I was cleaning up my old notebooks yesterday. Paper and electronic. And I found this intriguing/infuriating entry.
“Cloke and Dagg’r - read that history book and turn it into a novel”
What history book?!?
Because “Cloke and Dagg’r” is a great name for an epic fantasy novel set in a proto-Dickensian London where spies are the ruling class. But I’m fucked if I can remember what history book I’m supposed to read as part of my research.
Hmm ... What if G Gordon Liddy was a sleeper agent ? Watergate was a brilliantly conceived op by ....the French DSGE . Who are themselves infiltrated by HYDRA....no help here I’m afraid .
I'd absolutely read that. Feels like a good title for a fantasy cop buddy movie to me - maybe along the lines of Simon R Green's Hawk and Fisher, or Dale Lucas's Rem and Torval, but as Pinkertons hunting Jack the Ripper, noted industrial espionage specialist? Rapiers and derringers ahoy!
"Because “Cloke and Dagg’r” is a great name for an epic fantasy novel set in a proto-Dickensian London where spies are the ruling class." Gotta be steampunk too. Maybe with Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper as bit players. Actually I could be thinking of Anno Dracula by Kim Newman...
I did some rudimentary googling based on the very specific spelling of Cloke and Dagg'r, and the only history book I managed to find was this:
Hmm ... What if G Gordon Liddy was a sleeper agent ? Watergate was a brilliantly conceived op by ....the French DSGE . Who are themselves infiltrated by HYDRA....no help here I’m afraid .
No, but you made me laugh.
Can you date the journal entry, and correlate it to some strata in the pile o'shame?
Doubt it, but I'm desperate enough to try.
I'd absolutely read that. Feels like a good title for a fantasy cop buddy movie to me - maybe along the lines of Simon R Green's Hawk and Fisher, or Dale Lucas's Rem and Torval, but as Pinkertons hunting Jack the Ripper, noted industrial espionage specialist? Rapiers and derringers ahoy!
I know right! I want it read it right now, let alone write it.
Maybe you read The Sword and Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive, because the KGB was embarrasingly low-tech compared to their American counterparts.
"Because “Cloke and Dagg’r” is a great name for an epic fantasy novel set in a proto-Dickensian London where spies are the ruling class." Gotta be steampunk too. Maybe with Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper as bit players. Actually I could be thinking of Anno Dracula by Kim Newman...
I did some rudimentary googling based on the very specific spelling of Cloke and Dagg'r, and the only history book I managed to find was this:
https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HP4nAAAAYAAJ
I can't imagine it's a history book you would have made a note to yourself about though 😥