Hmm... some Dodger reviews are a bit annoying.

[RathDarkblade]

I've been looking at some reviews of Dodger, having read the book a couple of times now - and I've noticed that some of them look like they haven't even read the book at all!

What I mean is simple: some of the reviewers set the book in the 1870s or even earlier. Now, as many of us will know,

Spoiler

Queen Victoria is young in the book - and Albert the Prince Consort is still alive.

That in itself should ring alarm bells for anyone who is au fait with the history of the British monarchy - but even if you're not, it only takes a few seconds to look up those people, and see that

Spoiler

Albert died in the 1850s,

and

Spoiler

Queen Victoria would have been 60-ish in the 1870s (so not young at all)!

It's also annoying because

Spoiler

Mister Charlie (i.e. Charles Dickens)

died in 1870, so if the book was set in the 1870s, there's no way that he would've been included in it!

So for all those reviewers, all I can say is this: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh: :doh:

Anyway, don't mind me. I'm just having a good old rant... :whistle: :whistle:

 

[Penfold]

Just to add that Sir Robert Peel died in 1850 as well.

Mind you, it can also be said that Sir Terry has never shied away from changing history when it suited him; Discworld has so many trouser legs of time that they might have been tailored for an army of octopuses.

 

[=Tamar]

I've been looking at some reviews of Dodger, having read the book a couple of times now - and I've noticed that some of them look like they haven't even read the book at all!

What I mean is simple: some of the reviewers set the book in the 1870s or even earlier.

Earlier wouldn't be so bad... But I agree, some reviewers seem to have only read the blurb, and some not even that much.

 

[RathDarkblade]

Just to add that Sir Robert Peel died in 1850 as well.

Mind you, it can also be said that Sir Terry has never shied away from changing history when it suited him; Discworld has so many trouser legs of time that they might have been tailored for an army of octopuses.

Hmmm... maybe I should adopt the Trouser Legs of Time theory for my own writing. I've just finished writing a short story about the first hand-held camera ever to be used in forensic policing. Naturally I did a ton of research, since nothing is more annoying than someone pointing the finger and going "Nyah nyah, you got it wro-ong."

Anyway, I wanted to include some political jokes - and so I made Ben Disraeli the PM at the time (because the actual PM, Gladstone, was as dull as ditch-water). Unfortunately, by the time this camera came around, Disraeli was already dead for about 8 years or so. But that's okay - we'll just go down the other Trouser Leg of Time, instead!

Anyway... I've been writing for the last 20 years or so, so by now I should know what I'm doing (I hope...!)

 

[=Tamar]

Dodger is in an alternate universe anyway.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Down the other trouser leg of time