Flight of the Heron, by D. K. Broster

[rachelmanija]

I got a teeny bit of time off before finals week, so naturally I thought the most relaxing possible thing to do would be to settle down with a completely random book found on the library free giveaway shelf

Comments

[desperance]

Broster uses “pe” instead of “be” for rustic Scottish characters

This seems to have been an accepted convention of the period, a sort of shorthand for "Scottish accent alert!" - Elinor Brent-Dyer does the selfsame thing in the Chalet School books, with her Hebridean twins. They don't have much of a dialect else, but all their "b"s are "p"s. (Tho' I don't think anyone ever "peed", not in a Chalet School book...)

Flight of the Heron was a bestseller in the UK, and still very much in the national consciousness a generation later, when I was a kid. I haven't read it, but any number of copies have passed through my hands. I'm not sure if it's survived into this generation, though; can't remember the last time I heard it mentioned.

[rachelmanija]

I was wondering if no one said "pee" in 1929, and that's how it slipped in - like, obviously "gay" didn't have the modern connotation.

My copy has a sweet inscription (not from the author) saying, "In memory of your Scottish holiday."

[ethelmay]

They use "pee" for money now, though. People (peeple?) have a way of compartmentalizing these things.

[tool_of_satan]

Wow, that does sound even more slashy than The Harp and the Blade, which I thought was pretty darn slashy for a book published in 1941. If you still have the copy I sent you I think a comparison is in order! (And it has no dialect.)

[rachelmanija]

Somewhere! ;)

By the way, I have not forgotten about The Gorgon Festival.

[tool_of_satan]

I know.

Quasi-relatedly, I see from this month's Ansible that John Boyd just died in June. I had no idea he was still alive (up to then).

[ethelmay]

I've meant to read this for a while. I believe there's at least one sequel.

IIRC, "p" for "b" signifies a Highland/Island accent, doesn't it?

[rachelmanija]

Yes, there are two. I have the omnibus edition which contains all three.

[helenraven]

I first read The Flight of the Heron when I was ten, and that was how I got imprinted as a slash fan. There was a BBC adaptation aimed at children airing at the time, and I've just found out that an earlier Scottish Television adaptation is available on YouTube.

A Scottish friend who is not a slash fan was astounded when I told her what I had got from the book, because for her it was just a rather old-fashioned tale of noble highlanders that she'd been forced to read in school (this would have been in the late 1970s).

[rachelmanija]

Funny how we take different things from the same story.

I checked out the youtube one, my heart full of hope. Alas...

1. The soothsayer at the beginning looks like he's trying to take flight. If that was supposed to be a subtle heron reference, it failed to not be hilarious.

2. Ewen is a block of wood.

3. Keith is better, but not how I imagined him.

4. THEY DIDN'T DO THE BIT WHERE KEITH FAINTS INTO EWEN'S ARMS. He just gets tired (or bored) and sits down on the ground.

[helenraven]

Oh, that is disappointing about the youtube series. I'll still give it a try (it seems to have its admirers...) but I will dial down the hope.

[rachelmanija]

Please report back with your impressions!