Gillian Fetlocks

The Crawfish family faces many familiar problems: eldest daughter Marry has too many suitors, including Atchew, who can't figure out which fork or spoon to use, middle daughter Enid is ignored by all and youngest Supple joins the chauffeur in protesting everything. Half the household is writing screenplays about the other half, housekeeper Mrs. Used gets tipsy and tries to seduce butler Tyresom, who is shocked, but then asks for details. And Isabich Crawfish and Vile, Lady Grandsun, are at each others' throats from their first meeting.

"Excuse me," Isabich asks, "Are you alive?"
"How amusing," the countess counters. "From a woman who is probably thanked in the Acknowledgements section of the Holy Bible."
"Are you saying I'm advanced in age? I would venture to say that you are so old that when you were in grammar school, there was no History class. Now that is old."
The countess burns. "It is my understanding that you wandered into an antique shop-and they kept you."
"Really? Oh, do tell me, Countess- how did you get here? I'm guessing it was on a boat with two of every type of animal."

So it's a pretty good parody that runs right up to the last episode of Season 3. At times very funny, at others times a bit raunchy, but the author clearly watches the show closely.… (meer)

Sadly, this book does not meet the basic rule of parody -- it isn't funny, at least not in my judgement. I was delighted when it popped up, because I love parody and I love Downton Abbey, and DA certainly offers plenty of material for parody. And, based on the reviews on Amazon, several people at least did find this parody very funny. But I must be missing something critical, because I can't understand how anyone -- even a thirteen year old boy who was also a devout fan of DA, as unlikely as that may sound -- could find this idiotic effort amusing. "Thirteen year old boy", because a lot of the "humor" (lots of "quotes" here!) is of the basic bathroom variety, which I associate, rightly or wrongly, with thirteen year old boys. For me at least, what this book mostly seems to do is to switch people's names around and give them stupid comments that are loosely related to the plot, but not in any consistent way. Pastiche, maybe. Parody, no.… (meer)