Old cars

by Carola

I've never been particularly interested in cars--I've been happily driving used Toyota sub-compacts for 25 years--but it's fun choosing vehicles for my major characters.

In the Daisy Dalrymple series, when Daisy first met DCI Alec Fletcher of Scotland Yard, in 1923, he was driving a yellow Austin Seven, a car familiarly known as an Austin Chummy. It was his own, not a police vehicle.

I've just found a video of a slightly later version--driving in the snow, as Alec was in DEATH AT WENTWATER COURT.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNTqx9yBgM

The trouble is, it's a small car and Alec's sergeant, DS Tom Tring, is a large man. Though Tom never attempted to fit behind the steering wheel, you can see in the following video the effect on the springs of his simply climbing into the car:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqVjcSQjeBE (don't bother to watch the whole thing)

A notable sports car that makes an appearance in DAMSEL IN DISTRESS is the duck's-back Alvis belonging to one of Daisy's friends.

In the course of the series, Daisy learns to drive, and between ANTHEM FOR DOOMED YOUTH and GONE WEST, she buys a small car of her own. What I chose for her is a sky-blue Gwynne Eight.

 

 

Meanwhile, Daisy and Alec having married in TO DAVY JONES BELOW, the family has grown as toddler twins have joined Daisy's stepdaughter, Belinda. Alec decides he needs a larger car, and with his inheritance from his great-uncle he can afford one. What he buys is an Austin Twelve, royal blue, with room for the whole family--and room in the front passenger seat for Tom Tring.

 

Image created by Simon GP Geoghegan

Here (in the interests of chronology, though nothing to do with my books), I'm going to insert the car my mother had in the 1950s, a 1934 Morris:

I can't swear this is exactly the same model, but it was very like this.


My second series, the Cornish Mysteries, is set in the late 1960s. My protagonist, Eleanor Trewynn, a widow in her early 60s, needs a car to drive around Cornwall collecting donated goods for the charity shop on the ground floor of her cottage. For her I chose a Morris Minor, another small car. There's plenty of room for her and her Westie, Teazle, but she has great difficulty fitting in some of the larger donations.

1958 model

 For some reason, the Morris Minor is affectionately known as a Moggy. Eleanor's car is older than this one and pea-green, punningly nicknamed the Incorruptible.

I think my brother once had one of these, but his passion is the Morris Minor "Woodie."

The car I learned to drive in was just like this!

This is what parked next to me today:

A Triumph Spitfire--I'm thinking that Nick might decide to buy one in the next Cornish Mystery.

by Carola Dunn

This is the cover of my next book, the 20th Daisy Dalrymple mystery, due out in January 2012. I really like it, and when I posted it on Facebook so did nearly 80 people!


It looks rather more like a mansion than the farmhouse it's supposed to be. At least I had some input--I got "them" to reduce the size of the car and increase the size of the hills. It's set in the Derbyshire Dales, a fairly rugged part of England, and Eyrie Farm is in an isolated spot surrounded by steep slopes.

Daisy drives herself to Derbyshire in her newly acquired a motor-car. It's a 1925 Gwynne 8, a two-seater with a dickey.


Daisy stalls on a steep hill. She has to double-declutch to get the car going again. Having insisted on a self-starter, she doesn't have to crank the engine.

I'm not sure whether I ever learned to double-declutch, but I remember my mother doing it in our 1934 Morris, in the late '50s and '60s. It had a button on the floor to start it, though I think she had to crank it occasionally. The windshield opened in inclement weather. Towards the end of its life, the doors were held closed by straps around the door handles.



It was known as Uncle Morris, because it was purchased with a legacy from Uncle Maurice, my godmother's father. I decided to google his name, and found this, from the London Gazette archives:

NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership
heretofore subsisting between us, the under-
signed, Maurice Jellinek and Henry Jellinek, carrying
on business as Brush and Fancy Goods Merchants,
at 44 and 45, Farringdon-street, in the city of London,
under the style or firm of H. JELLINEK AND CO.,
has been dissolved by mutual consent as and from the
28th day of February, 1915. All debts due to and
owing by the said late firm will be received and paid
by the said Maurice Jellinek,. who will continue the
said business under the style of H. Jellinek and Co.
—Dated this 25th day of January, 1916.
MAURICE JELLINEK.
HENRY JELLINEK.

I'm sure it must be him, because I remember we always had a set of washing-up (dish scrubbing) brushes called Tip, Top, and Shine that came from the family firm.

Ah, the highways and byways of Google...!