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Dear Lumpy: Letters to a Disobedient Daughter
Dearest Lumpy,
I hope you are plump and well. Your mother bashed her car yesterday and chooses to believe it was not her fault...'
Roger Mortimer's witty dressing-downs and affectionate advice were not only directed at his wayward son, Lupin. Though better behaved than her mischievous older brother, Louise (aka 'Lumpy') still caused her father to reach for his typewriter.
The trials and tribulations of Louise's days at boarding school, her eventful wedding to Hot¬Hand-Henry and the birth of his grandchildren are all accompanied by a sometimes chiding, but always loving letter.
Between these milestones, Roger gives updates on the family, pets and the local gossip, holds forth on the weather, road safety, and even suggests the best way to make a gravy soup, all in his own inimitable style.
With the same unique charm and often snort-inducing humour that made Dear Lupin a bestseller, Roger Mortimer guides and supports his daughter through every scrape she found herself in. Hilarious and instantly familiar, Dear Lumpy is a perfect example of the glorious art of letter writing, and the timeless relationship between father and daughter.
I hope you are plump and well. Your mother bashed her car yesterday and chooses to believe it was not her fault...'
Roger Mortimer's witty dressing-downs and affectionate advice were not only directed at his wayward son, Lupin. Though better behaved than her mischievous older brother, Louise (aka 'Lumpy') still caused her father to reach for his typewriter.
The trials and tribulations of Louise's days at boarding school, her eventful wedding to Hot¬Hand-Henry and the birth of his grandchildren are all accompanied by a sometimes chiding, but always loving letter.
Between these milestones, Roger gives updates on the family, pets and the local gossip, holds forth on the weather, road safety, and even suggests the best way to make a gravy soup, all in his own inimitable style.
With the same unique charm and often snort-inducing humour that made Dear Lupin a bestseller, Roger Mortimer guides and supports his daughter through every scrape she found herself in. Hilarious and instantly familiar, Dear Lumpy is a perfect example of the glorious art of letter writing, and the timeless relationship between father and daughter.
- GenresNonfictionHumorBiography
175 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
December 11, 2015
Lumpy's dad, Roger Mortimer, is a waspishly funny correspondent - and his letters make for a good read.
He doesn't use paragraphs, giving the sense that life for him is all of a piece. Sentence abuts sentence. Topic abuts topic. World dramas, social occasions and minor hiccups with his dogs are all seemingly of equal importance. Most of all he writes with a lovely dead-pan sense of humour. This is an extract from a letter to his daughter when she was young....
He is frequently rude about people, especially his poor wife "Your mother is in bed with a sore throat caused, in my view, by talking too much without appropriate pauses for thought." Fortunately snips of her general activities slip into the letters from time to time, showing her to be a feisty character with some impressive achievements. A suitable match for this funny, acerbic and cantankerous writer.
The book was marred for me by one or two remarks of casual racism. Roger Mortimer obviously comes from the British upper classes, and he has that aura of casual entitlement and belittling of people from other cultures that I find offensive. This was only done two or three times, but it jarred.
Otherwise this is a fun read, and the obvious affection he feels for his daughter and the rapport that he has with her, are charming.
He doesn't use paragraphs, giving the sense that life for him is all of a piece. Sentence abuts sentence. Topic abuts topic. World dramas, social occasions and minor hiccups with his dogs are all seemingly of equal importance. Most of all he writes with a lovely dead-pan sense of humour. This is an extract from a letter to his daughter when she was young....
He is frequently rude about people, especially his poor wife "Your mother is in bed with a sore throat caused, in my view, by talking too much without appropriate pauses for thought." Fortunately snips of her general activities slip into the letters from time to time, showing her to be a feisty character with some impressive achievements. A suitable match for this funny, acerbic and cantankerous writer.
The book was marred for me by one or two remarks of casual racism. Roger Mortimer obviously comes from the British upper classes, and he has that aura of casual entitlement and belittling of people from other cultures that I find offensive. This was only done two or three times, but it jarred.
Otherwise this is a fun read, and the obvious affection he feels for his daughter and the rapport that he has with her, are charming.
April 12, 2013
Throughtout her adolescent years at boarding school and on into her adult life, Louise (aka Lumpy)'s father, Roger Mortimer, writes to her with regular letters that she eventually, 20 years after his death, put together into a book.
This is a sequel to 'Dear Lupin', a similiar collection of letters written to Mortimer's son Charlie.
Not having read the 'Lupin' volume, I enjoyed very much his 'letters to a disobedient daughter'. Roger Mortimer is almost visible and in the room with you a lot of the time. He is eccentric, witty, and actually quite sensitive at times to the changes going on in his daughter's life. I particularly was impressed with his reaction to Louise marrying her boyfriend in secret and not telling them until near the date of their planned 'wedding'.
The selling points of the book are the humour, which leaps off of every page, and also the insight you get into the lives of some rather quite rich people who, though quite humble about it, are privileged, meet other rich people often, have a fair amount of leisure time and are also what one might term "'completely batty'!
