Fandom: RAFFLES / AMELIA PEABODY / LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: none
Length: 1,412 words
Author on LJ: traboule
Author Website: FanFiction.net
Why this must be read:

I actually have never read a word of the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters or Lord Peter Wimsey by Dorothy L. Sayers. However, what could be better than two precocious kids and England's most famous gentleman cricketer?

Gentlemen and Players

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Harriet/Peter
Length: 1800 words
Author on LJ: lopezuna_writes
Why this must be read:

For all my occasional wanderings in the wilder realms of the Lord Peter Wimsey fandom, I nonetheless still love the more canon-compliant sort of story, and that perhaps closest to canon genre, the missing scene fic. Here, lopezuna_writes has carved a gem of a piece (intaligo Wimsey mice) as Harriet deals with the aftermath of the Wilvercombe mystery of Have His Carcase and its personal, professional, and legal fall-out. It's very much a character-driven story, a study of a pre-Gaudy Night Harriet, irritable, hurt and hurting, and still not quite able to get rid of Peter.

Harriet did not mention her European trip to Wimsey. She told herself that it was none of his business, and that he had no claim to know where she went or what she did - and in justice, she had to admit he had never asserted such a claim. But the thought that she was planning to disappear once again without telling him, this time for a prolonged period, made her feel curiously furtive. In consequence, she was more than usually bad-tempered on the occasions when they met, and let him know in no uncertain terms that if he thought their prolonged and frequent interactions at Wilvercombe had set a precedent for the future, he was bound to be disappointed. Wimsey responded with his usual imperturbable urbanity, leaving her with an unreasonable desire to hit him.


Read it here.

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Harriet/Peter
Length: 12,000
Author on LJ: ione (I think - the link is no longer working, so this assumes that they are the same person!)
Why this must be read:

At this season of the year, as Wimsey fandom waits with collective fingers crossed against the coming of Yuletide and with a bit of luck another few fics to add to its store, it’s also a good time to look back at what previous Yuletide years have brought. This story takes a look at Peter and Harriet in their first year of married life in London, as Harriet deals with married life, social life, pregnancy and - of course - a mystery. There are welcome appearances from old friends - and enemies, not least Miss Climpson, who for me is one of the treats of this piece. Not to mention that really long fics are all too rare in this fandom.

Harriet sat there on the uncomfortable chair, glowering at the rapidly cooling tea in its dainty Victorian crockery that probably had been Miss Climpson's in her girlhood. As the clock ticked on the wall next Miss Climpson's tidy desk, Harriet's thoughts bumbled pointlessly like a fly caught between windows. On one side there was her absolute trust in her husband; on the other, the malicious intentions of . . . who? Why?

Read it here.

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Harriet/Peter
Length: 878 words
Author on LJ: executrix

Why this must be read:
I enjoy any well-written Wimseyfic, but I must admit that if I have an OTP, it’s Peter/Harriet. This delightful piece by executrix is set in an early stage in their relationship, as they are both feeling their way into whatever it will become. The romance is charming, and the period detail is entrancing and essential (and even educational), giving it a wonderfully precise sense of time and place. The Peter's POV narrative has a wonderfully in-character and humorous voice - a difficult task pulled off with aplomb.

"That was fascinating!" Harriet said. "I almost wish I wrote the Jules Verne sort of romance, so I could have a book on the stalls by the New Year, set on the new planet."

"If it had inhabitants, I'm sure they'd be after murderin' each other to the great advantage of your bank balance," Peter said. "It doesn't say much for the Man in the Street that the lecturer had to break it all down into words of one syllable."

"I was grateful," Harriet said. "Although it made me aware that, like Sherlock Holmes of blessed memory, my astronomical knowledge is…a trifle weak."

Read it here.

