Sign in with Facebook
Krissa's Reviews > The Nine Tailors
The Nine Tailors
by
by
[borrowed from the kate]
I started to eyeball Kate's review and I can't, because I'll probably just say what she says! But here are some thoughts unfiltered.
First, okay, there was a lot about bells. Let's say, if you're not interested in learning a lot of important information about the incredibly archane field of change-ringing, put the book down and back away slowly. Then again, if you're not interested in learning something new when you read, you should probably just got watch COPS.
Secondly, one of my favorite things about Nine Tailors was that there were really two crimes woven together expertly, which is like Mystery Novels 202, for sophomores, because the two incidents, 30 years apart, are both really critical to each other and inform each other.
Thirdly, Peter Wimsey is on fine form in this book - his, well, Bertie-Woosterness is kept JUST in check before it gets a little too over the top, unlike Clouds of Witness where his WHAT-HO! of it all was a bit much for me.
And fourthly, it's just a spectacularly written novel. Set in the Fen country, Sayers paints the bleakest and greyest of landscapes and touches that up every few pages with some tiny detail of a roadside or the sharp bite of inclement weather or the hardened lives of the villagers. Really, she's writing beyond mystery to an England she knows very well.
But, well, there's a lot about bells. I'm taking a star away on account of how confused I got about the damn bells. What's a SALLIE! I still don't know.
I started to eyeball Kate's review and I can't, because I'll probably just say what she says! But here are some thoughts unfiltered.
First, okay, there was a lot about bells. Let's say, if you're not interested in learning a lot of important information about the incredibly archane field of change-ringing, put the book down and back away slowly. Then again, if you're not interested in learning something new when you read, you should probably just got watch COPS.
Secondly, one of my favorite things about Nine Tailors was that there were really two crimes woven together expertly, which is like Mystery Novels 202, for sophomores, because the two incidents, 30 years apart, are both really critical to each other and inform each other.
Thirdly, Peter Wimsey is on fine form in this book - his, well, Bertie-Woosterness is kept JUST in check before it gets a little too over the top, unlike Clouds of Witness where his WHAT-HO! of it all was a bit much for me.
And fourthly, it's just a spectacularly written novel. Set in the Fen country, Sayers paints the bleakest and greyest of landscapes and touches that up every few pages with some tiny detail of a roadside or the sharp bite of inclement weather or the hardened lives of the villagers. Really, she's writing beyond mystery to an England she knows very well.
But, well, there's a lot about bells. I'm taking a star away on account of how confused I got about the damn bells. What's a SALLIE! I still don't know.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
The Nine Tailors.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
Started Reading
August 1, 2007
–
Finished Reading
August 2, 2007
– Shelved
Comments Showing 1-5 of 5 (5 new)
date
newest »
newest »
A 'sally' (or 'sallie') is woollen tufting woven into a bell-rope, for a length of about one metre. At its lowest point it finishes at about head-height of the person ringing the bell. In English bellringing, the ringer ‘pulls the bell off’ (the stay) holding the sally, right hand close above the left hand. The left hand also holds the bare tail-end of the rope. That’s called the ‘handstroke’. The bell swings, the ringer lets go of the sally, the rope rises, leaving the ringer holding the tail end with both hands. The ringer then pulls on the tail-end. That is called the back stroke, and the bell swings back to where it started from. Watch this at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RtN3u..., starting at the 2.00 minute mark.Closer to home, see http://www.nagcr.org/pamphlet.html You might find the opportunity to go and watch – and maybe even decide to learn yourself?
Ha, I totally agree with you about the WHAT-HO! The first Lord Peter books I read were the ones with Harriet Vane, where he is really quite subdued, saying brilliantly funny things but not being stupid. Then I went back and read Whose Body? and I was like...er, no.
Yes, I learnt a lot, but the stuff about bells was interminable! All the different rings...was it really necessary? I think not.
IMHO, his What-Ho attitude was because Sayers hadn't quite figured out who he was. There is a lot of Wooster in that novel. However... if it irritates the Duchess, then it's all worth it as far as I'm concerned...
The sallie is the padded end of the bellrope that the ringer holds -- it's much thicker and stiffer than the rest of the rope, so if someone wanted to use the rope to tie something (or someone), they would have to cut off the sallie. So Gaudy's missing sallie was Lord Peter's clue that the murderer had taken a spare rope and cut it into pieces to tie the murder victim's hands and feet.
Here's a picture of bell rope makers finishing a sallie: http://www.ellisandpritchards.co.uk/r...