Can you Predict which Books I will Feature? - Fortune Tellers

Posted by on

 

We saw this post coming....




We started with jumble sales, moved on to White Elephant Stalls, which are a feature of more general fetes – church or village, held at the big house. And so we slide on to the question of 

fortune-tellers


This may be the moment for me to reveal that I took the role of Madam Fortunata to do some fortune-telling at my children’s school fetes, and revelled in it. (I was careful to emphasize that this was in the nature of a joke, I was not dabbling in the dark arts, and no-one should take it seriously).

I like to think I brought a certain gusto to the role, with my curtain-ring earrings. And no-one tried to murder me - it seems I was lucky… they feature in an awful lot of crime books. Can you predict which ones I will mention in my list?

If you notice I have missed your favourite do say so, BUT I had far too many instances for one post, so there are others lined up –John Dickson Carr & Agatha Christie  for example. I'll add your great suggestions to those future posts.

A couple of people already mentioned the Catherine Aird book, Passing Strange, 1980, which is set at a Flower Show in a village – although the event covers a lot more than just flowers.  And yes there is a fortune-tellers tent, and the popular local nurse has dressed up and is looking into her crystal ball. And fails to foresee that someone is going to murder her. But who and why?

So in comes series sleuth Inspector Sloan, sandwiched as ever between his awful superior and his useless underling Crosby, doing his best to see what is going on. The owner of the Big House died recently, and there is some doubt about the next heir, who has lived most of her life in South America. Is she who she says she is? What could that have to do with the murder?

Despite the presence of a fete, a White Elephant stall (“Why they always put the second-hand books with the White Elephants defeats me,” says the Rector, “It’s not logical”), fortune teller and (possible) impersonation, all such favourites round here, I did not take to this book. I was impatient with Sloan’s meanderings eg a long description of how to worry suspects into giving information – completely irrelevant, and really rather unpleasant. And above all, it infuriated me that when Sloan comes to talk to the young heiress – who is 18 - she is wearing jeans and a jacket, and she and he agree drearily that every teenager wears these clothes, it’s a uniform, and that there are no other clothes available in the UK. This was sufficiently stupid to madden me, unreasonably so. I was alive, sentient and shopping (and I like to think stylish) in 1980, and what they say is completely nonsensical, all aspects of it. Perhaps I let this put me off more than it should… but it is the main thing I will remember about the book. (And I refuse to find a picture for this ‘universal’ outfit)

 











The setup is similar to

The Glimpses of the Moon by Edmund Crispin

-       Again, village fete and fortune telling. Many thought this book was a sad falling-off from Crispin, published 25 year after his previous book, but I have a soft spot for it, and particularly admire one of the explanations of the impossible crime.



And in the recently featured Murder Fantastical by Patricia Moyes, there was a fortune-teller at the fete:

The fortune-teller’s tent had fallen down for the second time, nearly suffocating Ramona who, as the annual incumbent, had been inside inspecting her quarters…She wore earrings made from large brass curtain rings, and a scarlet silk headscarf  “to be in character” as she put it. In fact she need not have bothered. She looked perfectly in character without any such aids.

She predicts a darkness is coming and almost immediately the tent falls down when someone trips over a guy-rope in the frantic search for a missing item.

A tangle of torn canvas and twisted ropes was all that remained of the fortune-teller’s tent.

In the Graham Greene book Ministry of Fear, it’s the fortune-teller who passes on the key information for cheating at the guess-the-weight of the cake event, inciting all the events of the book. The post tells all:

Graham Greene: The Man for a White Elephant Stall

 


In Gladys Mitchell’s The Saltmarsh Murders, the young curate Noel dresses up as a gypsy fortune-teller – in this respect if no other he resembles Mr Rochester, who makes the same venture in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I think it’s significant that I had forgotten all about Noel’s moment, which would be a major incident in any other book, but amid the madness of Mitchell, not so much. “I vote we make it sixpence, with an extra sixpence for advice about their love affairs… [the vicar and wife] might not like the idea of the curate doing a stunt like that” – so of course the answer is to keep it quiet, not, like, not do it.

In the Catherine Aird book at the top of this list, the rector is asked to fill in for the fortune teller when she goes missing, but says he can’t because of his vocation. In my own adventures at the school fete, the Parish Priest said he had no objection to there being a fortune teller, but he could not himself visit me. I cheerfully gave him a prediction anyway – ‘you will become a Bishop!’ - and it CAME TRUE.

