E: 31/03 Win a Mystery Prize, an iPod Nano & 4 RU Prizes (Effort)

IanCTR

One small problem:
The end of Verse One implies that the 4 towns form a "square in which my painting is hung."

"Peasants merry-making before a Country House" and "Peasants making music in an inn" are both hanging in the National Gallery in London. "Peasants Merry-making" is in a Spanish museum - the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Also, our painter is responsible for over 900 paintings.

Where did he find merry peasants anyway - I thought someone said, "The peasants are revolting..."

novo_2

I received the book today. I haven't started reading it yet, but in the front of the book is a picture of a painting by David Teniers the Younger, called St. Anthony and St. Paul. The painting has a geometric shape overlaid on it, a square that is formed by several objects connected in the painting, which form the sides of the square and one object in the middle.

As the towns form a square, it might be possible to overlay this square in the right painting, in a position that connects it with the red hat and the blue, and then we might get the right location?

IanCTR

Thank you, novo.

Adrian_Dawson

For any of you umming and ahing as to whether or not to buy Sequence, The Times gave it a great review today (Page 19 of the Weekend review section).

You have no excuses! ;-)

Yeah, OK I'm pimping my wares now. Back to the puzzle...

Interesting trains of thought. Keep going as you're all intriguing me.

kadrjd0304

:think: second verse: Where the happy Men of Duchy did once reside. The region of Acquitaine in south west France, may (or may not!!) be significant. John of Gaunt resided and there are other possible connections.

kadrjd0304

Teniers born and worked in Antwerp, Belgium, so can we assume paintings are scenes from there. Also John of Gaunt (Gaunt was originally Ghent, in Belgium). Is there a connection? Or am I going off on a tangent here? Novo might have something with the geometric square.

IanCTR

I am not convinced that John of Gaunt or Belgium will be relevant to this puzzle, but we'll see. There is loads of time to look into it as the competition doesn't close until 31 March 2012.

I thought the Happy Men of Duchy was a clever clue. (As opposed to the soixante et un clue which should have been tougher - and probably not in French and thus straight to France. Mind you it brought back some sad and happy memories - my French teacher, Francoise, who was killed in a plane crash near Paris together with all the other 344 people on board - and Sophie with whom I stayed for a few weeks in central France.)

Try this: Les Ducs de Joyeuse.

That Adrian Dawson seems like a friendly chap. I'm getting Codex from amazon after I finish reading The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. Sequence can wait its turn!

Adrian_Dawson

IanCTR wrote: »

I am not convinced that John of Gaunt or Belgium will be relevant to this puzzle, but we'll see. There is loads of time to look into it as the competition doesn't close until 31 March 2012.

I thought the Happy Men of Duchy was a clever clue. (As opposed to the soixante et un clue which should have been tougher - and probably not in French and thus straight to France. Mind you it brought back some sad and happy memories - my French teacher, Francoise, who was killed in a plane crash near Paris together with all the other 344 people on board - and Sophie with whom I stayed for a few weeks in central France; a blue-eyed blonde who rarely seemed to wear any knickers.)

Try this: Les Ducs de Joyeuse.

That Adrian Dawson seems like a friendly chap. I'm getting Codex from amazon after I finish reading The Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. Sequence can wait its turn!

I am extremely sorry to hear about your teacher Francoise, and therefore must forewarn you that Codex does involve a plane atrocity, most notably in the opening chapter "Exodus" and the chapter titled "...and Dreams". My research on this subject was very distressing and I left a lot out because I felt it would make the reader uncomfortable, but put enough in for people to understand the mindless and unnecessary horror of such an event.

Should you read Codex, and I thank you if you do, then I hope your overriding memories of Francoise are happy ones in the same way as I chose to read more about the lives of those I researched (none of which was relevant to my novel, but all of which was fascinating) than the few moments of their life which hit the headlines.

People such as Francoise do not die if even one person keeps them alive in their memory.

IanCTR

Thank you for your kind words, Adrian. It was a long time ago and my British stiff upper lip is fully recovered.

The reason I was reluctant to buy Sequence right now is that I generally prefer to read reviews by amazon uk readers first and there are no such reviews for Sequence yet. However, I have looked at your own website and the reviews on there. They are quite impressive.

Consequently, I am now buying both Codex and Sequence from amazon.

Adrian_Dawson

Thanks, Ian, and glad to hear that the SUL prevailed.

Sequence was only released last Monday but some people, and some from this site, won advance release copies via our earlier Codex competition. They have posted reviews on Goodreads.com:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11287789-sequence#other_reviews

Also, for those who do not subscribe to The Times in the UK, here is yesterday's review:

http://img.ly/8i6q

All the best,

Adrian