South Downs Cottage
| Tropes and genres | |
|---|---|
| Synonym(s) | Cottage on the South Downs |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
The South Downs Cottage is a trope in Good Omens fandom, in which Aziraphale and Crowley share a cottage together. The trope came to be in 2005 when Neil Gaiman mentioned in a blog post that him and Terry Pratchett had dinner together, and decided that their characters were in the South Downs.[1]. A few weeks later a fan at a con asked Gaiman what Aziraphale and Crowley were doing in the South Downs, and the author responded "Well, what they’re doing on the South Downs is sharing a cottage"[2].
The fans took the concept and ran with it. Many fanworks take place in the South Downs Cottage, almost always post-canon, usually where Aziraphale and Crowley retire there together. Although there are also some stories where the cottage is merely a holiday home, a place for them to get away together. This setting is often perfect for Domestic or Curtainfic.
Origin
In September 2005, while attending two separate live-readings with each author, irisbleufic asked them both the same question about what exactly Aziraphale and Crowley were doing in the South Downs, and Gaiman replied that they would be “sharing a cottage”.[3] Thus irisbleufic brought the South Downs Cottage to GO fanfic writers and was also one of the first authors to use this setting in fanfiction. In 2005, they wrote A Better Place (original post currently flocked), a fic that would ultimately become the first chapter of a sprawling epic, Crown of Thorns [The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse] 'Verse.
I wrote "A Better Place" in the wake of rather accidentally getting to ask a certain question (What are Aziraphale and Crowley doing on the South Downs, anyway?) of both authors within a week of each other back in 2005 and actually getting an answer (Sharing a cottage), thinking it'd just be a happy little one-off. But something curious happened when my Good Omens Exchange 2010 assignment resulted in "The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse." From that point onward, interest in this little 'verse slowly, but steadily picked up momentum, and I kept finding more stories to tell.[4]
Example Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Crown of Thorns [The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse] 'Verse by irisbleufic. Also collaboratively podficed as Crown of Thorns Pod'rama
Zines
Resources
References
- ^ "Optimism. Faith. English Breakfast. June 5, 2005 blog post". Archived from the original on 2021-09-19.
- ^ "Where the South Downs thing comes from, 2013 Tumblr post". Archived from the original on 2021-09-19.
- ^ This is why 2005, like 1990, means the world to us, a retrospective Tumblr post by irisbleufic. (2013)
- ^ Author's notes of Crown of Thorns [The Walls, the Wainscot, and the Mouse] 'Verse on Ao3. Accessed 19/9/21.