(no subject)

Doesn't matter how grotty today is, it is a delightful and wonderful day.

My defence against migraines and miseries is a parcel delivered this morning. Of course it contained books.

It was from Elizabeth Chadwick. I now have her two latest novels, complete with really nice inscriptions.

The minute my eyes straighten out, I am reading. Elizabeth Chadwick is one of the four or five historical novelists working with the Middle Ages who I feel comfortable recommending to all and sundry.

I want to find out what she does in the William Marshall book. I have had the sneaking suspicion for a while that this may be the book where she achieves something quite remarkable and now I get the chance to find out.

(no subject)

Because I can't see much (due to the visual aspects of my migraine) I have spent the last hour catching up on things like downloading a facsimile of a seventeenth century book on seafaring. Alas, I tried reading it once it was downloaded and my eyes went into dance mode and all I could see were short and long esses performing pirouettes on the screen.

Being curmudgeonly (this time because of migraine), I immediately recalled how I teach people to sort out the long s. Take Puck's song "Where the bee sucks there suck I" and render it offensive. You have 2/3 of the rules governing use of the long s in older books. And, no, I am not going to spell it out for you. If your life has been free of obscenities then it shall remain that way and you can work out your own mnemonic for remembering the long s, to boot. Although if you ask me nicely next time I see you (tomorrow, next year, in ten years time, whenever) I can sing you the song. I can't sing, but I suspect you will get the idea.