Prosfic Rec Advent Calendar, Day Twenty: Two by Elspeth Leigh

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Here I am, with today's Advent offering: two - count 'em, two! - stories by Elspeth Leigh:

• Fairy Tale
• The Cow’s Christmas
  

They *are* related; The Cow’s Christmas is an alternate take on Fairy Tale, from what I can tell, written a year or few afterwards. Rather than true fairy tales, they're more a blend of a few Christmas stories.

Both start off with Bodie working on the crossword at Doyle's. They're already a couple, they're lazing through a rare-ish Christmas break – but it then veers off in another direction entirely. Almost.

The second makes the first story a bit more CI5-centric – and making it hit home that much more. I think it’s the better story, though rawer.

Even though these two stories comprise a take and a retake of a certain situation, I think they should be read together, and in that order.

Don’t want to spoil it too much; but in the end, maybe it's more about CI5 itself, as its own character.

Hope you enjoy!

ETA: As tinturtle points out below, The Cow's Christmas seems to have come first - I inadvertently switched the publish dates. A teeny tiny shame but CI5 is still the central character - and it's remit *is* beyond its members, after all!

Comments

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

I think Elspeth Leigh is a very fine writer and (perhaps) not mentioned enough so thank you for this post!

[golden-bastet.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :-)

I am awful with remembering story names, much less authors (I'm much more, "that's the story where they went to A and did B"). My next Pros assignment is to comb through the various sources and get a better idea of what else she's written.

[harlech1000.livejournal.com]

That sounds like me too - isn’t it frustrating (lol)