Paul Magrs - Never the Bride

[Deleted]

As all good Dr Whomos will know, Paul Magrs is the author of Sick Building (which was going to be called 'The Haunted Bungalow' until RTD put his foot down about its overly camp title).

BUT has anyone read this other series of books he does? They follow Brenda, the bride of Frankenstein, after she moves to Whitby to start up a B&B, and her best friend Effie, an uptight "it was never like this at the cafe Bon Bon" style descendent of the Whitby witches. They have a young gay sidekick called Robert (Hetty Wainthropp style) who works as an elf at a local hotel where an evil Christmas-obsessed landlady makes every day Christmas Eve, in true Narnia style, and they all run around solving supernatural crimes in the dead of night.

Every chapter is a monster-of-the-week adventure, with stories about boutiques that reverse the ageing process but store the life they suck from you, Dracula returning to Whitby, people who drank the elixir of life a bit too late and ended up with "eternal middle age" and cursed nightclubs that possess you to dance to 70s disco.

I am reading the second, 'Something Borrowed', at the moment and creating a fantasy cast in my head. Brenda is played by Miriam Margolyes, Effie by Thelma Barlow, and Mrs Claus by Annette Badland.

Anyone? Anyone at all?

[mcflooze]

Ooh, I LOVED Never The Bride! I didn't know there was a follow-up already - thank you!

And your fantasy casting is spot on - although I'd pictured Effie as possibly a little bit more stern.

EDIT: I've just been out and bought this for my stepsister for Christmas - and all thanks to you for bringing it up. Have some karma!

[Rustie Lee]

I read some of his books an age ago and was underwhelmed. There was one when someone turned into a leopard or something ridiculous. But I think the thing I most disliked was the postulation that people might possibly refer to Marks & Spencer as `Marksies'. Simply unthinkable darling.

[Deleted]

Oh, chillax. I know people who call it Marks & Sparks, which is almost the same.

[Rustie Lee]

Oh that's perfectly acceptable and a long-standing tradition

But Marksie's?

[jetsetwilly]

Most Scousers in my experience refer to it as Markies or Marksies. Not being born round here I have tried to re-educate them but they won't have it.