Quite a Party
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Quite a Party |
| Author(s): | toujours_nigel |
| Date(s): | 22 December 2011 |
| Length: | 1390 words |
| Genre: | futurefic |
| Fandom: | Mary Renault |
| External Links: | archived on AO3 |
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"Quite a Party" is the first story to be written in toujours_nigel's Lovers in a Dangerous Time, a series of short stories based on Mary Renault's 1953 novel The Charioteer. It is set after the end of the novel, when Alec Deacon has moved to London following the death of his lover, Sandy Reid.
Synopsis
After a particularly nasty air raid, Alec hauls one of the ambulance volunteers off to the pub, with no idea that he and the young c.o., Andrew Raynes, have friends in common.
Background
"Quite a Party" was written as a gift for Greer Watson in Yuletide 2011 to the prompt, "Alec Deacon and Andrew Raynes never met in canon but...what if maybe they did, either in Bridstow or some time later on in the war, or even afterwards?".
The author subsequently wrote a prequel, "In This Unsheltered Place", and two sequels, "Batter my Heart" and "Kick at the Darkness".
Comments
The story elicited a number of comments, including the following:
- "Oh, lovely! Just the sort of story I was hoping for--true to the characters of both men, while taking them forward into the future."—comment by Greer Watson
- "I loved this. So understated and so weirdly inevitable, though I had never considered Alec and Andrew in the same thought until I read your recipient's request. I don't know what it is about this story but when I think of all the stories that have been written in the fandom this Yuletide, it's this one that lingers in my mind. There's something deeply satisfying and right about it. You've captured that style of Renault's dialogue where so much can be said and implied in so few words."—comment by naraht