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Gen (Wimsey and Bunter)
Length: 2500 words
Author on LJ: azdak
Author website: Azdak at AO3
Why this must be read:
The Great War and its aftermath is something of a sub-genre in Wimsey fandom. Canon gives us only tantalising glimpses of these crucial events in the lives of the main characters, but happily we have fanfic authors to step in and suggest what might have happened. This story by azdak takes the key moment of Wimsey’s offer of a job to Bunter, made in what the Dowager Duchess of Denver refers to as a ‘tight spot’, and Wimsey’s burial in a shell-hole, and creates a taut and grimly atmospheric story with just the right amount of angst.

And when you’ve read this you can go and read the whole of the wonderful Oh, What a Lovely War series of which it is a part.

He hadn't heard the whiz this time. He'd been too busy shouting an order at young Phipps to get his sodding head down. The first he knew of it was the bang, and the ground shuddering beneath his feet, and then someone was yelling in his ear that a dugout had collapsed, five men buried, where were the spades - oh hell, where were the spades? – and then the metal biting into the earth, faster, faster. Every second counted, because you didn't have more than a few minutes to get a man out of a mudslide before he suffocated. If he hadn't already been pressed to death by the weight of the earth on him.

And one of them was Major Wimsey.

Read it at AO3 and LJ.

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Harriet/Bunter
Length: 3200
Author on LJ: antisoppist
Why this must be read:
I have just told you that this is a Harriet/Bunter fic. Do you need another reason?

Oh, all right then.

Considering that Harriet confessed on her wedding night that she loved Bunter, it’s taken a surprisingly long time for a fanfic in which she gets to go to bed with him. This is that fic, and happily it is utterly, magnificently worth waiting for. It’s an AU that posits that Peter did not come back from his overseas mission of the Wimsey Papers/Presumption of Death to live happily ever after with Harriet, but died leaving her a widow with two sons. And Bunter. It is sensitive, plausible, with spot-on characterisation, and very, very funny. Last December, azdak suggested that Wimseyfic fell into two catagories – more than, and more of. This fic does both.

Harriet propped herself on one elbow and contemplated the dark head on the pillow beside her. Dawn had not, as part of her mind had feared, brought regret and a sickening sense of “what have I done?” but peace, the memory of laughter and the absence of the heavy numbness that had weighed on her since Peter’s death. Waiting for Bunter to wake, she could only hope he felt the same way about it.

Read it here.

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Gen, Sir Impey Biggs
Length:
Author AJ Hall
Author Website: At At AO3
Why this must be read: For an author whose characters spend a great deal of time talking about, worrying about, and occasionally having nervous breakdowns about ethical issues, it seems rather odd that the one area nobody apparently gives a damn about is legal ethics, through which Sayers regularly drives a coach and four. AJ Hall has taken up the challenge of delving into one of the more egregious examples, canary-fancying barrister Sir Impey Bigg’s statement that he refuses to defend blackmailers – barristers’ rules requiring them to take all comers.

If that all sounds a little dry, then this must be read because it is a poignant exploration of a minor but important and intriguing character’s backstory that intersects nicely with canon, by an author who doesn’t write nearly as much in this fandom as one might wish.

"You shouldn't blame yourself," I said. "After all, you kept the jury out for three hours. And the foreman made a very strong recommendation to mercy. Quite right, too. The murdered man was a rotten blackmailer, and the world's better off without him. Even if there’s no appeal, your client has every hope of a Royal Pardon."

"You think so?" Sir Impey's mobile lips twisted. "I doubt it. Not after Counsel for the Prosecution brought my client's letters into evidence. I thought men like that shot themselves. Isn't His Majesty's opinion on that point going to prove a bit of an obstacle to a Royal Pardon? Besides, now his secret’s out, what's my poor devil of a client got to live for?"

I didn't know Biggs at all well but there was something in the tone of his voice....

Read it here

I’ll be reccing the small but perfectly formed Lord Peter Wimsey fandom this month. It’s a reasonably active and quite varied fandom, producing fic that ranges from painstakingly canon-compliant to AU and occasionally bizarrer reaches, with a mix of gen, het and slash. I don’t think anyone has done wingfic yet, but I stand to be corrected. The fandom overview is here.