Blogfriend Johan recommended a Martha Grimes book, The Anodyne Necklace (1983), when we were looking at mad families. When I read it I remembered why I don’t like Grimes’s books – but, there was also a village fete with a fortune teller, so I will include it here:

Madame Zostra with her crystal ball, jewelled turban, and redoubtable accent….revealed her cut-throat self. Fortune tellers were there to make one feel  happy and hopeful: beautiful strangers and money and exotic ports-of-call… [But she predicted] a life of ravaged dreams. He wouldn’t make a fortune, but lose one, probably at the hands of a dangerous (not beautiful) stranger, who would fall across his path like a dead tree.

He left the tent and did not wonder at the lack of customers outside. Word must have got around that to enter this tent was truly to abandon hope. If the fete’s fortune were left to Madame Zostra’s fund-raising abilities, the church window would have to wait until hell froze over. That appeared to be where all her clients were heading, anyway.


 

In Gladys Mitchell’s My Father Sleeps (coming to the blog soon), a young woman reads palms for fun, and does that for a chance-met man in a dark Scottish house. Later this man is found dead – but she sees the body and says it is NOT him, because he has the wrong palm - she would always recognize a palm that she had read. This is very satisfying, and I’m surprised it hasn’t come up in more crime stories. She says, by the way, that she doesn’t tell fortunes, so doesn’t really belong here – she reads character, qualities and talents.


Do bring your own favourite fortune-tellers to the comments  


If you look back at my many past posts featuring fortune tellers and fetes, you will find the same pictures coming up. They are, I think, splendid ones – but I am also delighted to have found a new one.

Lady Mayoress meeting a fortune-teller | Violet Grantham, La… | Flickr


The lady in black is a Mrs Inez Stiness, from the Bain Collection at the Library of Congress.

The fortune teller painting is by Colin Campbell Cooper from the 1920s.

Comments

  1. Bernadette19 May 2026 at 11:09

    The trio from The Pale Horse spring to mind, given how central they are to the plot. I know it's a favourite of many people but I've always found the plot a bit preposterous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books19 May 2026 at 17:37

      Yes, good addition to the list. It's not my favourite either... but still earns its place

      Delete
  2. Margot Kinberg19 May 2026 at 12:09

    Brilliant idea for a post, Moira! I knew when I saw it that I would enjoy it. You have some great choices here, too. There's an interesting fortune teller in Alan Bradley's A Red Herring Without Mustard. Flavia de Luce goes to a carnival and meets a fortune teller who has some interesting things to say...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books19 May 2026 at 17:38

      Great thanks, I knew you'd have a suggestion

      Delete
  3. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 14:56

    Dead man's folly, more work for the undertaker... lucy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books19 May 2026 at 17:38

      I have Dead Man's Folly on my second list, but had not remembered More Work for the Undertaker, need to reread. thanks

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20 May 2026 at 11:58

      Don't forget telling the future was illegal. See Fraudulent Mediums Act of 1951 and many other statutes. Attitudes went from consorting with demons to fraud.

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 17:08

      It was obviously an uncomfortable time: if you prosecute people are you accepting that they really are telling the future? Fraud is obviously a crime, but is fortune-telling intrinsically wrong? It didn't get sorted out for a long time.

      Delete
  4. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 16:51

    I don't suppose ouija boards count? "Weejing" is (briefly) all the rage in Riseholme in the first of E.F. Benson's Lucia novels, populated as it is by people with comfortable incomes and servants and entirely too much free time. --Your blogfriend, Trollopian (who loves these novels)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 16:55

      Oh! I correct myself; it's the second novel, "Lucia in London." Lucia has shingled her hair and clawed her way into London society and the Riseholmeites she left behind are having far more fun. --Trollopian

      Delete
    2. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 17:13

      But, how could I forget?! There is indeed a medium, the Princess Popoffski, in the first novel. "[S]he wore a blue robe, which left her massive arms bare, and up them writhed serpent-shaped bracelets of many coils." Great CiB fodder there. --Trollopian

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books19 May 2026 at 17:40

      Most certainly ouija boards count! They were very popular between the wars, and I love to spot them in books. I loved the Lucia books, and they haven't featured as much as they could on the blog. As ever, the books I first read and loved many years ago are strangely absent. Thanks for the reminder

      Delete
    4. Anonymous20 May 2026 at 12:48

      More "weejing" in Anthony Powell's The Acceptance World, set in the early 1930s - on a boring Sunday afternoon in the stockbroker belt, Nick Jenkins and some friends break out the planchette and make contact with Karl Marx. This book also sees the first appearance of mysterious clairvoyant Mrs Erdleigh, who reappears at intervals through the rest of the Music of Time series.

