“The purpose of art is to console and amuse—myself, and, I hope, others.” – Art of Quotation

“The purpose of art is to console and amuse—myself, and, I hope, others.”
Ludwig Bemelmans, writer, illustrator, Austrian, Hungarian, best for the Madeline picture books.

via “The purpose of art is to console and amuse—myself, and, I hope, others.” – Art of Quotation

“But you have no chocolate!… My dear, how will you ever manage?” – Art of Quotation

Marie de Rabutin-Chantal

“If you are not feeling well, if you have not slept, chocolate will revive you.
But you have no chocolate! I think of that again and again! My dear, how will you ever manage?”
Madame De Sevigne ( Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sevigne)  French, writer…

via “But you have no chocolate!… My dear, how will you ever manage?” – Art of Quotation

Lucy Brazier & Sinister Dexter — ‘Sometimes the opposite of right isn’t wrong. It’s left.’

Please put your hands together to welcome Lucy Brazier to First Night Design. She is here to describe the third in her trilogy of amusing and mystery-ridden novels that give new meaning to college life from a female Deputy Head Porter’s point of view.

After avoiding the murderous intentions of The Vicious Circle in First Lady Of The Keys and risking life and limb to find a priceless missing painting in The Vanishing Lord, our heroine Deputy Head Porter finds herself once again at the centre of strange and macabre goings-on in the notorious Old College.

One of the oldest and most illustrious educational establishments in the country, Old College boats a bloody and turbulent 400-year-old history and the arrival of its first female Deputy Head Porter has done little to calm matters. if anything, it’s made them worse. We join Deputy Head Porter at the beginning of a new academic year where the induction of a new Bursar – the enigmatic Professor Dexter Sinistrov – causes ructions. With his first act of office being to cut the tea and biscuit budget for the Porters’ Lodge, he makes himself instantly unpopular with the bowler-hatted staff within. But it is more his penchant for poisoning people that really concerns Deputy Head Porter.

Meanwhile, Head Porter appears to be leading a secret double life and The Dean is convinced that Russian spies are after his job. When two dead bodies turn up at the bottom of the College gardens, Deputy Head Porter is determined that there will not be another College cover-up, even if that does mean begrudgingly working alongside unwelcome outsiders DCI Thompson and DS Kirby. Add to that a wayward College drinking society and an ageing Lothario of a professor and Deputy Head Porter really does have her hands full.

The Blurb:

Sometimes the opposite of right isn’t wrong. It’s left.

Tragedy strikes once more at Old College… The Porters’ Lodge is down to its last tea bag and no one has seen a biscuit for over a week. Almost as troubling are the two dead bodies at the bottom of the College gardens and a woman has gone missing. The Dean is convinced that occult machinations are to blame, Deputy Head Porter suspects something closer to home.

The formidable DCI Thompson refuses to be sidelined and a rather unpleasant Professor gets his comeuppance.

As the body count rises, Head Porter tries to live a secret double life and The Dean believes his job is under threat from the Russian Secret Service.

Deputy Head Porter finds herself with her hands full keeping Old College running smoothly as well as defending herself against the sinister intentions of the new Bursar.

Spies, poisoning, murder – and none of this would be any problem at all if only someone would get the biscuits out and put the kettle on…

This is the third instalment of the world-renowned PorterGirl series set in the ancient and esoteric Old College. Author Lucy Brazier opens the lid on a world which has sinister overtones in this cozy, BritLit mystery.

Available to pre-order now, general release 27th April 2018.

Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BZS9H42/

Amazon USA:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BZS9H42/

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Follow Lucy Brazier:

www.portergirl.com

www.whoshottonyblair.com

Facebook     @PorterGirl100

Finnegans Wake – a guide by an idiot

Never A Cross Word – A Poirot Parody for Captain Hastings fans everywhere 

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Take care and keep laughing!

“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to…” – Art of Quotation

“A writer is someone who has taught his mind to misbehave.” — Oscar Wilde, Irish, writer, playwright, novelist, essayist, poet

Source: “A writer is someone who has taught his mind to…” – Art of Quotation

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” | Art of Quotation

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”

― Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese, poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

Source: “Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” | Art of Quotation

Dorothy Parker says: | The Muscleheaded Blog

“There’s a hell of a distance between wise-cracking and wit. Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.”

Source: Dorothy Parker says: | The Muscleheaded Blog

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1900s)

Colette, 1900s via theredlist.com

Source: Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1900s)

Writers in Art: Aphra Behn by Mary Beale

Okay, so while I may have my computer back on my lap, I am spending a great of time restoring from backups so here’s another reblog, this time from A Small Press Life.

A Small Press Life: Books. Art. Writing. Life. Tea.

Aphra Behn by Mary Beale

Aphra Behn by Mary Beale

“Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand.”-Aphra Behn

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First Night Design | Katherine Mansfield 1888-1923 | Quotes

In my opinion, New Zealand-born Katherine Mansfield was one of the greatest exponents of the short story. I devoured her work as a teenager and promptly tried to write just like her. Reader, I did not succeed! I am sad, now, that I threw these efforts away. Who knows what I might not have been able to do with them now. (Don’t answer that!)

Portrait of Katherine Mansfield (1918) by Anne Estelle Rice [Wikimedia]

“A. [Rice] came early and began the great painting — me in that red, brick red frock with flowers everywhere. It’s awfully interesting, even now. I painted her in my way as she painted me in hers: her eyes … little blue flowers plucked this morning.”

“Ach, Tchekov! Why are you dead? Why can’t I talk to you in a big darkish room at late evening—where the light is green from the waving trees outside? I’d like to write a series of Heavens: that would be one.”

“Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.” 

[Wikimedia]

“The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.”

“The mind I love must have wild places, a tangled orchard where dark damsons drop in the heavy grass, an overgrown little wood, the chance of a snake or two, a pool that nobody’s fathomed the depth of, and paths threaded with flowers planted by the mind.”

“I have such a horror of telegrams that ask me how I am!! I always want to reply dead.”

“I adore Life. What do all the fools matter and all the stupidity. They do matter but somehow for me they cannot touch the body of Life. Life is marvellous. I want to be deeply rooted in it – to live – to expand – to breathe in it – to rejoice – to share it. To give and to be asked for Love.”

The Garden Party and Other Stories (Penguin Classics)

Related articles

• Katherine Mansfield
• Katherine Mansfield House
• Katherine Mansfield Society
• Katherine Mansfield quotes on GoodReads

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | On This Day—Maxim Gorky

MAXIM GORKY 28 March 1868—16 June 1936

Portrait of Gorky, c. 1906

‘You must write for children the same way you write for adults, only better.’

‘A good man can be stupid and still be good. But a bad man must have brains.’

Leo Tolstoy with Gorky in Yasnaya Polyana, 1900

‘Lies are the religion of slaves and masters. Truth is the god of the free man.’
― Lower Depths, And Other Plays

‘You will not drown the truth in seas of blood.’

Anton Chekov with Gorky at Yalta 1900

‘Writers build castles in the air, the reader lives inside, and the publisher inns the rent.’

My Childhood

Take care and keep laughing!