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Gen: Peter, Bunter.
Length: c.2500
Author on LJ: lyras
Author Website: Not known
Why this must be read:

The Lord Peter Wimsey fandom isn’t large, but it does feature some recurring themes that I'll be touching on in these recs, one of which is, perhaps not unsurprisingly, the Great War and its immediate aftermath. This fic by lyras takes the scene from the epilogue of Busman’s Honeymoon, in which the Dowager Duchess describes Bunter turning up at Denver after the war when Peter is ill, and gives us a warm portrayal of an unusually uncertain Bunter and a typically distracted yet sharp Duchess.

The drizzle did not make the grand old house with its poplar-lined driveway look any less imposing. A lesser man would have quailed at the sight, but Bunter had faced down English country homes before. He merely smoothed down his suit and sedately peeled off to the left, following the path to the servants' entrance.

When the door was opened by a young and comely housemaid, he relaxed slightly. He was rusty, but he'd always been able to charm women, perhaps because his demeanour was so unthreatening. No woman, he thought, would believe some of the things he'd done in France.

Read it here.

Fandom: TORCHWOOD/DOCTOR WHO/LORD PETER WIMSEY
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Jack Harkness, Peter Wimsey, Bunter
Length: ~20 000 words.
Author on LJ: ellen_fremedon
Author Website: AO3 / skyehawke
Why this must be read:

In the Second Doctor -era serial The War Games aliens abduct soldiers from various wars in Earth's history and make them fight in a simulated war. It's not too much of a strech to assume that Peter Wimsey and Jack Harkness, who both fought in World War I, might have been amongst those so stolen. In fact, when you think about it, it seems practically inevitable that they were.

On that premise Ellen Fremedon has built an atmospheric and well-plotted story, where everybody is in character and no canon gets violated: This all could have happened on the outskirts of, and just off-screen, of The War Games, and it fits into the canonical backstories of both Peter and Jack without much trouble at all.

Excerpt: "You know what this thing is."

"Yeah." Of all Jack's memories, it was the most deeply graven; he'd imagined just this scene on his first night in the trenches, and almost every day thereafter. The TARDIS would shut out the guns and the filth, and take him far away; and the Doctor—

--was almost certainly not Jack's Doctor. That damnable almost had let him down before; he had loitered in alleys and watched in shop windows, waiting hours or days only to see a stranger return to the ship.

The risks, to his person and his timeline, were great; the chance of catching the right Doctor, in the right moment, were beyond slim. And still it took all the strength he had to step back. "Yeah, I know what it is. And we have to get away." He turned and stalked off ahead of Adler, heedless of the revolver trained on his back.

"This is dangerous, this box?" Adler caught him up. "Is it to do with the English weapon?"

"No. It belongs to—to a friend of mine who's looking for the same thing we are," Jack said, and swallowed a curse, for if there was one thing he could be certain of, it was that the Doctor would be up to his eyebrows in whatever was going on.

No Man's Land

Title: The Incident of the Fellow in the Fellows' Garden
Pairing: none (gen)
Length: novella length
Author on LJ: azdak
Author Website: MFU fic list on her LJ
Why this must be read:

I was going to ignore Crossover Day, because I don't really read crossovers--no philosophical objection, I just don't have enough fandoms to make many of them comprehensible. But then I realized that this tour de force hasn't been recced yet in either of its fandoms. You should read this even if you've never heard of Man from UNCLE or the Wimsey books, but if you know either or both fandoms, you must read it. It's a pure joy. It takes place at Cambridge University in 1955, and the two canons fit together seamlessly. There is a real plot, realistic historical background, and the character voices are absolutely, hilariously perfect.

There's Lord Peter, a bit more frail with age, but mentally as sharp as ever, Bunter, who doesn't seem to have lost a step, a suspicious suicide as one of the Fellows of Christ's College shoots himself with Milton's (!) pistol, and then there is the rude and surly Russian post graduate student who comes under suspicion. Go read--and whatever you do, do not, do not miss the epilogue where Bunter and Illya tangle with a surprising result.

The Man of the Match, seated to his left, observed the hilarity with an air of sullen disapproval that Peter found rather provoking.