      Sovay

      Delete
    5. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 17:12

      Oh yes indeed, well-remembered. It does sound like the archeypal 1930s instance of ouija board-ing.

      Delete
    6. Marty20 May 2026 at 22:45

      A Ouija board also figures in Christie's Sittaford Murder,

      Delete
    7. Anonymous21 May 2026 at 07:29

      I caught part of the Sittaford Mystery TV adaptation last weekend - almost unrecognisable from the book but there was still a ouija board!

      There's a seance in one of Powell's pre-Music of Time novels, What's Become of Waring - the POV character (un-named but as close to Nick Jenkins as makes no difference) is taken to it by his employer, a publisher, and they get hints of bad news about their one best-selling author. The medium's contact on the Other Side is George Eliot, though having passed though the veil she now prefers to be called Mimi.

      Sovay

      Delete
    8. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 09:49

      When I posted on Sittaford Mystery, many years ago, I was focussing on snow aspects - whereas usually I am very big on seances!
      Sittaford on TV is very much changed, but actually I always enjoy it.
      Loving George Eliot being called Mimi

      Delete
  5. Brian Busby19 May 2026 at 17:26

    Now this is a coincidence! I'm right now reading Canadian Isabel Ecclestone Mackay's 1919 novel Mist of Morning and was planning on writing you this very day with a query regarding the description of a particular outfit. More about that below. For now, I thought I'd share this description of one of the characters, Madam Rameses:

    Though it was so early in the morning Madam was dressed for the day in a trim, gentlemanly shirtwaist and a tight, short skirt. She practiced an habitual neatness which was a continual shock to those “seekers” whose preconceived idea of a clairvoyant and medium was of something thin and hazy in kimonos. She wore boots, too, although every one knows that slippers are the proper psychic wear. Slippers which slip, belts which refuse to stay down and hair which declines to stay up are full of soulful suggestion. But Madam would have none of them. Her cuffs and collar were as white and prim as those of a hospital nurse and her skirt never sagged. A woman of curious contradictions was Madam Rameses, spiritualist.

    I'm barely a third of the way through this 407-page novel, but Madam Rameses stands out as a favourite amongst a variety of interesting characters. She's also the most sympathetic as her "gift" and somewhat masculine appearance rendered her an unpopular child.

    In addition to being a fortune teller, Madam Rameses runs a rooming house, which brings me to my query. One of her roomers is described thusly in an early scene:

    It was an Autumn of tight skirts and the girl’s slender figure was charming in its narrow breadth of Alice-blue serge, rounding neatly above delightful ankles and trim buckled shoes. A white blouse and Oxford coat completed the costume, and on her head she wore a white tam-o’-shanter pinned with a silver pin.

    I've been struggling to determine exactly when Mist of Morning is set. There is no mention of the Great War, and commercial use of aviation is spoken of as something of a dream. I think this particular description is the best so far. What is your opinion? Was there a pre-war autumn of tight skirts and Alice-blue serge?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books19 May 2026 at 17:51

      Oh that's all fascinating, and I love the sound of the book, which I'd not heard of. Very funny about Madam Rameses (perfect name for a medium) challenging the stereotypes. See Madam Popoffski in the comment above yours!

      We really need Daniel Milford Cottam - fashion expert and staunch blogfriend and commentator - to adjudge on this, but I will give it my best shot.
      This sounds exactly like the 1900s to me, though I wouldn't pin it down closer than that.
      Alice blue was a very accepted term - it was named for the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, and there was a famous song called The Alice Blue Gown. It was a light shade. Serge is quite a solid heavy fabric, more usually in dark colours but I'm sure she looked lovely. The tam-o-shanter was very much in fashion too. And of course skirts are getting shorter in this era, hence her showing her ankles.
      When I first came across the term, a long time ago, I assumed Alice-blue was named after Alice in Wonderland, as she is usually portrayed in a light blue dress - and has given her name to the Alice-band she wears on her head. But no, it is definitely Alice Roosevelt...

      Delete
    2. Shay20 May 2026 at 00:08

      The tam o shanter puts it at early 1900s to 1920's, I think.

