HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCFRANKLES!

Happy Birthday to my friend scfrankles! Hope you have a wonderful day!

A cricket poem!



Miss Frankles, crickteer and sleuth by okapi

When the clever Miss Frankles led
the ladies on the pitch
it was to exercise her head,
not scratch a sporting itch.

Young ladies versus gents, they played,
it was a quirky game,
but bowls and bats could not dissuade
Miss Frankles from her aim.

She seized her chance and launched a ball
on an astounding trip;
its first and final port of call:
a certain colonel’s hip.

( Read more... )

All of Agatha: They Came to Baghdad

This series of entries is commentary on my lifelong quest to read all of Agatha Christie's works in UK publication order.

They Came to Baghdad [1951] puts us squarely in the 1950's, publication wise. It was an underwhelming read I had to slog through at points. It might be called the misadventures of Miss Victoria Jones. Here's the summary:

Baghdad is the chosen location for a secret summit of superpowers, concerned but not convinced, about the development of an, as yet, unidentified and undescribed secret weapon.

Only one man has the proof that can confirm the nature of this fantastic secret weapon – a British agent named Carmichael. Unfortunately the criminal organisation responsible for the weapon’s development will stop at nothing to prevent him entering Baghdad and presenting his proof to the assembled delegates. Can Carmichael enter the city against such odds?

Into this explosive situations appears Victoria Jones, a girl with a yearning for adventure who gets more than she bargains for when a wounded Carmichael dies in her arms in her hotel room.

Now, if only she could make sense of his last words

I didn't really like Victoria so I didn't care much what happened to her. At one point, she thinks:

A phony platinum blonde, with no face powder and no lipstick! Could any girl be more unfortunately placed?

This is after she's escaped after having had her hair dyed forcibly, been chloroformed, kidnapped, held prisoner, and nearly starved. I mean, what?! These kinds of thoughts don't endear her to me.

One phrase I noticed which also appeared in A Caribbean Mystery is one woman saying she'd like to 'tear [item of clothing] off another woman' ostensibly because Woman A likes the shawl/suit/etc. that Woman B is wearing so much that it warrants assault. This is not a sentiment I have ever known. It's a strangely violent phrase.

Next we have What Mrs. McGinty Saw! Sing along if you know the words...Mrs. McGinty How Did She Die? Holding Her Hand Out...Just Like I....