C. N. Williamson (1859–1920)
Author of The Lightning Conductor: The Strange Adventures of a Motor-Car
About the Author
Disambiguation Notice:
Charles Norris Williamson wrote most, if not all, of these works in partnership with his wife, Alice Muriel (nee Livingston). Charles was a motoring journalist and travel writer. Alice apparently said of him "Charlie Williamson could do anything in the world except write stories": she also said "I can't do anything else." There was obviously a synergy between them as the more successful works were joint efforts. Charles wrote some novels on his own, as did Alice after her husband's death.
Please do not combine these two authors, or either's individual author page with any joint author page. Thank you.
Image credit: Charles Norris Williamson
Series
Works by C. N. Williamson
Black Sleeves 2 copies
The wedding day 2 copies
The War Wedding 2 copies
Love and the spy 2 copies
This woman to this man 1 copy
Crucifix Corner 1 copy
The Cowboy Countess 1 copy
The minx goes to the Front 1 copy
Briar-rose 1 copy
Champion 1 copy
The love pirate 1 copy
The Demon 1 copy
The night of the wedding 1 copy
Berry goes to Monte Carlo 1 copy
The dummy hand : a novel 1 copy
Et Krigsbryllup : Roman 1 copy
Scarlet Runner 1 copy
The house of silence 1 copy
Associated Works
The Mammoth Book of Locked-Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes (2000) — Contributor — 135 copies, 1 review
The Second Christmas Megapack: 29 Modern and Classic Christmas Stories (2012) — Contributor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Williamson, Charles Norris
- Birthdate
- 1859
- Date of death
- 1920-10-03
- Gender
- male
- Relationships
- Williamson, A. M. (wife)
- Nationality
- UK
- Place of death
- Combe Down, Bath, England, UK
- Disambiguation notice
- Charles Norris Williamson wrote most, if not all, of these works in partnership with his wife, Alice Muriel (nee Livingston). Charles was a motoring journalist and travel writer. Alice apparently said of him "Charlie Williamson could do anything in the world except write stories": she also said "I can't do anything else." There was obviously a synergy between them as the more successful works were joint efforts. Charles wrote some novels on his own, as did Alice after her husband's death.
Please do not combine these two authors, or either's individual author page with any joint author page. Thank you. - Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
I started out this book thinking it would be a 3-star novel. I got farther into it and thought, well...4 stars. Today I finished it and just had to go with 5 stars.
Evidently this married couple, the Williamsons, wrote a whole lot of books together around the turn of the 20th century. This is the only one I've read so far, but I don't think it'll be the last. Evidently they like to write books in which: A) Lots of traveling is done, preferably by automobile (because it was the latest, coolest show more thing) and B) Someone is in disguise.
Both of those qualifications are met in this book. Audrie, a young woman who has just taken up a post as music teacher, owes one of her students a favor for helping her get the job.
The student, a 19-year-old girl named Ellaline, is an orphan and has never seen or communicated much with her guardian, who is just returning from some type of military post in Asia. Ellaline is prejudiced against him and has decided to elope anyway, but her fiance can't come for her right away, so in the interim, she asks Audrie (who is 21) to pose as her and keep the guardian off the track.
Audrie is expecting the guardian to be a gruff, dragon-like old man, but instead she is surprised to meet a kind, fairly normal man who is a young-looking 40. His name is Sir Lionel Pendragon.
Sir Lionel is expecting his ward to be a carbon-copy of her flirtatious, undependable mother, and he is surprised to meet Audrie (whom, of course, he thinks is Ellaline). Audrie is sweet, intelligent, and interested in the same things he is. In fact, he almost immediately views her as a friend.
Sir Lionel's home has just been damaged by a fire, so while it is being repaired, he takes Audrie, along with his sister, on an automobile trip all around England. This is where the book turns into part travelogue. I didn't mind it, and in fact found some of it intensely interesting, but it did make the book a little long.
The book is in the form of letters, mostly from Audrie to her mother, and a few from Sir Lionel to his best friend. I really liked getting to see his side of things. He was an AWESOMELY, awesomely likable character. Both he and Audrie put plenty of description in their letters, and you can tell that they are totally in love with England and all of its medieval history, legends, architecture, people, everything. They both write about it pretty reverently, which is kind of enjoyable to one who has never been and probably never will be at any of those places.
