Sauntering in Somerset by Footloose
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| Glastonbury Tor in Somerset (image borrowed from the Internet) |
Author: “Footloose” (Hubert Hay)
Publisher: Not known
Source book: Wildfire at Midnight by Mary Stewart
Wildfire at Midnight is a murder mystery set on the Isle of Skye during the Coronation celebrations of June 1953, and more important to the plot, the attempt on Everest.
Beautiful Gianetta Brooke, divorced house model for renowned fashion designer Hugo Montefior and frequently photographed for the Society papers, books herself into a small hotel on Skye (a Scottish island) where she encounters Hubert Hay, a travel writer. Mr Hay is already well-known for Sauntering in Somerset and Wandering through Wales using the nom de plume “Footloose”, and may well have written further books that don’t get mentioned in Wildfire at Midnight. Mr Hay asks Gianetta to allow him to photograph her for his new book about Skye. He writes about walks and rates them for difficulty, and how pretty the countryside and views are. Not a bad idea really.
Gianetta’s ex-husband Nicholas Drury is also, to her surprise and embarrassment, staying at the hotel. By the time he was 29, he was the author of three ‘terrifyingly good novels’ [which I take to mean almost unreadable and quite likely featuring nasty characters being unpleasant to each other]. He seems to be very bad tempered, and snarkily labels Mr Hay’s proposed book “Staggering through Skye”.
And also staying at the hotel is acclaimed climber Ronald Beagle who we learn has written a book about attempting to climb Nanga Parbat (it wasn’t climbed successfully until July 1953).
Unfortunately while a great many characters in books write books, somehow an awful lot of them don’t bother to tell us the book titles which makes it hard for me to write them up. Although I suppose it is likely Beagle’s book might be titled Nanga Parbat (or possibly Diamer, the Tibetan name for this 8,000m peak), but who knows what Nicholas thought to name his books?
Obviously, because it’s a romantic murder mystery, and because Gianetta succumbs to poor helpless female syndrome, she and Nicholas get back together [although I find it hard to believe in their rekindled romance] and the murders are solved. Oh well, it was the olden days.
It seems to be fairly common for fictional characters to write travel books. See Lavender Laughs in Libya for another selection.
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| Tarr Steps in Somerset (image borrowed from the internet) |
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