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 05:58

      Yes, agree

      Delete
    4. Marty20 May 2026 at 11:23

      OK, what is an Oxford coat? I've heard of "Oxford cloth" but it doesn't sound like coat material. Also, the early 1930's had a lot of tight skirts: https://vintagedancer.com/1930s/tea-length-1930s-style-skirts-for-sale/

      Delete
    5. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 16:52

      For men, loose coat as worn by students.
      For women, turn of the century, double-breasted and slightly miliary in style.
      I think by the sound of it is must be before the First World War

      Delete
    6. Brian Busby20 May 2026 at 18:06

      I expect you are spot on. The brief mention of a future in which commercial aviation might be viable suggests that it takes place sometime between 1904 and 1914. The novel being set in Ontario, I've enjoyed a read through the provinces newspapers from about that time. The 25 October 1902 Hamilton Spectator makes this prediction:

      The Oxford coat will be very much worn for winter. It has a box plait pointed in the back and pointed in the front. This Oxford is becoming to almost any woman under the sun, for it gives a youthful appearance to the figure. The slender woman is delightful in it and even the fat woman is passable (!).

      Delete
    7. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 21:13

      Great find on the coat description - but my goodness fashion descriptions have changed since those days 😀😀😀

      Delete
    8. Susanna23 May 2026 at 08:54

      Perhaps the tight skirt was a hobble skirt? They were popular around 1910 as far as I can tell from a quick Google. That would fit with everyone else's date suggestions.

      Delete
    9. Clothes In Books23 May 2026 at 10:04

      Yes that sounds very convincing. Daniel M-C did a guest post on that very point years ago...

      Delete
    10. Brian Busby26 May 2026 at 19:42

      We have our answer! A hundred or so pages after the scene the reader is told that this particular "Autumn of tight skirts" was 1913... or at least it was in Canada.

      Delete
    11. Clothes In Books27 May 2026 at 14:25

      thanks for coming back and enlightening us! I don't think we did badly....

      Delete
    12. Brian Busby27 May 2026 at 16:15

      I was impressed!

      Delete
    13. Clothes In Books27 May 2026 at 21:20

      We aim to please 😀😀😀

      Delete
  6. Christine19 May 2026 at 17:54

    Not exactly fortune-telling, but there's Miss Climpson posing as a medium, despite her religious beliefs, in Strong Poison. She also uses a ouija board or planchette, I seem to remember.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 05:58

      Oh yes! I didn't think of this one, even though it is one of my favourite scenes in the whole of Sayers. It is so informative about fake seances, as well as funny and exciting.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20 May 2026 at 12:01

      Miss Climpson doesn't dress the part, but there's a mention of her "decent black petticoats".

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 17:10

      Miss Climpson is such a great character. I'm trying to remember how they did the scenes in the Petherbridge/Walter Strong Poison on TV but not able to remember. I always thought it was crying out to be staged.

      Delete
  7. Bev@My Reader's Block19 May 2026 at 18:36

    I recently read How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristin Perrin. There's not a lot of the fortune teller in the story, but the hook is that a young girl has her fortune told and finds out that one day she'll be murdered. She spends the rest of her life collecting info on everyone so she can try to figure out who's going to murder her and prevent it--which she doesn't (not really a spoiler since we know this very quickly). Her heirs are tasked with finding the murderer in one week if they want a share of the inheritance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 05:59

      Sounds like a key fortune-telling text, thanks Bev! An intriguing setup

      Delete
  8. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 19:30

    Not a murder mystery, but there's a fortune-teller in Aldous Huxley's 'Crome Yellow', Sesostris, the Sorceress of Ecbatana, who is actually a philosopher—Mr Scogan, reputedly based on Bertrand Russell—dressed up as a woman. It's the only funny bit in the book, and apparently it gave Eliot the name 'Madame Sosostris' in 'The Waste Land', which he was writing when Huxley's book came out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 06:00

      I'm taking all fortune-tellers, they don't have to be crime!
      Thanks, I would not have remembered that by any means. I read the book long ago...

      Delete
    2. Susan D20 May 2026 at 12:26

      Yes, Madame Sosostris was the first to come to mind for me.

      Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
      Had a bad cold, nevertheless
      Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
      With a wicked pack of cards.

      We then go into her Tarot readings. As with all of The Waste Land, we see it all play out.

