I thought it was about time you got introduced to the rest of the Family Thomas – there we are, all staring at something to the left. Wonder what it is. I had some trouble drawing Mum, but the male contingent of the Thomases look uncannily like their cartoon equivalents.
It seems quite the vogue – with dovegreyreader at any rate, and where she leads, I follow – to give family members more blogworthy names. And I have done so. But what to choose? With The Provincial Lady in mind (watch out for her over the next few days), I have christened Dad as Our Vicar, for such is his profession. In the same line, note Our Vicar’s Wife (she is decidedly nicer and less verbose than Delafield’s creation, fear not.) Our Vicar’s Wife also answers to The Chef. And then comes The Carbon Copy, who is nine (or, if you believe him, seven) minutes younger than me. That’s your lot. Give them a cheery wave, they might well be cropping up in the future.
Whilst The Carbon Copy is being mentioned, here’s a little literary challenge. Books with twins in… any ideas? Off the top of my head, can only think of:
Double Act – Jacqueline Wilson
Twins at St. Clare’s – Enid Blyton
The Ridleys – Richmal Crompton
Twins surely can’t be the preserve of children’s writers?
Off the top of my head… Viola & Sebastian in Twelfth Night, Fred & George in Harry Potter, Samneric in Lord of the Flies (were they twins?), Thompson & Thomson in Tintin… I realise I may have stretched the limits of what counts as literature here.
The Chalet School books by Elinor M Brent Dyer have their share of twins and triplets.
Ooh, just remembered: Lottie & Lisa by Erich Kastner. Filmed twice, once with Hayley Mills as the twins and the story moved from Vienna to the USA.
Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb
Wise Children by Angela Carter
The Twins’ New Poland by Timothy Garton Ash
The Twins by Tessa de Loo
Ooo well done Ruth and Colin (otherwise known as Carbon Copy) – how could I have forgotten about Viola and Sebastian? And, of course, The Comedy of Errors – where almost everyone is a twin.
Is The Carbon Copy similarly stuck-in-a-book?
Weren’t there twins in Peter Pan? Imaginatively called ‘The Twins’ if memory serves.
The Carbon Copy seems to be avoiding the question… but he did tell me by email that he’s “reading a book by Jeremy Clarkson”. The Carbon Copy and Our Vicar are both Mathematicians, and though CC loves Pride and Prejudice and admires Shakespeare, he might resent being put in the same category as me for bookliness…
Prince and the Pauper – Mark Twain
Darling Buds of May – H E Bates (all the Larkin books had twins Primrose and Petunia)
Man in the Iron Mask – Dumas
False Colours – Georgette Heyer
not sure if the Prisoner of Zenda qualifies
Behind the Scenes at the Museum except saying that spoils the plot entirely.
Freak of Nature by Phil Whitaker
Girls by “someone on the latest R&J list
I’m bound to be awake all night now trying to think of more, thanks Simon!
(Hello Simon. I just wandered over from dovegreyreader where we were both commenting on Penzance).
Twins a-plenty in Barbara Trapido
‘Angels and Men’ by Catherine Fox
‘Babel Tower’ by A S Byatt
More childishly, Dick and Dorothea in ‘Winter Holiday’ and Port and Starboard in ‘Coot Club’ (both Arthur Ransome), Daisy and Demi in L M Alcott’s Good Wives/Little Men/Jo’s Boys, and Nick and Lawrie in Antonia Forest’s Marlow novels. As well as the hordes at the Chalet School, and I seem to remember reading that one of Elsie J Oxenham’s characters produced two sets in a year.
The Other by Tom Tryon is a good creepy read about twins — not pre-1950, however.