Pride and Extreme Prejudice by Jane Gordon

Title: Pride and Extreme Prejudice 

Author: Jane Gordon 

Publisher: not known 

Source book: Snuff by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #39)

Commander Sam Vimes is introduced to the Gordon sisters who live near Lady Sybil’s his country estate. They have been brought up to expect a suitable husband to present himself to them. Vimes suggests that maybe they should get jobs. They all look shocked, but one sister, Hermione, has already become a lumberjack (and why not?). 

Vimes next encounters the sisters at the wedding of Emily Gordon; she has managed to snag the son of successful pottery and breakfast cereal entrepreneur Sir Arbuthnot Makewar (what a great name). Vimes finds that one sister has become a milliner making fabulous and quite scandalous hats (good for her), and another is a nurse.

Jane has written a bestselling novel dedicated to Vimes: Pride and Extreme Prejudice. Jane was considering writing about the complexities of human relationships but Vimes suggested she put in a lot of fighting, and dead bodies falling out of wardrobes… and maybe a war, perhaps, as a bit of background. I think Sam Vimes is right. Dead bodies falling out of wardrobes always add interest.

I hope someone snaps up the film rights very soon.

Also featured in Snuff is A Banquet of Worms by Colonel FJ Massingham. The Colonel writes about how very poor goblin mothers, so poor they cannot feed their newborn baby, will eat the child. The mother will have food and the child may be born again at some future date. The mother will carve an unggue pot for the soul of the baby and store her tears for the child in it. The unggue pot, the pot of tears, acquires almost magical properties and should not be touched by anyone other than a young female goblin.

Expect a happier life for goblins in the future now that Commander Vimes has meddled.

Both images found on Jane Austen World.com