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 16:54

      Better in the Waste Land than Crome Yellow!

      Delete
  9. Marty19 May 2026 at 22:27

    There's the medium in Blithe Spirit--is it Madame Arcati? I will always think of her as Margaret Rutherford although I think Angela Lansbury probably did a great job, onstage IIRC.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 06:02

      Yes indeed, excellent catch. My mother was the same age as Angela Lansbury (RIP both) and I am delighted to say I took my mother to see AL in Blithe Spirit in London. AL was amazing, swooping round the stage like a 20 year-old

      Delete
  10. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 22:31

    So much enjoyed this, Moira. Yes, not one of Aird's best, but I did enjoy the fete. Very impressed by your prediction for the parish priest. Please can you now predict that I will become a best-seller and win lots of awards? Chrissie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 06:04

      I'll have to get dressed up - earrings - and consult my crystal ball, but I'll do my best.
      It's quite possible the Aird caught me on the wrong day - I usually enjoy hers

      Delete
  11. Anonymous19 May 2026 at 23:05

    Val McDermid‘s „Star Struck“ is more modern, there‘s a fortune teller in it who gets murdered

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 06:05

      Oh it would be good to read a more modern book with a fortune-teller. I haven't read that one, and wouldn't particularly expect to find one in in Val McD

      Delete
  12. Dame Eleanor Hull20 May 2026 at 03:23

    Zillah, in Trisha Ashley's Chocolate Wishes: In the kitchen Zillah was sitting at the table over the remnants of her breakfast, drinking loose-leaf Yorkshire tea and smoking a thin, lumpy, roll-up cigarette. As usual, she was dressed in a bunchy skirt, two layers of cardigans with the bottom one worn back to front, a huge flowered pinny over the whole ensemble and her hair tied up in a clashing scarf, turban-fashion. Grumps says she was bitten by Carmen Miranda in her youth and after I Googled the name, I suspect he is right. Today’s dangly red earrings made her look as if she had hooked a pair of cherries over each ear, so the fruit motif was definitely there. She looked up – small, dark, with skin not so much wrinkled as folded around her black, bird-bright eyes – and smiled, revealing several glinting gold teeth. ‘Read your tea leaves?’ she offered hospitably.

    Zillah is a friend of the narrator's grandmother, who moved in to look after "Grumps" after Granny died. Later, she wears "a red cardigan back to front under a purple one the right way round, with a corsage of orange felt roses pinned to the bosom. She'd added to the effect by wrapping a shawl covered in shrieking pink roses over the whole ensemble and what looked suspiciously like a checked tea towel wrapped turban-wise around her head." There are quite a lot of good clothes in this book, including a makeover (not for Zillah! for the narrator's best friend, Poppy).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 06:06

      Never come across book or author. Loving all those clothes details, as well as tea leaves....

      Delete
    2. Dame Eleanor Hull20 May 2026 at 19:06

      I consider Trisha Ashley to be the thinking woman's romance writer, especially her early books like Every Woman for Herself (I mean, who wouldn't subscribe to a mag called Skint Old Northern Woman?) and Singled Out. Later they do become more conventional, but I aspire to be Clara Mayhem-Doome from The Christmas Invitation, though I'm not sure I could carry off her clothes: "She was clad in scarlet corduroy trousers and a rainbow-striped Peruvian jumper, across which marched a procession of llamas. This, together with the big silver sun and moon earrings she wore, had been this year’s Christmas presents from her husband." It looks like the Wise Elderly Women in Trishaworld dress colorfully!

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 21:14

      This is so interesting, sounds like someone I must seek out....Thanks for the tipoff

      Delete
  13. Marty20 May 2026 at 11:28

    Tea-leaf reading seems to come up a lot in my mystery reading. I have the impression it was done by the lower classes, in an informal way (no crossing palms with silver).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 16:55

      Very much two women sitting over a kitchen table: have your tea then read the leaves.