"Nice to see young people enjoying themselves, what?" he bellowed into Kuryakin's ear, over the noise of a particularly vulgar rendition of the Eton Boating Song.

"High Table certainly offers an excellent vantage point from which to observe the benefits conferred by a public school education," responded the Russian. Were it not for these outbursts, one might have thought him shy; but having been on the receiving end of rather more pieces of blistering sarcasm than was comfortable, Peter suspected it was camouflage. It seemed that, since pumping was getting him nowhere, he would have to try more direct methods.

The Incident of the Fellow in the Fellows' Garden

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: None
Length: 279
Author: nineveh_uk
Author Website: See the wimseyfic tag on her LJ
Why this must be read:


I'd like to finish up this month of recs with a personal favourite. Two years ago, tree_and_leaf's brilliant and heart-breaking "What if?" AU, Tell Beauty How She Blasteth, was recced here on crack_van, a retelling of Strong Poison and its aftermath in which Peter fails to save Harriet from hanging. Mithridates, he died old has a similar premise, but opts for an entirely different narrative approach, distilling the story of the successful murderer, Norman Urquhart, into a tiny, exquisite ficlet that is all the more powerful for the economy with which it hints at horrors without lingering on them. I won't provide an extract, because it's so short that to give anything away would risk ruining it, but it's a painfully sharp insight into Urquhart's twisted psyche, and it has a killer of a last line.

Mithridates, he died old

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Bunter/Peter
Length: 3,400
Author: atropos_lee
Author Website: atropos_too
Why this must be read:



Today's rec is a "more than" fic par excellence. It's slash – and explicit slash at that, which makes it a rare beast in Wimsey fandom – but it doesn't only subvert canon by imagining an illicit sexual relationship between master and man. Set in 1917, it shows us what happens when Captain Wimsey and Corporal Bunter encounter each other on temporarily neutral ground, away from the inflexible hierarchy of the army and of English society. I know of no other fic that more thoroughly shakes up Sayers' version of Bunter, giving us a complex psychological portrait of a politically aware, defiantly proletarian soldier, violent, hopeless, and yet searching in his own way for beauty and meaning amidst the squalor of war. It's a fascinating glimpse into a new world, told in a literary style very different in tone from most Wimseyfic, but non-slashers venture into it at their own risk.

Footsteps approaching on the gravelled path. A man, alone. Outline of cap and coat through the veil of fog. An officer. He had a few seconds yet to turn aside from the path, into the murk, and pass unseen.

And yet,

An officer, here, on this path, in this area, in the twilight, loitering, as he was, just the way to attract the right kind of attention.

Now he knew what he wanted. The greater risk, gamey, richer in taste, but soft too, once peeled of his armour of class and rank and service pistol...

Before the thought was fully formed, the familiarity of the tubular figure, peculiarity of gait, the flash of a single eye glass, stopped it dead.

Bloody hell. Not just an officer – that sodding officer.

London 1917

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Peter/alien
Length: 920
Author: nineveh_uk
Author Website: See the wimseyfic tag on her LJ
Why this must be read:


The title given is actually the title of the journal entry, as the fic itself is – probably for the excellent reason that it needs no title – nameless. For this is the one and only Wimsey mpreg fic in existence, brought to you as a special treat for Christmas Day. Mpreg definitely falls into the "more than" category of fanfic – any story using this trope is manifestly not attempting to fill in the gaps in canon, continue canon, or otherwise have anything more than the kind of relationship to canon that Lord Peter has to the disreputable Death Bredon. And yet even crack requires skill at both style and characterisation, since the pleasure derives from seeing how so wildly inappropriate a narrative element can be treated in a convincingly Wimseyish fashion. This story pulls off both a terrific Sayers narrative voice, and spot-on characterisation – because of course if Lord Peter were to find himself pregnant after having sex with an alien in a dubious Viennese night club, this is how he would react. As a bonus for the thoroughly depraved, there is a Bunter mpreg version here.

‘I confess, my lord, that the possibility of such an explanation for your lordship’s recent condition had not occurred to me.’

