The Peerless Pair

Zine
Title:	The Peerless Pair
Publisher:	Gryphon Press
Editor:
Author(s):	HG
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	pre-1985 (circuit); September 1990 (zine)
Medium:	print zine
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	The Professionals
Language:	English
External Links:	online here and here
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The Peerless Pair is a 147-page Professionals slash novel by HG published in Britain. It is a Regency AU set in the 1800s. The story began as a circuit story and for many years, fans only had chapters 1-3 floating around on the circuit, while waiting very patiently for the conclusion.

It is a story on The 1985 Hatstand Express Top Ten Lists.

Author's Notes

"An A/U, which begins several years after the Battle of Waterloo .

The short circuit version began life in the early 1980s as a Barbara Cartland-ish romp. Not surprisingly Doyle didn’t take to the idea of being the tremulous, virginal hero who spoke in ellipses and I quickly became bored and abandoned it.

But the first couple of chapters had made me quite fond of the characters so a few years later I returned to it, did some research - if not as much as I should - and took the story a little more seriously.

Readers of Georgette Heyer will notice the nod to ‘Devil’s Cub’ in the first chapter. I would mention the occasional nod to Dorothy Dunnett but that would only raise false hopes...

The quotations at each chapter head are taken from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen."

Reactions and Reviews

1988

[The story at this point was either unfinished, or the complete circuit version was not available to American fans.]: Regarding "The Peerless Pair, Chapters 1-3", an emotion charged Regency historical, how can this writer be so cruel to write a get 'em of these epic proportions, putting poor innocent Doyle through such hardships, inflicting so many injuries, and then leave the story hanging, with no resolution in sight?? ** Arghh!!** Please, please, finish this story (or, if it is now, please send it over to this side of the pond).

1993

Doyle is the younger son of a wealthy family whose widowed father remarries. The new wife takes an instant dislike to her young stepson, and proceeds to make his life a misery throughout his childhood and young adulthood while his father, intent on ignoring anything which might upset his own quiet life, turns a blind eye. Attacked by robbers and left for dead, on the orders of his stepmother, Doyle is rescued by Bodie, a landowner recently returned from the wars. At first Bodie mistakes the young man for a stable hand or other servant, and treats him accordingly, but soon he realises how wrong he is. The two men are fiercely attracted to one another and soon become lovers, but the past rears its head and it is only after separation, such misunderstanding, and a great deal more danger to Doyle, that the story is resolved and we get the happy ending we have been hoping for.

This is a wonderful story, beautifully done, very such in the Georgette Heyer would, it is written in a style very different from Rainbow Chasers, which therefore must have been difficult for her to do, but she maintains it beautifully. The characters are excellently drawn. In this sort of situation Doyle could so easily have been feminised and made over into the 'delicate flower' I personally cannot stand, but that does not happen. He retains his sharpness and strength of character and is always familiar, as indeed is Bodie, despite the rather formal way of speaking forced upon them by the style in which the story is written. The minor characters, too, those created by the author, also live and breathe: Theo, Doyle's brother; his father; Saul Grimsby, the stableman; Gordon, the slow-witted servant lad; Archie, the dour Scot ...

I have to confess a personal bias here: I love Jane Austen, and Georgette Heyer's Regency romances; I am also a fan of HG's fan-fiction. I knew I was going to like this story by the end of half a dozen or so pages, and I was not disappointed. If you have not already read it, do please give it a try. I don't think you'll be disappointed either.

1993

I'm reluctant to read B&D historicals. If you REALLY want to see Bodie Doyle act unlike Bodie and Doyle, writing a historical is preferable to raping the characters in the CI5 universe. However, too many writers of historicals discard characterization, motivation and plot along with the CI5 universe. The best historicals bring in enough elements of B&D characters to at least make them recognizable. The worst historicals slap the names of Bodie and Doyle on stock bodice ripper characterizations that give no feeling for the originals. Oddly enough my favorite and least favorite historicals were written by the same person -- H.G. I LOVE Discovered in a Graveyard, but was DEEPLY disappointed in Peerless Pair (especially having waited years to read the follow-up to the tantalizing first chapters). In Graveyard, I loved the past and present storylines. Several times I've read each as a continuous story. The confrontation between Cowley and Doyle at the end of the present day storyline is one of my altime favorites. Best of all, the historical characters were still recognizable as Bodie and Doyle. Peerless Pair.... Started much better than it ended. Doyle's characer went from innocent, self-doubting boy to sophisticated man from just one roll in the hay. But the very worst thing was being told that Doyle's father wouldn't be objecting as he'd been having it off with his groom for 30 years. All the cliches, none of the good writing that makes Graveyard such a good read.

The Peerless Pair tries to imitate Georgette Heyer, but does not quite pull it off. I read it and liked it, but some of the holes show. For Reagency stuff to work I think you need a tongue very firmly in cheek and a carefully controlled tone somewhere between 'realism' and farce. HG does not always have full control here, but she gets quite far with it sometimes. Doyle suffers a lot, and well. If you hate Reagency this will not convert you, but it is a decent page-turner if you understand Reagency conventions.

Peerless Pair may not be the best H.G. has ever done, but the beginning is excellent and perhaps the long wait for the end had us making up our own endings. Someone reading it all the way through at once might enjoy it even more. H.G. is always a good read.

2007

Re: HG. My issue with her is not that her writing is less explicit when it comes to the sex scenes. What I have a problem with is when she skips over scenes that are crucial to the overall story arc, scenes that as a reader I'm looking forward to.

For example (and I'll try not to spoil this too much in case you haven't read the story) in The Peerless Pair, B & D have a relationship, something happens that makes Doyle think this is a very bad idea. He leaves without telling Bodie why. It's a complete misunderstanding that separates them *for years*. You're waiting for that reconciliation (or at least I was!), the scene where they understand what went wrong and talk it through. That scene, when it happens, is *greatly* truncated. In fact, it's almost summarized a la: Bodie and Doyle discussed the misunderstanding, both agreed it was silly and that they would never allow anything like that to happen again. The end.

That was really not enough for me. Not after I'd been reading for 20-30 pages waiting for the big reunion. She's done that in some other stories too (I'm talking mostly about her longer zine stories) where I was waiting for a particular climactic moment, only to feel cheated. I wouldn't mind, except I think she's basically a really talented writer! I keep going back to her, so either I'm masochistic *g*, or there are things about her writing I very much enjoy.

I promise it's the latter. ;-)