      Delete
  14. Marty20 May 2026 at 11:42

    The Charlie Chan novel The Black Camel features a "mystic adviser" named Tarneverro. This one's a male, and in the film of the book was played by none other than Bela Lugosi. I know Chan is looked at askance these days, especially the films with a non-Asian actor playing him.. Still, I liked the books and Charlie was not a figure of ridicule (he was said to be based on a real-life Chinese-Hawaiian detective) and is shown respect despite the books being "of their time."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 16:55

      I don't think I've read any Charlie Chan, perhaps I should

      Delete
    2. Anonymous20 May 2026 at 20:15

      TV, not literature, but here's a male example: "Rene of the Gypsies" in the immortal Britcom 'Allo, 'Allo. Yet another overcomplicated plot to bust out the two feckless British airmen. Sorry about the title, which trades in stereotypes about a group we now call Roma, but 'Allo 'Allo relied heavily on ethnic and sexual tropes for its humor. British and German and Italian and especially French. Fun photo at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0500315/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk. --Trollopian

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 21:18

      TV always welcome as well, and that is a good photo! And sounds like an excellent epi. I'm glad you can embrace something like Allo Allo when you are not reading Trollope! 😀😀😀 (I am a great one for combining high and low myself...)

      Delete
    4. Marty20 May 2026 at 22:53

      Been trying to remember if I actually read The Black Camel or only saw the film....The books aren't much like the movies, no Chan offspring "helping" to solve the case and especially no Mantan Moreland (who was just making a living the best he could, but still causes cringing today).

      Delete
    5. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 09:50

      One day I will investigate all this....

      Delete
  15. Marty20 May 2026 at 11:48

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Marty20 May 2026 at 11:59

    I'm not sure which of Mitchell's books it is, but one of them ends with a local "witch" and Mrs Bradley using a crystall ball to predict each other's futures. The witch seems quite upset by hers!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 16:57

      Ooh that sounds good, and I don't think I can have read it. If you think of the name tell me.

      Delete
    2. Marty21 May 2026 at 00:23

      It's the last chapter in Tom Brown's Body.

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 09:50

      Thanks, I have read that one, but obviously had forgotten

      Delete
  17. Susan D20 May 2026 at 12:45

    D E Stevenson is fond of a fortune teller in her books. Her Mrs Tim is coerced into being the fortune teller at an event and, suitably disguised, finds herself impressing her clients with her knowledge. And a casual tea leaf reader predicts the advent of a tall stranger in, well, The Tall Stranger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 17:01

      It's actually amazingly easy to be a fortune-teller in a community where you know people, like me at the school fete.
      I recognized one child as obviously part of a large family of similar-looking chidren, one in every year of the school. I said 'Oh I see a nice surprise for you in the future'. And he said 'Oh no, it's another baby isn't it?' which made me laugh a lot, while I reassured him that it was not.

      Delete
  18. JanW20 May 2026 at 13:54

    Maybe just of interest for Allingham completist but Cheapjack, ostensibly by Philip Allingham, was heavily contributed to and edited by Margery as discussed in her diaries. It details Philip's life as a grafter on the road going from fair to fair in the 1920s and early 30s England. He wore evening dress and was billed as Professor X, the Mystery man from the East - using a goldfish bowl as a crystal ball. He also sold a nifty line in 'lightening' hair curlers. Eventually he married Madame Francesca and they ran a postal fortune telling business. The book was published in 1934, a year after Orwell's Down and out in Paris and London and together they give a sense of huge numbers of homeless/rootlesd itinerant people making the best living they could. Golden Duck republished it in 2010.

    But Madam Arcati as played by Maragaret Rutherford is my favourite medium/ fortune telker. She so believes, it is touching. Not to mention her maximalist approach to dressing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 17:02

      That sounds very interesting, and despite my love for Allingham I hadn't heard of it.
      Yes, Margaret Rutherford was born to play Madame Arcati

      Delete
  19. Anonymous20 May 2026 at 15:57

    Are we including astrologists? If so, there is Josephine Tey's A Shilling For Candles. Chrissie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 17:03

      Yes indeed - and every good reason to include that one!

      Delete
  20. Anonymous20 May 2026 at 16:22

    The Ouija board is part of the mystery plot in The Sittaford Mystery, and the sinister fortune teller is involved in Fear For Miss Betony. However, surely the most unconvincing fortune teller must have been Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre. He’s also a contender for most unethical employer for this charade (and everything else he does).
    Nerys

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 17:06

      Yes indeed, and I discussed the fortune teller at length in my post on Miss Betony.
      Mr Rochester is mentioned above in the post.

      Delete
  21. Aubrey Hamilton20 May 2026 at 17:17

    Alice Duncan has a series of about 15 books about Daisy Gumm, a psychic to the wealthy in 1920s Los Angeles. Daisy does not believe she's psychic but sees no problem with relieving the upper class of a bit of their money.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 21:04

      I'm always amazed when I hear of a whole series that I've never even heard of! I like the setup: do you recommend?

