Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary (short story)
Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary was the eleventh short story in the Christmassy Tales anthology written by Paul Magrs. It featured characters from Magrs' Serpent Crest and Baker's End audio series.
Plot
On 21 December, Fenella Frimbly is preparing a small selection of festive treats in case "You Know Who" returns. Earlier, she visited the village store in Happenstance Village and ran into her neighbor Deirdre Whatsit, who invited her to join herself and Tish Madoc for eggnog; however, Mrs Frimbly refused, as she is still angry with Tish for novelising their adventures. On the way back to Baker's End, Fenella heard a strange, deep buzzing.
A day later, on her way to the butcher, the vicar asks Fenella if she will come to the pantomime on Boxing Day. She refuses, as she feels she has a duty to look after Baker's End, in preparation for the inevitable return of her friend. For the second time, she hears a buzzing, and this time its accompanied by the smell of burning wires. She heads back to the cottage, pours herself a glass of sherry, and resumes knitting "the longest scarf".
Early the next morning, there is a thump on the door, but Fenella ignores it, not thinking anything of it. Later, she finds a card has been slipped under the door, on it a note saying that "this unit will return".
On Christmas Eve, Fenella surprises her neighbours at The Hollyhocks next door by turning up unexpectedly. The festive party goes on, and some of the guests talk in hushed tones about Fenella and her adventures, and Tish corners Fenella, trying harder to know about her past. Shortly after, Fenella slips out, returning to Baker's End. In the kitchen, she immediately realises that she isn't alone. Grabbing a cricket bat as a defensive measure, she comes across a robot dog. The dog introduces itself, establishing that it means no harm. Fenella realises that it was sent by her friend.
Next to the hearth, Fenella asks if her friend is okay, and the dog doesn't know. Late that night, as she sleeps in her bed in the attic, she can hear the robot dog moving around, going though cupboards.
She awakes, seeing the dog at the foot of the bed, shrieking at it. She calms down, and the dog somehow makes Fenella remember her past with Mr Frimbly, and how she had destroyed his crystal ball after years of spending hell with him, how he had then vanished overnight, being found in the morning by the Cromer police, who discovered he was eyeless, and how then she had the worked in a museum. After this, she calls the dog a hound from hell, instructing it to leave.
On Christmas Day, Fenella is feeling especially festive, and she and the robot dog converse about the adventures that Master had experienced. Fenella remembers these herself, but is unsure if she actually experienced these adventures first-hand or is remembering a time when her friend told her about them.
Suddenly, the dog springs up, and he sets off out of the cottage, beckoning Fenella to follow. They race down the green, as their Master has returned!
Characters
Mentioned only
Worldbuilding
- Tish Madoc's novel Romance in the Milky Way caused a rift in her burgeoning relationship with Mike, as it revealed information that Mike had sworn not to tell under the Official Secrets Act.
- The dog's Master bought books from Ebay, but the Ebay that exists in another dimension, not the ordinary one.
- Fenella is reminded of her only book as a child, The Wonder Book, when she and the dog read the Master's books.
- The robot dog and his Master had previously met Eye-Spiders, the Sko-Cat, and the Master's friend Swee who had "gone bad".
- The Eye-Spiders of Perigross were bigger than even the spiders of the sapphire world.
- The Sko-Cat was a creature made of bricks that floated through space on many frequencies.
- Fenella is unsure if she and her friend had been to the Neuronic Nightmare world, and to the edge of the universe, at the Thousand and One Doors to Elsewhere.
Notes
- The story was originally serialised on Magrs' blog in December 2013 as Mrs Wibbsey's Festive Diary.[1] The version of the story published in 2020 differed from this original draft in multiple places where place and character names from The Nest Cottage Chronicles were replaced with names from Magrs' more recent Baker's End series. However, as the final published draft retains the original's numerous unmistakable references to The Nest Cottage Chronicles, this story indicates an in-universe equivalence between these characters and concepts across the two series.
- Fenella Frimbly (2020) is Fenella Wibbsey (2013), and Mr Frimbly (2020) is Mr Wibbsey (2013).
- Happenstance Village (2020) is Hexford Village (2013).
- Nest Cottage (2013) is Baker's End (2020).
- "The Doctor" (2013) is Fenella's "Master", Tom Baker (2020).
- The Doctor's TARDIS (2013) is instead "his infernal space machine" (2020).
- Whereas the 2013 version of story ended ambiguously with Fenella chasing the dog to an unknown destination, the 2020 version includes the dog's explanation that their Master had returned for them in his space machine.
Continuity
- Tish Madoc is a writer and cousin to Deirdre. (AUDIO: The Hexford Invasion)
- There were once lizard people (PROSE: In the Sixties) under Wenley Moor. (TV: Doctor Who and the Silurians)
- Tish finds Mike attractive. (AUDIO: The Hexford Invasion)
- Fenella dismisses the idea that the buzzing is from hornets. (AUDIO: The Stuff of Nightmares, et al.)
- Happenstance Village was transported to space two years prior. (AUDIO: Survivors in Space)
- Fenella's friend gifts a robot dog. (TV: A Girl's Best Friend, et al.)
- Fenella recalls her past prior to meeting her friend. (AUDIO: The Dead Shoes, et al.)
- The robot dog previously appeared in PROSE: Kept Safe and Sound and In the Sixties.
- The dog tells Fenella of the time his Master and his young friends met the Sinisterest Sponge. (PROSE: The Sinister Sponge)
- Tish Madoc and Deirdre originated from AUDIO: The Hexford Invasion.
Illustrations
In Mrs Wibbsey's Festive Diary, the version of this story originally posted on Paul Magrs' blog in 2013,[1] an illustration accompanied each instalment. Most of the images featured Tom Baker and Fenella Frimbly; however, as the blog version was not an official release but essentially fanfiction, two images also used the likeness of K9 Mark II for the robot dog,[2][3] despite Magrs not having a commercial license for K9's image at that time. These two illustrations thus cannot be reproduced on this Wiki.
Footnotes
Notes
- ↑ Hornets' Nest is set around 2009/10, with each consecutive series taking place around a year later. So if by Serpent Crest, the date is ~2011, then Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary must be somewhere around 2013, as it's set two years later.