‘You don’t think anyone else suspects?’

‘I believe that would be most unlikely, my lord.’

‘I’m glad to hear that at least.’

It was against all his principles, but Bunter was still feeling rather weak. ‘My lord, if I may be permitted… My lord, how?’

‘I’ve been pondering that one myself. My only conclusion is that it is the result of one of the more continental evenings of our recent European journey.’

‘Vienna, my lord?’ suggested Bunter, in tones that perfectly modulated understanding and a merest whiff of manly sympathy.

Show me a snake and an apple, and I'd be lost

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: None
Length: 1,400
Author Website:None that I know of
Why this must be read:


One of the great pleasures that fanfic gives us more of is the meeting of characters who, in canon, may not even know of each other's existence. In this vignette, the Viscount St George finally learns his lesson about climbing over the walls of Women's Colleges, when a night time escapade results in a memorable encounter with Hilary Thorpe. The conversation between the two is a delight, and as a bonus it's peppered with wonderful little insights into the trials and tribulations of being Peter's nephew.

The coast seemed clear enough, so St. George ambled back into range of the streetlamp and switched on his most charming smile-- which, he was reliably informed, was very charming indeed. 'Seeing as I've been trapped here by pure unfortunate accident--'

The girl nodded tolerantly. 'Naturally.'

'Naturally,' St. George echoed without missing a beat, 'I was hoping to find my way out with a minimum of fuss, and therefore with a minimum of damage to--' he bowed, slight but entirely sincere-- 'the virtuous reputation of your distinguished College.' Enough long words in there, he thought, to satisfy just about anyone.

The corners of her mouth twitched up into a smile that was dangerously close to genuine. 'If you didn't look like such a nice young man, I'd say you were trying to blackmail me.'

The Social Climb

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Peter/Harriet
Length: 5,000
Author on LJ:nineveh_uk
Author Website: See the wimseyfic tag on her LJ
Why this must be read:


This is another look at Charles Parker after the events of Strong Poison, but this time examining not his relationship with Peter but his relationship with Harriet. How did Peter's friend and Peter's wife manage to find a modus operandi, when Harriet had so much to forgive and Charles so much to be forgiven for? The story is interspersed with hilarious excerpts from the Dowager Duchess's diary, and moves from stiff dislike and awkwardness to a lovely – and appropriately seasonal – conciliation, arising from the mutual respect each of them has discovered for the other.

`Miss Vane, please don't misunderstand me. I am not here in any professional capacity.'

`Of course not,' she had the upper hand now, and the smile came more naturally. `Else you'd already have spoken to Mr Croft. But I don't think it will do my reputation any good to be seen talking to a policeman in the hall, and naturally I have no intention of inviting you in.'

`Perhaps I ought to have written.' He did have a nice voice. She heard, beneath the grammar school surface, a faint breath of the North.

`Perhaps you ought. Alternatively, I should be quite happy, Mr Parker, never to have sight or sound of you again. Excuse me.'

The First Year After

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY/CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
Pairing: None
Length: 450
Author: antisoppist
Author Website: None
Why this must be read:


This absolutely charming little ficlet gives us exactly what it says on the tin. Suppose that, instead of Edmund Pevensey, the human child who stumbled through the wardrobe to meet the White Witch had been Bredon Wimsey? The ensuing conversation, about Duchesses, peacocks and Turkish Delight, is not only wonderfully in character, but full of telling little details from Wimsey canon. What can I say? The whole thing is completely adorable.

Bredon Wimsey had been surprised when the wardrobe turned out not to have a wooden back, as one might reasonably expect, but to lead into a snow-covered wood featuring an incongruous lamp-post. He wasn’t frightened exactly, but he rather thought Paul might have been, if he weren’t comfortably downstairs toasting crumpets in front of the fire. Frowning, Bredon briefly considered turning round and joining him.


