Cocktail Talk: Busman’s Honeymoon

Last week, we had a little Cocktail Talking from the Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey book Whose Body?, and there I mentioned the four-pack of Lord Peter I’d picked up. Wait, what’s that you say? You missed that? Well, go read it now.

Welcome back! This week, we’re on to Busman’s Honeymoon, when Lord Peter and his new wife find a body, naturally, in the house they’ve picked up for their honeymoon. Bodies everywhere! And, as usual, my Lord’s wondrous butler, Bunter, is around, helping out, taking photos, and bringing the drinks. Which at one point leads to a little fun talk about sherry. Though I’m not sure I agree about these cocktails he mentions.

‘Sherry,’ he said, pleasantly, ‘had always appeared to me a most agreeable wine. I was so glad to read in the newspaper that it was coming into its own again. Madeira, too. They tell me that both sherry and madeira are returning to favour in London. And in the Universities. That is a very reassuring sign. I cannot think that these modern cocktails can be either healthful or palatable.

— Dorothy Sayers, Busman’s Honeymoon

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Cocktail Talk: The Moving Toyshop

Not long ago, I had a Cocktail Talk post talking about Edmund Crispin’s The Case of the Gilded Fly, and how I hadn’t read anything by him, an honest post I must say (sometimes it’s hard to admit things). Since then, I’ve read a second book by Mr. Crispin, another starring his literary (but action-oriented) sleuth Gervase Ven, a book called The Moving Toyshop. I liked it even more! It’s fairly madcap in a way, but still has a good mystery along under the motion, and the below fun drinky quote.

‘My dear Anthony, how delightful to see you,” said Mr. Barnaby with pleasure. ‘I’m sorry there are all these frightful gymnasts about, but they simply invited themselves. What will you have to drink?’

‘What is that that Charles is drinking?’

‘Oh ether and milk, or some terrible chemical affair of that sort. But you know Charles. The poor dear cannot be made to realize that the romantic decadence is over. He still writes verses about affreuses juices and things. How about some Madeira?’

–Edmund Crispin, The Moving Toyshop

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