Learning From Lovejoy

Jonathan Gash (with some help from you) has already given me lessons in English as spoken in England. But that's not all one can learn from The Rich and the Profane. If Lovejoy's knowledgeable asides on antiques don't grab you, perhaps his paragraphs about the techniques of charcoal-making or the social history of drill halls will. The man and his creator are walking librarians who, in the engaging manner of librarians everywhere, love to share their knowledge.

Qiu Xiaolong's Death of a Red Heroine taught me a lot about life in 1990s Shanghai, and Lawrence Block taught me a little about stamp collecting. I learned from Janwillem van de Wetering about the interesting structure of Dutch police departments. And don't even get me started on what Robert van Gulik taught me about law and public administration in Tang Dynasty China.

That's some of what I've learned from crime fiction. What about you? What crime novels and stories taught you, transported you, made you feel that you knew a place or a subject -- or even that you had just picked up some weird but memorable piece of information you didn't know before?

© Peter Rozovsky 2006

Words of Lovejoy

I'm reading The Rich and the Profane, my first of Jonathan Gash's novels about Lovejoy, that irrepressible and lascivious rogue. I may have more to say when I'm done. For now, though, I've noticed that Gash makes specialized speech more a part of his work than most crime writers do.

There's the slang of the antiques trade, for one, but beyond that, Gash has his characters speak in what seems like heavily flavored local speech, ta for thanks, for example, or the Plod for police. Lovejoy's burglar colleague calls him a pillock when Lovejoy makes a sound during a break-in. (Lovejoy also gets called a burk more than once, but I know what that is.)

So, U.K. readers, is this all standard English slang? Is it, perhaps, particular to East Anglia, where the first part of the novel is set?

© Peter Rozovsky 2006

Looking for Lovejoy

Jonathan Gash's novels about Lovejoy, that "shady and lecherous antiques dealer," are high on my to-read list. Does anyone have suggestions as to which titles to start with?

Thanks