Bredon in Narnia

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: None
Length: 4,400
Author Website: None that I know of
Why this must be read:


One of the hardest things to find more of, even in a fandom based on detective stories, is plot. Admittedly, even Sayers had trouble constructing a decent mystery within the constraints of the short story form, so perhaps it's not surprising that fic writers generally prefer character studies or vignettes to fully-fledged criminal investigations. Death in the Tuileries is a notable exception to this rule. Peter Wimsey, as a newly-minted lieutenant in Paris, is given two days to investigate the (apparently) accidental drowning of a young officer with friends in high places. In addition to a neat plot, the fic offers the bonus of Wimsey and Bunter's first meeting (refreshingly low-key and devoid of portentous hints about their future), and a well-realised wartime atmosphere. There is a nit or two to be picked – the dialogue is rather counter-intuitively laid out in places – but the story as a whole more than makes up for such lapses.

The lieutenant colonel looked over the fair-haired young man in front of him and decided it could have been worse. He had the semi-dazed look of all new officers, but his face wasn't quite as scrubbed raw as the university recruits, and at 24, he was positively mature compare to some.

"You were at Eton with one of the support company officers?"

"Major Morris, yes, sir."

"Good, well, he suggested you might be our way out of this ..."

The lieutenant colonel paused to think of a word that would adequately convey what he felt at being ordered to find time in the middle of a war to investigate the death of an aristocratic sot fool enough to drown himself in two feet of water.

"... situation," he finished, finally.


Death in the Tuileries

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Peter/Harriet, Charles/Mary
Length: 1,000
Author: rabidsamfan
Author Website: rabidsamfan at ff.net
Why this must be read:


Having dipped our toes in the dangerous waters of "more than" fanfiction – and don't worry, thrill-seekers, we will wade in more deeply on future occasions – I now return you to the safer shores of "more of", specifically more of Charles Parker. Charles gets a bit of a rough deal in canon, developing from confidante of his lordship, a good foil and a good friend - if a bit of a plodder - to largely off-stage brother-in-law. The reason is presumably Harriet – it is, after all, hard to over-estimate the social awkwardness of having tried to hang one's best friend's wife for a crime she didn't commit – but Sayers never discusses the issue explicitly, she simply allows poor Charles to fade away. This series of ten drabbles restores Charles Parker to centre stage, charting with humour and sensitivity the progression of his relationship with Peter, from their first meeting to the birth of Peter's first son, and filling in the gaps in their friendship that Sayers leaves in canon.

The first time that Charles Parker ever saw Lord Peter Wimsey, he admitted much later, he thought the man was an idiot. An interfering, overbred, impossibly privileged idiot, to be sure, but an idiot. This impression was not dispelled by the plaintive way in which the amateur insisted upon being provided with a glass of water in the middle of the investigation, but it did rather suffer when the amateur used the water to find the outline of the trapdoor laid into the elaborate parquet floor. Never let it be said that Scotland Yard had learned nothing since Sherlock Holmes.


10 x 100

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Bunter/St George
Length: 2,175
Author: executrix
Author Website: See the wimseyfic tag on her LJ
Why this must be read:


Fanfic that is "more than" canon may go down the crack route, blithely inserting whatever trope takes the writer's fancy, just for the fun of it, or it may offer a resistant reading, interpreting the text in a way that the author never intended. Sayers' Bunter, for instance, is never presented as being in any way dissatisfied with his lot in life. Although we are given hints that a rather different man lurks beneath the Jeeves-like mask of the perfect servant, it is never suggested that this difference extends to criticism of the class system or any of the constraints it imposes on him (on the contrary, when Peter offers him a raise, Bunter declines). executrix shows us Bunter from the inside, a Bunter with a real and complex inner life, who is far from happy with his lot, but sees no way out. She does it through the medium of what is possibly the rarest of all pairings in this fandom, Bunter and the Viscount St George, and makes their relationship utterly convincing. The fic is witty, intelligent and ultimately heart-breaking, it does justice to all the characters, and it's nothing like anything Sayers ever wrote. Even if you don't like slash, I strongly recommend that you read this.