Problems arise in the form of a young man who thinks he's in love with Audrie and also fancies himself a detective. He noses out Audrie's real identity and threatens to tell Sir Lionel if Audrie doesn't invite him along on the roadtrip, AND his aunt, who is scheming to get Sir Lionel to marry her. They are the irritating characters in the book, but don't do any lasting harm at all.
Sir Lionel and Audrie have PLENTY of lovely times together and quickly become genuine friends in spite of the machinations of the villains. It's great. Their travels and touring around England are really just one long spell of courtship, even though Sir Lionel is thinking, "But I'm so much older, and I'm her guardian, and she must think of me as elderly," and Audrie is thinking, "He will really hate me when he knows I've deceived him about Ellaline." The times they get to spend together are totally appropriate for a guardian-ward relationship, but also super sweet and innocent when viewed for what they really are--a courtship.
Seriously, these are a couple of great characters. I'm impressed. show less
Evidently this married couple, the Williamsons, wrote a whole lot of books together around the turn of the 20th century. This is the only one I've read so far, but I don't think it'll be the last. Evidently they like to write books in which: A) Lots of traveling is done, preferably by automobile (because it was the latest, coolest show more thing) and B) Someone is in disguise.
Both of those qualifications are met in this book. Audrie, a young woman who has just taken up a post as music teacher, owes one of her students a favor for helping her get the job.
The student, a 19-year-old girl named Ellaline, is an orphan and has never seen or communicated much with her guardian, who is just returning from some type of military post in Asia. Ellaline is prejudiced against him and has decided to elope anyway, but her fiance can't come for her right away, so in the interim, she asks Audrie (who is 21) to pose as her and keep the guardian off the track.
Audrie is expecting the guardian to be a gruff, dragon-like old man, but instead she is surprised to meet a kind, fairly normal man who is a young-looking 40. His name is Sir Lionel Pendragon.
Sir Lionel is expecting his ward to be a carbon-copy of her flirtatious, undependable mother, and he is surprised to meet Audrie (whom, of course, he thinks is Ellaline). Audrie is sweet, intelligent, and interested in the same things he is. In fact, he almost immediately views her as a friend.
Sir Lionel's home has just been damaged by a fire, so while it is being repaired, he takes Audrie, along with his sister, on an automobile trip all around England. This is where the book turns into part travelogue. I didn't mind it, and in fact found some of it intensely interesting, but it did make the book a little long.
The book is in the form of letters, mostly from Audrie to her mother, and a few from Sir Lionel to his best friend. I really liked getting to see his side of things. He was an AWESOMELY, awesomely likable character. Both he and Audrie put plenty of description in their letters, and you can tell that they are totally in love with England and all of its medieval history, legends, architecture, people, everything. They both write about it pretty reverently, which is kind of enjoyable to one who has never been and probably never will be at any of those places.
Problems arise in the form of a young man who thinks he's in love with Audrie and also fancies himself a detective. He noses out Audrie's real identity and threatens to tell Sir Lionel if Audrie doesn't invite him along on the roadtrip, AND his aunt, who is scheming to get Sir Lionel to marry her. They are the irritating characters in the book, but don't do any lasting harm at all.
Sir Lionel and Audrie have PLENTY of lovely times together and quickly become genuine friends in spite of the machinations of the villains. It's great. Their travels and touring around England are really just one long spell of courtship, even though Sir Lionel is thinking, "But I'm so much older, and I'm her guardian, and she must think of me as elderly," and Audrie is thinking, "He will really hate me when he knows I've deceived him about Ellaline." The times they get to spend together are totally appropriate for a guardian-ward relationship, but also super sweet and innocent when viewed for what they really are--a courtship.
Seriously, these are a couple of great characters. I'm impressed. show less
Typical Williamsons' fare, but things were kind of dragged out.
Molly and Jack, the protagonists of "The Lightning Conductor" are on their way to America to inspect a house that one of Molly's relatives has just left her. On their voyage they meet a beautiful young woman (Patsy) who is just returning home after years of education in France, a mysterious young man (Peter) who is traveling third-class and clearly has a PAST, and an interfering middle-aged widow (Mrs. Shuster) with too much show more money and too little class. When the boat docks in New York, Patsy finds out that her father is bankrupt. Her new friends suggest that they should turn her ancestral home into a hotel and soon satisfy all creditors.