      Delete
  22. Anonymous20 May 2026 at 20:46

    Ooh, great subject! In Ethel Lina White’s She Faded Into Air, the woman of the title vanishes from the flat of fortune teller Madame Goya. Another character suggests that Goya’s “real business” is “crystal gazing and a spot of blackmail… Crowds of society people steal up to consult her. My guess is she’s in with a bunch of business crooks and gets tips from tainted sources. I mean she bets on certainties and sometimes sells the dope to her clients. She knows which horse is going to be pulled and which round the heavyweight is going to sleep… When I asked her to tell me my fortune, you should have seen the dirty look she gave me.”
    Zoe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books20 May 2026 at 21:11

      I think this is one of hers that I haven't read, and you make it sound very appealing, I must seek it out!

      Delete
  23. CLM21 May 2026 at 03:06

    I haven't read it yet but recently bought The Square of Sevens by Laura Shepherd Robinson, a historical mystery which I can see is about someone raised by a fortune teller.

    Lloyd Alexander (best known for the Prydain novels) wrote a children's book called The Fortune-Tellers in which a young man who visits a fortune teller somehow ends up with the job himself.

    Re mediums, I read a fascinating book a couple years ago, Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam, set in 1920s Scotland. Life completely changes for an ordinary couple when the husband starts seeing spirits and gets taken up by those post WWI people trying to connect with loved ones. Evelyn asks the doctor to treat her husband and he finds nothing wrong, saying Robert is either insane, lying, or telling the truth. Of course, Evelyn was hoping for a nice tonic! The way she copes with being wife of man seeing spirits is just as interesting as the way Robert enjoys hobnobbing with the elite.

    Constance

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 09:55

      I thought I'd read one of Laura S R's books but can't find that I have. Let me know what it's like.
      That book about the Scottish medium sounds really compelling

      Delete
  24. Anonymous21 May 2026 at 07:34

    Another sinister medium in the opening chapter of Patricia Wentworth's Latter End - all her friends are consulting him so Lois Latter follows the trend, but doesn't give his warnings about poison much credence ...

    Sovay

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 09:58

      Another one that I have read but had forgotten the fortune-teller!

      Delete
  25. JanW21 May 2026 at 09:00

    An unexotic fortune teller is Madame Elena in Colette's novella Julie de Carneilhan. She tells fortunes from candle wax and '...from the check apron to the loaf-like bun of hair,look like a respectable charwoman' she foretells an unreliable man, a long journey and a mysterious child...usual stuff then

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 10:00

      I wonder if candle wax is a French means of divination?
      Rather off-topic - with such characters I have described them as 'looking like the housekeeper in Wuthering Heights' - I particularly objected to a Mimi in a performance of La Boheme who I felt was not Mimi-ish enough. But in the recent film of Wuthering Heights Nelly Dean looks quite different...

      Delete
    2. Anonymous21 May 2026 at 10:38

      This reminded me of divination by means of melted lead/solder poured into cold water, which we used to do at Hallowe’en when I was a teenager – one could do the same with candle wax. It was a lot like divination by tealeaves – we looked at the shapes that formed and interpreted them according to our fancy.

      Sovay

      Delete
    3. Marty21 May 2026 at 11:24

      Just out of curiosity, what constituted "not Mimi-ish enough"? (I don't know much about opera, obviously.) As for the new WH--if it's the Margot Robbie version, from what I've read about it "quite different" is a good description

      Delete
    4. JanW21 May 2026 at 11:39

      Yes, the wax is melted and Madame Elana divines from the drops and puddles of molten wax. You have to carry the candle to her next to your skin. Very technical , this fortune telling.

      So many fascinating books in this area from brilliant readers. Thanks. Just a note - the Society for Psychical Research. Founded in 1882 is still functioning...