Saint-George put down the epergne. Bunter stoically restored its luster. Saint-George picked up a freshly polished pair of sugar tongs and goggled his eyes at his hideously distorted reflection. “I mean, it’s only natural, isn’t? Or unnaturally natural. Chaps who like girls, like them because they’re different. So chaps like me fancy chaps like you. Because you’re different. You’re strong and you go around having adventures. I’m just blown around by the breeze.”

“This is a sceptred isle,” Bunter said. “Not a desert one. They had to go back.” And Bunter thought that that would be the end of it, wanted it to be the end of it, but the word “adventures” made him wish for adventures of his own, not the ones obtained by trailing around after Lord Peter.

Gentleman's Relish, or Five Times That Mervyn Bunter Knew His Place

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Peter/Harriet
Length: 950
Author: nineveh_uk
Author Website: See the wimseyfic tag on her LJ
Why this must be read:

Fanfic and slash go together like a horse and a carriage. In the case of Wimseyfic, it's not a huge step from the canon presentation of the obvious affection between Peter and Bunter to something that allows Bunter's "savage libido" rather more free play, so unsurprisingly, Peter/Bunter is a popular pairing. When Peter marries, everyone knows – even Peter's mother - that some kind of modus operandi will have to be found that allows him to balance his relationship to Bunter with his relationship to Harriet. nineveh_uk comes up with a remarkably original solution, and yet somehow manages to make it sound like something Sayers herself might have written (this is about to become recurring theme of the crackier recs – "If Sayers wrote fanfic, it would be JUST LIKE THIS!"). It is also remarkable, for Wimseyfic, for being sexually explicit. Read it, and blush.

Overmastered

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: None
Length: 1,250
Author: sam_storyteller
Author Website: See the 'lord peter wimsey' tag on his LJ
Why this must be read:

Another "more of" fic, this one examines Peter and Bunter's relationship through the medium of Bunter's hobby, photography. When Harriet first visits the Dowager Duchess in Busman's Honeymoon, we are told "She instantly seized on the [photographs] Peter calls 'Little Mischief' and 'The Lost Chord' and said, "'Somebody who understood him took those -- was it Bunter?'." How and why the latter photograph came to be taken, and why Harriet found it so eye-catching – these intriguing questions are addressed in this short fic, that packs a lot of punch for its size.

The darkroom was, as it were, Bunter's space and his lordship rarely visited without permission, express or implicit, but it was also a useful neutral territory. Bunter was master here, and when Lord Peter needed a friend and a crony more than a servant, here was the best place to find it.

The Lost Chord

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Harriet/Philip Boyes
Length: 2,600 words
Author Website: None that I know of
Why this must be read:


This is another "more of" fic, but this time one that shows us what Harriet was up to just after the events of The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club. It's a wonderful take on Sylvia and Eilunedd, on Vaughn, the ghastly Boyes-groupie, and on Phil himself, splendidly self-centred and blind to his own faults. The voice is pure Sayers, and although it's a vignette rather than a story proper, it's so absorbing that one wishes there were more.

Harriet privately thought that possession of a tea tray said less about one's bourgeois leanings than about the impracticality of juggling two mugs, a glass tumbler, and a bottle of not-terribly expensive champagne - but she was rather tired of rows, and lately even stupid things like tea trays had been known to provoke them, so she held her tongue.

Scarce Any Man

Fandom: LORD PETER WIMSEY
Pairing: Peter/Harriet
Length: 7,300 words
nineveh_uk
Author Website: See the wimseyfic tag on her LJ
Why this must be read:

Fanfic notoriously falls into two broad categories, "more of" and "more than". "More of" strives to give the reader more of what they loved about canon. The characters, type of events, even – in a literary fandom – the style all aspire to be the kind of thing the author might have written. "More than" gives us all the lovely fanfic tropes – steamy sex, hurt/comfort, rarepairings, AUs, mpreg, tentacleporn – that the author for some reason failed to include in canon. Wimsey fandom, perhaps surprisingly, has an abundance of both types of fic (with AUs being the honourable exception), and I shall be picking recs from both, to give an idea of the range and diversity of writing available, and to show just how much fun can be had with DLS's characters.