There is a lot about the family dogs contained here too, a little too much for my liking. And also a lot of what, in some families, might be confused as insults, but in Lumpy's family, is clear that such remarks are intended as loving and light-hearted:
"I hope you are big and well and looking, as usual, like a plump Dutch cheese".
Roger's affection for Louise is clear, his style of writing charming, stream-of-consciousness crazy but loveable, and the book a very entertaining few hours revelry in nonsense and sense alike.
This is a sequel to 'Dear Lupin', a similiar collection of letters written to Mortimer's son Charlie.
Not having read the 'Lupin' volume, I enjoyed very much his 'letters to a disobedient daughter'. Roger Mortimer is almost visible and in the room with you a lot of the time. He is eccentric, witty, and actually quite sensitive at times to the changes going on in his daughter's life. I particularly was impressed with his reaction to Louise marrying her boyfriend in secret and not telling them until near the date of their planned 'wedding'.
The selling points of the book are the humour, which leaps off of every page, and also the insight you get into the lives of some rather quite rich people who, though quite humble about it, are privileged, meet other rich people often, have a fair amount of leisure time and are also what one might term "'completely batty'!
There is a lot about the family dogs contained here too, a little too much for my liking. And also a lot of what, in some families, might be confused as insults, but in Lumpy's family, is clear that such remarks are intended as loving and light-hearted:
"I hope you are big and well and looking, as usual, like a plump Dutch cheese".
Roger's affection for Louise is clear, his style of writing charming, stream-of-consciousness crazy but loveable, and the book a very entertaining few hours revelry in nonsense and sense alike.
May 3, 2014
Dear Lumpy, a collection of letters to a disobedient daughter. This was more mundane than the letters collected in Dear Lupin, which were written to her brother. Honestly, I felt like I was reading the same letter over and over, how many times can you smile at "Mother pissed and embarrassed herself again before crashing the car" Mildly amusing, mildly racist, mildly a look at posh parent's woes.
May 6, 2014
What's wrong with me? I found the letters to be snobbish and a little too confusing to follow with all 300 of the family animals, friends, and relatives being mentioned. Too much work to keep track of it all for something not really that amusing. The father was prolific in his letter writing, but I found them difficult to follow and understand. They were about people I didn't know, cultural references I didn't get. The humor was subtle - too subtle - and seemed rather nasty at times. The book had an arrogant tone that was very off putting. I could find no reason to waste my precious time reading it.
September 28, 2015
At the outset it must be said that it is Louise “Lumpy” Mortimer’s father who is the real author and hero of this book. Louise exists only to annexe short observations and clarifications to twenty-three years of correspondence (1969–1991) written to her by her despairing (clinically depressed?) father. Was there more, one wonders?
I was initially concerned that this book could be merely cashing in on the back of the earlier publication success of the letters written by Roger Mortimer to his son, nicknamed ‘Lupin’. I was very pleased to find myself wrong. “Dear Lumpy: Letters to a Disobedient Daughter” is every bit as heart-warmingly endearingly / despairingly funny as Lupin’s.
The cast of characters, both family and friends, is an all too well recognisable stratum of the English upper-middle class. There is a remarkably profligate and careless rate (atypical in my experience) of divorce and re-marriage. Thankfully four pages towards the front of the book are dedicated to “Dramatis Personae”. For optimal convenience that really ought to have been bound-in as a z-fold.
Louise loosely indicates that she never replied by letter back to her father. One would have hoped that she possessed sufficient residual grace and breeding to have done so, but I didn’t see evidence for such optimism (which doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist). So having now read and much enjoyed both books, I was left wondering whatever had this kind and supportive father done to deserve such an apparently thankless family?
Having earlier read “Dear Lupin” (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...) I now long to be told that Roger Mortimer’s autobiography is scheduled for publication. That would be the REAL prize! Meanwhile, if nothing else, both books, “Lumpy” and “Lupin” are as gold-dust to students of psychology; an awful warning to would-be parents everywhere, and hooting good entertainment to the rest of us!
August 24, 2014
(3.5) This is even better than the original, that is,
Dear Lupin
- which I also reviewed. Here are a few of my favorite moments: “Mrs. Cameron has been staying. She and your mother talked incessantly, neither listening to the other, which is quite sensible as neither said anything worth listening to.”
“The Randalls ate some bad fish: Mr. Randall came out in a ferocious rash, while Mrs. Randall’s head swelled to twice its already generous size.”
“A man I saw in church the other day dropped down dead yesterday. Perhaps he did not pray hard enough.”
“How did you get on in your examinations? If you did badly, I shall probably export you to work in the salt mines in Poland so just WATCH IT!! The weather continues chilly, too cold even for croquet. I have not been able to wear my new leopardskin bathing pants yet.”
(This formed part of an article about letter writing for Bookkaholic.)
