The Fatal Flying Affair (A Lady Hardcastle Mystery, #7)

by T.E. Kinsey

Matilda Alice Victoria Wood (12 February 1870 – 7 October 1922), professionally known as Marie Lloyd /ˈmɑːri/; was an English music hall singer, comedian and musical theatre actress. She was best known for her performances of songs such as "The Boy I Love Is Up in the Gallery", "My Old Man (Said Follow the Van)" and "Oh Mr Porter What Shall I Do". She received both criticism and praise for her use of innuendo and double entendre during her performances, but enjoyed a long and prosperous career, during which she was affectionately called the "Queen of the Music Hall".

Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas With a pretty little peapot 'tween her knees She's a whiz at shelling peas So she sits and shells with ease Till the pretty little peapot's full of peas. Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas And she talks to all the little bugs and bees. They climb up her legs and arms And all round her other charms. They see lots of things nobody ever sees. Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas With her little dress away above her knees. All the boys that pass her way Stand and stare and wish that they Were that pretty little peapot 'tween her knees. Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas And the little birds are singing in the trees Waiting till she falls asleep, Then fly down and take a peek At her pretty little peapot full of peas. Oh, among the cabbages and peas she sits, And her pretty little dress so tightly fits When she stoops to take a pea That's the time that you can see That she's got a pair of very lovely hips. Oh, she sits among the cabbages and peas, But one day she felt so very ill at ease. She was sitting on a hole. In that hole there was a mole. It's no wonder that she felt so ill at ease.

Gardening isn’t working with Nature, it’s a constant struggle against it.’

What we have in spades is an unshakeable self-belief: the sure and certain knowledge, no matter how ill-founded, that the world is ours and everything that’s in it. He’ll have a fight on his hands if he tries to start a war with Britain – it’ll never occur to us that we’re not entitled to win by divine right.’

‘The Nabbing of the Leaking Parachute Nobbler would definitely be a musical comedy.

‘A conversation with you is just a box of parts we have to assemble for ourselves, isn’t it?’

Traditional ginger beer is a sweetened and carbonated, usually non-alcoholic beverage. It is produced by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar. Its origins date from the colonial spice trade with the Orient and the sugar-producing islands of the Caribbean. It was popular in Britain and its colonies from the 18th century. Other spices were variously added and any alcohol content was limited to 2% by excise tax laws in 1855. Few brewers have maintained an alcoholic product. Not to be confused with ginger ale. Ginger ale is a carbonated soft drink flavoured with ginger. It is consumed on its own or used as a mixer, often with spirit-based drinks. There are two main types of ginger ale. The golden style is credited to the Irish doctor Thomas Joseph Cantrell. The dry style (also called the pale style), a paler drink with a much milder ginger flavour, was created by Canadian John McLaughlin.

Modern parachutes have been around in one form or another since the end of the eighteenth century but they were, as Harry says, cumbersome and awkward. Wearable parachutes began to appear around 1907, but the first parachute carried in a knapsack was designed in 1911 by a Russian gentleman by the name of Gleb Kotelnikov.

Despite the many complaints I’ve had over the years, ‘my lover’ really is a generic West Country term of endearment. ‘Lover’ was commonly used in English to refer to someone who felt fondness for another (a friend), but its other sense (a sexual partner) has become the only modern sense. Except in the West Country.

Battenberg cake (which used to go by a variety of names including ‘chapel window cake’) is now made commercially with just four alternating squares of pink and yellow sponge, with the whole thing wrapped in marzipan. The original recipe, though, had nine squares. Tradition has it that the cake was invented (and named) for the wedding in 1884 of Prince Louis of Battenberg and Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Victoria. There’s some doubt about whether that’s actually true, though, and the first published version of the recipe (with nine squares) didn’t appear until 1898.