My first rec, though, is a classic of the "more of" variety. Or perhaps I should say an "instant classic", since it was only posted last week. I apologise to all those on nineveh_uk's flist who have already read this, but for the sake of those who haven't, and for all the new fans who come along in the future, I can't think of a better fic to start with. That a Lover have his Desire gives us a few missing scenes from Gaudy Night, after Peter has proposed and Harriet accepted, and it is quite simply astonishing. There are those of us who suspect that, if nineveh_uk is not actually the reincarnation of DLS, then she at least has a direct line to the Nether Regions which enables her to take dictation. You could insert this story into Gaudy Night and defy anyone to spot the seams.

‘Peter, I promise faithfully that when we are married, I’ll spoon with you at the Picture Palace to a programme of exhibition diving and a newsreel on industrialization in the Ukraine. But I’d rather like a little practice before venturing on a public performance. Surely we can find a quiet corner somewhere or other?’

That a Lover have his Desire

Title: The Royal Society by Sam Storyteller
Pairing: gen
Author on LJ: sam_storyteller
Author Website: http://copperbadge.livejournal.com/
Why this must be read:

Because somewhere, somehow, in some corner of the multiverse, you always knew there had to be a refuge...


The Royal Society

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Peter/Bunter
Author on LJ: http://bronze-ribbons.insanejournal.com
Why this must be read: It’s the new kid on the block in the world of Wimsey/Bunter *, set in the period before Whose Body? when Bunter is putting Peter back together after the war. Excellent dialogue and characterization, with a particularly appealing Bunter. Don’t miss the lovely little drabble by the same author involving Bunter and the Dowager Duchess, set around the same time here.

* I observe that Yuletide 2007 has disappointed once again on the ‘lengthy and explicit’ score, though otherwise containing some nice new Wimsey fics that are well worth a look.

( Imperturbable )

Bringing His Lordship Around

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Gen (Peter/Harriet)
Author on LJ: Unknown
Author Website: http://columbina.blogspot.com/
Why this fic must be read: The Wimsey fandom might be small, but the quality is high. Even the Pit of Voles doesn’t come up with a dud. This is a lovely little fic, a missing scene from Busman’s Honeymoon showing Peter, Bunter and Saint-George in the Mitre on the morning of the wedding.

( Wedding Bells )

My Constant Resting Place

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Gen
Author on LJ: azdak
Why this must be read: If you’ve ever read Lord Peter talking about Denver’s marvelous grass and wondered for a moment just exactly what he was referring to, this is the fic for you. It’s Sayers meets Withnail and I, and it’s wonderfully funny, with some great dialogue for Wimsey and Parker. (You don’t need to have seen W&I to enjoy it; I haven’t.)

( A policeman’s lot )

Wimsey and I

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Peter/Bunter
Author on LJ: Unknown
Why this must be read: Because if you’re one of those requesters of Peter/Bunter for Yuletide who discovered in January that you haven’t got it again, for a good few years this fic was your only place to go in search of solace. It remains by far the rudest piece of Wimsey fic on the web ;-) It won’t be to everyone’s taste – to be honest, it isn’t much to mine – but it has its market, and the author has had a go at something original.

( The cry of “Mervyn!” in the heat of passion… )

A Gentleman’s Gentleman

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Gen
Author on LJ:adina_atl
Why this must be read: It’s a Wodehouse/Wimsey crossover, and a delight from start to finish. Sayers never wrote the tale of Lord Peter’s first case, in which he solved the mystery of the Attenbury Emeralds and also met the young Detective Inspector Parker. Happily adina_atl has taken on the formidable task and given us not only one of the few Wimsey-fics of any notable length, but something clever, funny, and beautifully in character. Oh, and with Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, too.

( What ho! )

Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey
Pairing: Peter/Harriet
Author on LJ:sam_storyteller (aka copperbadge)
Author Website:
Why this must be read: I thought it was time for some lighthearted Peter and Harriet het. Set during their engagement, in this fic Peter introduces Harriet to some of the more ‘specialist’ books in his library…

( Step this way )