allowed to live.

On 12 February, 1554, I went to the block on the Tower Green at the age of 16.   I had ruled England for 9 days.  The executioner used a sword, not an axe.

Now all you have to do is get the name of the author and the book/character right.  Good Luck!
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #876 on: August 09, 2010, 01:21:08 AM »
I haven't read the book but I guess it's about Lady Jane Grey - I was going to suggest the author as Phillipa Gregory but I have the idea that she lives in the north of England - Yorkshire perhaps, so it can't be her as the author we want lives in Sussex.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #877 on: August 09, 2010, 10:42:15 AM »
For a fleeting minute I thought of Lady Antonia Fraser,  who wrote wonderful biographies of British and other monarchs in Erope,  among them  one about Henry VIII and his six wives.
But from Gumtree's post I gather that is the wrong track  :(.

Moreover, I'm not sure Antonia started writing at ag 15.  And she had six children with her first husband  ...

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #878 on: August 09, 2010, 01:52:11 PM »
Is the author Alison Weir?

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #879 on: August 09, 2010, 01:57:23 PM »
I hope your are right, JudeS. That's who I came up with. We talked about some of her writings about the War of the Roses in our Richard III discussion.  I didn't know she had started writing historical fiction until I looked up her bibliography.