This plan is adopted. Soon all of the above-mentioned plus several others are staying at or near "Kidd's Pines," the house-turned-hotel. From there they take a couple of multi-car road trips. Peter acts as chauffeur; an undesirable suitor pursues Patsy; the undesirable widow pursues her father. It's up to Molly and Jack, and the mysterious Peter, to conspire so that everything turns out all right for everyone.
Just not my favorite Williamsons...didn't care for the irresponsible father or the stilted communication between the hero and heroine, and the travelogue bits got to be too much for me, so I skimmed a lot. show less
Molly and Jack, the protagonists of "The Lightning Conductor" are on their way to America to inspect a house that one of Molly's relatives has just left her. On their voyage they meet a beautiful young woman (Patsy) who is just returning home after years of education in France, a mysterious young man (Peter) who is traveling third-class and clearly has a PAST, and an interfering middle-aged widow (Mrs. Shuster) with too much show more money and too little class. When the boat docks in New York, Patsy finds out that her father is bankrupt. Her new friends suggest that they should turn her ancestral home into a hotel and soon satisfy all creditors.
This plan is adopted. Soon all of the above-mentioned plus several others are staying at or near "Kidd's Pines," the house-turned-hotel. From there they take a couple of multi-car road trips. Peter acts as chauffeur; an undesirable suitor pursues Patsy; the undesirable widow pursues her father. It's up to Molly and Jack, and the mysterious Peter, to conspire so that everything turns out all right for everyone.
Just not my favorite Williamsons...didn't care for the irresponsible father or the stilted communication between the hero and heroine, and the travelogue bits got to be too much for me, so I skimmed a lot. show less
Though the action is uneven, the descriptions of place just glow. The characters are alive and the phrasing is sometimes superb. I googled their route and some of their stops. What a tour! Glad I went along.
Audrie Brendon is a 21-year-old music teacher at a French boarding school. A student in the school, Ellaline Lethbridge, is an orphan who has never met her guardian, Sir Lionel Pendragon. Ellaline is 19 years old and secretly engaged to Honoré du Guesclin, a lieutenant in the French army. When Ellaline receives word that she is to leave the school and join her guardian, she doesn't know what to do because she thinks Sir Lionel will forbid her marriage to Honoré. Ellaline devises a plot: show more Audrie will impersonate Ellaline to Sir Lionel until Ellaline can elope with Honoré to Scotland. Sir Lionel has not seen Ellaline since she was four years old, so he won't know the difference. Audrie feels compelled to go along with this since Ellaline was the one who got her the job at the school, and Audrie is supporting her sick mother.
Audrie joins Sir Lionel and his sister on a cross-country road trip. Ellaline's plan works at first, but complications arise when an aspiring detective, Dick Burden, discovers Audrie's true identity. Dick falls in love with Audrie and blackmails her into asking Sir Lionel to let him and his aunt accompany them. He also forces Audrie to pretend she like him, which becomes very awkward for Audrie when she realizes she is in love with someone else.
The plot of this book is actually very good, but the road trip aspect of the book turned it into a travelogue, and I couldn't stand those parts. The constant detailed descriptions and history of every landscape and historic site was way too much. The characters (particularly Audrie) are continually going into raptures about literally everything they see and do. I liked Audrie, but she often got on my nerves and I skimmed much of the travelogue parts. The book is an epistolary novel, which makes the travelogue sections even worse.
Despite the promising plot, this book is actually quite boring for at least half of the book. :(
2 1/2 stars show less
Audrie joins Sir Lionel and his sister on a cross-country road trip. Ellaline's plan works at first, but complications arise when an aspiring detective, Dick Burden, discovers Audrie's true identity. Dick falls in love with Audrie and blackmails her into asking Sir Lionel to let him and his aunt accompany them. He also forces Audrie to pretend she like him, which becomes very awkward for Audrie when she realizes she is in love with someone else.
The plot of this book is actually very good, but the road trip aspect of the book turned it into a travelogue, and I couldn't stand those parts. The constant detailed descriptions and history of every landscape and historic site was way too much. The characters (particularly Audrie) are continually going into raptures about literally everything they see and do. I liked Audrie, but she often got on my nerves and I skimmed much of the travelogue parts. The book is an epistolary novel, which makes the travelogue sections even worse.
Despite the promising plot, this book is actually quite boring for at least half of the book. :(
2 1/2 stars show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 63
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 365
- Popularity
- #65,882
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 20
- ISBNs
- 109