Amateur author and period drama fan. Writes fanfiction for Downton Abbey and The Hour under the pen name Silvestria and currently working on original projects as well.

You can now read University Challenge in Russian, Chinese and Spanish! I make no guarantee for the quality of the translations but they have been done with my permission. If you are reading in translation or wish to translate any of my stories into another language then please get in touch!

Currently watching Mr Selfridge, Dancing on the Edge, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, and Death in Paradise. Snarking over Downton Abbey is a constant.

Rose Explains Titles: Explantion of aristocratic titles.

Rose Reads: Reading outloud. (Also see the tag "Rose reads".)

Mary Crawley's Tumblr (University Challenge verse)

Downton Abbey meets musical theatre

Will answer questions about Britain (Britpicking), aristocratic titles, Latin & Ancient Greek in exchange for biscuits. Also always more than happy to give opinions on characters, plot development and so on or to respond to queries about own writing.

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orangeshipper replied to your post: I love my RPG. We’re having an indepth discussion…

Ok, I have to ask this because I see it ALL THE TIME and it’s driving me nuts….. What on earth does ASOIFthingy (the reply box is covering it!) stand for? I feel like I’m going to kick myself but I just have no idea!

A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series by George RR Martin, on which the TV series Game of Thrones is based. :)

also tagged by Claire! :)

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orangeshipper said: 

This makes me strangely and indescribably happy! :D

orangeshipper said:                                                                                            

It seems so, unfortunately. :( What show was it?

The Lady Vanishes on BBC1 this evening. A remake of a Hitchcock film. The ending was rushed and anticlimactic and I didn’t really get the details of the plot but I really liked it as a drama and thought the acting was excellent. Really powerful account of how powerless a lone woman was in a society where she is not considered capable of having her own voice and knowing her own mind. A salutory reminder in many ways.

orangeshipper said:                                                                                                                           

I still haven’t figured it out either… :( *hugs* I’m honestly at the point of wondering if I wouldn’t rather quit teaching and have my evenings and weekends back. It’s been a tough week

*hugs* You and me both, dear. I’m doing this PGCE next year and as my deputy head said to me this week, “It’s nine months of hard work for a qualification that you can wear lightly but which will open doors for you” and I think that it’s definitely worth while because I do see my future in some sort of education, but oh my goodness, I’m not sure I want to teach teenagers Latin all my life and a part of me wonders if I’m making a terrible mistake.

At the moment my gut is telling me to travel, maybe to do that PhD and I think I’ll definitely apply next year. But you don’t turn down a PGCE offer from Cambridge and my deputy head is right. It will be worth it. But at the same time… WRITING. That’s what I really want to do. And currently I can’t. It’s as simple as that. And I can’t really do anything else either and I cry most days. Which, you know, is probably not a great lifestyle to be leading long term!

So I know how you feel.

 orangeshipper said: 

It’s funny, but I think that expresses exactly how I feel about Downton S3 :P I know it has contrivances and issues galore, but I just really really enjoyed it - lol though I imagine initial expectations differ somewhat between DA/GG! :P

Yeah, I think it’s the expectations that make the difference. If you go on the GG tag there are lots of angry people who feel let down by it, how I feel about Downton. Downton should have been better, was better, and we in fandom with our writing and RPing and discussions made it better still. Perhaps we made it something that it never was. And so in my response to S03 is anger and betrayal that I shouldn’t feel but I do because I valued it over what it was worth. I wish I could enjoy Downton as I do GG but I can’t. I can’t not analyse it, I can’t not see all the things that make me angry about the way my favourite characters have been written, I can’t not see subtext I find disturbing - and I can’t not care about these things.

GG on the other hand remains wildly entertaining!!!

I just found one of the many “Mary tells Matthew she’s pregnant” RPs that Claire and I wrote ages ago. I don’t think we ever posted it but they all went roughly the same: living in Crawley House, Isobel suspected, Mary talked to Dr Clarkson but didn’t know how to tell Matthew because she was scared of being a mother, Matthew was adorably clueless… And in the end it was sweet and loving and affecting.

