Follies of England by Daisy Dalrymple & Lucy Fotheringay

Thanks to Wikipedia 

Title: Follies of England 

Author: The Hon. Daisy Dalrymple 

Photographs: Lucy Fotheringhay

Publisher: not known but based near Wardour Street 

Source book: Sheer Folly by Carola Dunn

In the 1920s Daisy Dalrymple makes her living writing illustrated articles about lesser known stately homes for Town & Country magazine. Initially she stays with friends from school at their grand country houses and writes about them. Sometimes she takes her own photographs, sometimes her friend Lucy, a professional photographer, helps out. And they have for some time been working on a book, an early example of a coffee table book it seems, about all the fascinating architectural follies to be found in the grounds of stately homes across the country. 

In Sheer Folly, Daisy and Lucy (now Mrs Alec Fletcher and Lady Gerald Bincombe - but I suspect Daisy would wish to use her maiden name as author, and maybe Lucy thinks the same way) are in pursuit of stories and photographs of the final folly they want to include in their book. The folly is at Appsworth Hall and has recently been lavishly restored by the very nice Mr Pritchard, who has made his money from plumbing supplies. Lucy comes from a very posh family and isn’t sure she approves of making a fortune from plumbing.

OK, slightly annoyingly, although there is quite a bit of information about Daisy and Lucy’s book, we are not given a title for it until two books later in Gone West. In Gone West we learn that Follies of England has been very successful. 

Daisy and Lucy’s publisher is keen to discuss a further book. He (of course the publisher is a man) thinks that a book about pubs with intriguing names might be a success. Daisy consults her husband Alec, and his Sergeant, Tom Tring, and they have come up with some beauties: The Magnet and Dewdrop, The Tippling Philosopher, Rent Day, The Cat and Mutton, The World Turned Upside Down and The Boot and Flogger. This sounds, in principle, like a good plan, but it would surely hinge on the pubs with interesting names having interesting or pretty buildings too.

This is an interesting website Daisy and Lucy might have enjoyed had the internet been invented in the 1920s.

Obviously, because it’s Daisy (she is more of a magnet for murder than Jessica Fletcher* and there are 23 books about her), there is a murder. And her husband Chief Inspector Alec Fletcher* is forced to investigate.

* just a coincidence.

Thanks to Owlcation