“The Randalls ate some bad fish: Mr. Randall came out in a ferocious rash, while Mrs. Randall’s head swelled to twice its already generous size.”
“A man I saw in church the other day dropped down dead yesterday. Perhaps he did not pray hard enough.”
“How did you get on in your examinations? If you did badly, I shall probably export you to work in the salt mines in Poland so just WATCH IT!! The weather continues chilly, too cold even for croquet. I have not been able to wear my new leopardskin bathing pants yet.”
(This formed part of an article about letter writing for Bookkaholic.)
April 24, 2018
I'm afraid this did not translate well from the British. I struggled to relate to the humor, topics, and the public and un-PC nature of fun-poking here. While it's clear this dad and his daughter must've shared a strong and loving bond, it went right over my Amurican head.
August 18, 2015
in some ways even funnier than Dear Lupin. Laugh-out-loud in places and providing more of an insight into the utterly endearing and outrageous Roger Mortimer whereas Lupin is more of an insight into his wayward son. A great read for a holiday - but read Dear Lupin first!
July 12, 2016
This book contains a collection of letters from a man to his daughter.
Some parts of the letters were good but overall I found them book a bit dull / repetitive –it came across as a British upper class person moaning.
Some parts of the letters were good but overall I found them book a bit dull / repetitive –it came across as a British upper class person moaning.
August 25, 2013
Very funny, can't wait to read the letters to the other sister!
December 31, 2013
slipped down like a tasty little amuse bouche
January 17, 2019
I enjoyed it, but it faded significantly in the second half. It's non-fiction so it's not like they could do much about that, but much of these were written when Roger was older by comparison, she's the younger sister after all, and Louise was simply less of an idiot than her brother so there's less entertainment to be had. Still worth a read, but don't expect quite as much fun this time around.
April 21, 2019
An endearing collection of letters from a loving, eccentric and amusing father to his daughter. It did feel a bit "samey" as the book only contains letters from Roger Mortimer to his daughter, and not the responses to said letters, nonetheless, I enjoyed the banality of Lumpy's parents' lives, as much as their ever-buzzing social lives and funny annecdotes.
January 25, 2021
Despite Roger Mortimer’s letters to his daughter being full of the same dry, witty writing and entertaining anecdotes as those to his son, Louise Mortimer is clearly not as wayward as her brother and that leads to Dear Lumpy being significantly less engaging than Dear Lupin
October 8, 2021
The second volume from the wonderfully irascible and humorous Roger Mortimer, this time his letters to his daughter. His wit, affection and sharp observations about life are a joy. Would make for a great dinner companion.
October 30, 2022
Not my normal sort of book but nice to read about different types of childhoods and eccentric families.
May 31, 2013
Follow on to Dear Lupin, Lumpy being the sister Louise Mortimer of Roger Mortimer the racing correspondent for The Sunday Times. This is a collection of the letters that Louise received from her father from the age of 12 when she started boarding school until his death in 1991. The letters are full of gossip and anecdotes about the family, the family pest and the increasingly eccentric friends that populated their day to day life. There is gossip, ticking's off and hilarious accounts of days out with Nidnod (Louise's mum) who certainly had a drink problem in later life. She also had a series of wigs which she insisted on wearing at a peculiar angle.
The book highlights how much we have lost now that most communication is by e mail, twitter and messaging. The letters are delightful and funny
The book highlights how much we have lost now that most communication is by e mail, twitter and messaging. The letters are delightful and funny
April 19, 2015
I read 'Dear Lupin' some time ago, so my memory may be failing me a little, but I really enjoyed this collection of letters from Roger Mortimer to his youngest daughter. Unlike with the more troublesome Lupin, Mortimer's clear affection, love and warmth towards Lumpy shines through in these very amusing letters, adding a different dimension for me.
I laughed out loud on many occasions and would urge anyone with a sense of humour to read this, although if you are prickly about non-PC comments then leave your cash in your wallet and don't bother opening this book.
I laughed out loud on many occasions and would urge anyone with a sense of humour to read this, although if you are prickly about non-PC comments then leave your cash in your wallet and don't bother opening this book.
August 7, 2015
I am enjoying reading the book but overall I feel it's one to dip in and out of. Was expecting a witty epistolary novel (should have read the jacket properly!) and found it was a series of quite disjointed letters, featuring too many characters to keep track of. Felt it would have worked better to have a collection of family letters providing range of perspectives in one volume, and not a single voice, as much of a witty raconteur as that voice is!
January 5, 2014
Companion piece to Letters to Lupin, this time featuring letters from an amusing loving father to a far better behaved daughter. As a result the overall tone of the correspondence is different and the book loses something along the way. Still an amusing and warm read, just lacking a lot of what made the previous volume such a delightful experience.
January 31, 2014
Another great set of letters from Roger Mortimer to one of his children. It makes me wish that my parent's were the witty letter writing sort. Great to read on short journeys as you can just read a couple of letters at a time. Be warned though you will burst out laughing along the way.
August 10, 2013
I loved this too
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews