If you're a Wimsey, Eton can definitely make room for you - you don't have to do it immediately.
I don't have a problem with Peter calling Bunter's wife by her first name (can't remember it). After all, she is a good friend of Harriet's, and Bunter *is* his closest male friend (and Mervyn is too terrifying a name to even contemplate). This is a man who sits down in a pub with the woman he is courting and his valet and cheerfully has a drink with both - when it comes to certain conventions, Peter doesn't give a rat's arse. Also, calling her Mrs Bunter would imply that she too is a servant - which of course, she's not. She's married to one of his servants, but the entire household has been at pains to establish a distinction, therefore she comes into the social circle as the friend of Harriet and the wife of one of Peter's friends (note, not the wife of his servant). Yes, he can call other people by their titles, but Mrs B. is the wife of someone he doesn't call by a title, therefore, it would be a false distinction to call her by one. (Not to mention the fact that Mrs Bunter is induitably the legendary Mrs Bunter Senior, mother to both Mervyn and Meredith.)
The radio is explained by the fact that they're picking up local broadcasts - it's within five miles of the boys or less and would have to be a reaasonably powerful transmission to reach Germany.
I could see Peter utterly choosing to raise his offspring middle-class - after all, the property is entirely entailed on Bredon, so the boys will be limited in private incomes (I suspect a daughter would get more generous treatment) and Peter would bring them up to *do* something. Not having anything to do nearly killed him once.
Also, I think the school at Duke's Denver came from Sayers herself (she did a series for the Spectator during the war with letters from various Wimseys) and it's entirely in keeping with the period. I've got a fascinating book called the Country House at War, and many did have schools (some of them decidedly not public schools) landed on them. Gerald's reaction to the bright kid and Peter's bribe suggestion are both entirely in character to me.
Paton-Walsh did need a compelling reason to have Peter solidly ensconced at Tallboys in the later part of the war, and his exhaustion from that mission would explain it.
The only thing that really stank to me were the Duchess's letters at the beginning - Honoria, bless her, would *never* have felt the need to explain the titles and whatnot to a friend, and I find it very strange that it's in the book at all. I suspect an editorial insertion for the American market, actually, since Paton-Walsh usually has a better technique than that.
What really struck me about the Paton-Walsh books was that all the bits that seemed to be unSayers all turned out to be pure Sayers. My favourite bit, though, has to be Bunter's wedding in Thrones, Dominations. It's so utterly Peter and Bunter.
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I don't have a problem with Peter calling Bunter's wife by her first name (can't remember it). After all, she is a good friend of Harriet's, and Bunter *is* his closest male friend (and Mervyn is too terrifying a name to even contemplate). This is a man who sits down in a pub with the woman he is courting and his valet and cheerfully has a drink with both - when it comes to certain conventions, Peter doesn't give a rat's arse. Also, calling her Mrs Bunter would imply that she too is a servant - which of course, she's not. She's married to one of his servants, but the entire household has been at pains to establish a distinction, therefore she comes into the social circle as the friend of Harriet and the wife of one of Peter's friends (note, not the wife of his servant). Yes, he can call other people by their titles, but Mrs B. is the wife of someone he doesn't call by a title, therefore, it would be a false distinction to call her by one. (Not to mention the fact that Mrs Bunter is induitably the legendary Mrs Bunter Senior, mother to both Mervyn and Meredith.)
The radio is explained by the fact that they're picking up local broadcasts - it's within five miles of the boys or less and would have to be a reaasonably powerful transmission to reach Germany.
I could see Peter utterly choosing to raise his offspring middle-class - after all, the property is entirely entailed on Bredon, so the boys will be limited in private incomes (I suspect a daughter would get more generous treatment) and Peter would bring them up to *do* something. Not having anything to do nearly killed him once.
Also, I think the school at Duke's Denver came from Sayers herself (she did a series for the Spectator during the war with letters from various Wimseys) and it's entirely in keeping with the period. I've got a fascinating book called the Country House at War, and many did have schools (some of them decidedly not public schools) landed on them. Gerald's reaction to the bright kid and Peter's bribe suggestion are both entirely in character to me.
Paton-Walsh did need a compelling reason to have Peter solidly ensconced at Tallboys in the later part of the war, and his exhaustion from that mission would explain it.
The only thing that really stank to me were the Duchess's letters at the beginning - Honoria, bless her, would *never* have felt the need to explain the titles and whatnot to a friend, and I find it very strange that it's in the book at all. I suspect an editorial insertion for the American market, actually, since Paton-Walsh usually has a better technique than that.
What really struck me about the Paton-Walsh books was that all the bits that seemed to be unSayers all turned out to be pure Sayers. My favourite bit, though, has to be Bunter's wedding in Thrones, Dominations. It's so utterly Peter and Bunter.