I liked that universe and those headcanons and scenes so much better than what we got in S03. We got all this innuendo and baby drama but not once did I really feel a connection to the characters and what they were going through. Isobel, mother-in-law and nurse, had no part to play and none of it felt real for the characters. Why was Mary suddenly desperate for a baby just after her sister died in childbirth? Did she really want a child or did she just feel a duty to provide an heir? Why weren’t these awesome character conflicts explored? What did Matthew really feel about the prospect of his injury having left some consequences and making him impotent? Did he really not notice his wife had an operation?

This is what makes me so sad about Season Three.

arethosedustyjumpwings replied to your post: Hi! I was just wondering if you can recommend any really good books? I’m not too into the classics, but I love ‘angsty’ romances and a good bit of drama. I’m only asking because I’m currently going through a slight book lull and have no clue what to read! Oh, and you’re a fantastic writer!

The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Society is the bestest. Also, if anon wants angsty romances: Landfall, and Pastoral, both by Nevil Shute.

 orangeshipper replied to your post: Hi! I was just wondering if you can recommend any really good books? I’m not too into the classics, but I love ‘angsty’ romances and a good bit of drama. I’m only asking because I’m currently going through a slight book lull and have no clue what to read! Oh, and you’re a fantastic writer!

Oh, and can I reccommend Summer in February? If one is after an angsty romance……

orangeshipper replied to your post: Hi! I was just wondering if you can recommend any really good books? I’m not too into the classics, but I love ‘angsty’ romances and a good bit of drama. I’m only asking because I’m currently going through a slight book lull and have no clue what to read! Oh, and you’re a fantastic writer!

YES YES YES to The Night Circus. EVERYONE GO AND READ IT NOW.

We have a second opinion, ladies and gentlemen. :)

orangeshipper replied to your post: You know those days in which everything goes…

*HUGS* Hope you’re feeling better now. Blankets and tea and good telly. :)

*hugs*

I’m feeling a bit better, thanks. Early night and super productivity tomorrow again I think. *sigh*

orangeshipper replied to your post: acupofchar replied to your post: What’s wrong with…

Agree with this. I rather enjoy spotting the out-of-place-randomly-sexualised scenes in AD adaptations - see DS’s wood-chopping in the rain (which was originally meant to be shirtless?!) in S&S, and random shower shot in TLoB… :P

Yes! I was thinking of the wood chopping scene too! I’m sure there’s one in Middlemarch but I haven’t seen it for so long…

See, I don’t think it’s necessarily that they’re sexualised - the W&D one isn’t and there are sexualised scenes that aren’t out of place but serve to really develop the story and characters such as Darcy’s sweaty fencing (“I will conquer this”) or Willoughby’s seduction of Marianne at Combe Magna (it was a sexual attraction/awakening for her), but there’s something just a bit absurd about these particular scenes.

Good old Davies!!

acupofchar replied to your post:  

I did enjoy watching it, mainly for the pretty and the chemistry between the two leads. However I will admit that it’s hardly an accurate adaptation and has major faults in depictions of situations and characters.

Just the very suggestion that the two leads had chemistry is making me twitch. I am really trying to be objective. I just CAN’T. I HATE IT SO MUCH THERE ARE NO WORDS.

*breathes*

 orangeshipper replied to your post: orangeshipper replied to your post:   I HEAR YOU….

I will, my dear. I will. I can’t talk rationally about it to people without descending into incoherent splutters and furious arm waving. I look forward to your post!

orangeshipper replied to your post:  

I HEAR YOU. I have feelings of utter rage towards it. The only redeeming features are some scenery porn and pretty music imo. That’s IT.

You will enjoy my post then even if nobody else does. :P

I can’t write rationally about it.

mrandladymarycrawley:

This is giving me S1 AU ideas…

This gives me massive CotC feels. Especially as the chapter we’ve got stuck on takes place in the formal gardens. Oh Claire, when are we going to have time to RP again?

(Source: sleepyladymary, via thetruth-lies)

enchantedengland:

enchantedengland: There are nine hundred reasons to go to Yorkshire and Whitby is number two. (York is number one) This is just my opinion, now. But I am never ever wrong except when I am mistaken.

(Source: all-roads-lead-to-britain)