      Delete
    5. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 15:21

      Sovay I haven't come across that in the UK, I wonder if it is regional?
      Mimi-ish - she is a delicate seamstress who is dying of consumption and has a tiny hand, and she is also Parisienne and - I would expect - rather chic, even though very poor. Of all people I am never wishing people to be skinny, or claiming extra attraction goes with thinness, and to some degree I am in favour of inlcusive casting. But this was a big solid Mimi in a rough check dress and what looked like a sacking apron, and I did not take to her.
      I know many people disliked the Wuthering Heights film - which did indeed differ from the book in many ways - but I very much enjoyed it.
      Jan - yes I looked at the Society for Psychical Research in my post on Miss Betony

      Delete
    6. Anonymous21 May 2026 at 15:49

      Certainly not a tradition from North Yorkshire – one of my school friends first suggested it, and none of the rest of our circle had heard of it. I had a look at Wikipedia which indicates mostly Baltic and Central European origin (it also has a proper name – molybdomancy – which I wasn’t aware of) so maybe she had family connections in Europe, though if so I don’t remember her ever mentioning it. We always did it at her house, and her father provided the “lead”, and it was not discussed with anyone outside the circle, which all added to the mystery and thrill (as did the hissing and steam when the hot metal hit the cold water).

      Sovay

      Delete
    7. Clothes In Books21 May 2026 at 17:03

      Oh my goodness Sovay - that's the beginning of your novel right there! Write it!

      Delete
    8. Susanna21 May 2026 at 18:42

      The Scottish cook, Mrs Adie, does fortune telling with molten lead in water at New Year's Eve, in Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther. So I'd sort of assumed it was Scottish but perhaps not. It sounds very dramatic!

      Delete
    9. Anonymous21 May 2026 at 20:44

      Interesting! I think Sally was more likely to have had Scottish ancestry than Estonian … and yes, it was very dramatic and then there was much giggling and arguing about what the shapes were and what they might mean.

      Sovay

      Delete
    10. Clothes In Books22 May 2026 at 07:02

      Candle wax and making tea - everyday household activities. But melting lead takes it to another level, and also sounds excitingly dangerous.

      Delete
    11. Anonymous22 May 2026 at 09:14

      I don’t think we considered the physical danger at the time – though the first time we did it I remember being surprised at how much heat the metal had retained when scooped out of the water. It was heated over a candle flame in a metal ladle with a badly chipped red-painted wooden handle. Sally’s dad didn’t stick around to supervise – apart from anything else, this would have negated the magic.

      I was thinking about 1970s H&S / safeguarding earlier this week following a conversation with a younger work colleague about parental supervision – she was horrified at the idea that as an older primary-school child I was wandering around the countryside all day, unsupervised, with my slightly older brother and three or four friends of similar age. IIRC we used to tell our parents what we planned to do before we set off, but didn’t feel bound to stick to the plan if other possibilities presented themselves. All very Enid Blyton (which was how the topic came up – one of her kids had been reading The Famous Five).

      Sovay

      Delete
    12. Clothes In Books22 May 2026 at 17:56

      Yes, times have very much changed. It's sometimes hard to see exactly why

      Delete
  26. Dame Eleanor Hull21 May 2026 at 21:26

    Off-topic but for those of us fascinated by mid-century British writers, Madeleine Blaess's WWII diary of life in Paris contains many references to her reading CIB favorites and is available free for download or reading online: https://universitypress.whiterose.ac.uk/books/m/10.22599/Blaess

    Blaess became a scholar of medieval French literature and its manuscript tradition in English libraries. Since I know her name from that end of things, I was charmed by this portrait of the scholar as a young woman who rhapsodized over Paris in the springtime and Notre Dame at Halloween, as well as struggling to stay adequately fed during the war--the diary has far more about food than clothes, but she does knit herself yellow gloves and socks to show solidarity with the Jews forced to wear yellow stars.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dame Eleanor Hull21 May 2026 at 21:55

      Oh, wait, I can be on-topic after all! Here's Blaess's visit to a fortune teller, recounted on 17 August 1943: "Went to fortune teller at Dilys’s and learnt that because I was born in the month of August I am very proud and good under a surly exterior; that I can get on well with everyone but being a high achiever I like honours and recognition and all that; that I’ll struggle to get married and then only late on and then there wil be an immediate divorce; that I am extremely independent; that I will be very comfortably off later on in life; that I would be better placd to succeed and that my worth will be recognised abroad rather than at home; that I get on very well with Mum or those born under my star sign or under Taurus who are all very intelligent (!); but never with my Aunt (why?) nor with my cousin (dilettante). The things one finds out!"

      Delete
    2. Clothes In Books22 May 2026 at 07:06

      That book sounds fascinating, I've not come across it before.
      The prediction does sound rather like one of those generic fortunes that everyone can hear and apply to themselves. (JB Priestley wrote amusingly about that). But then with the sudden divorce thrown in to spice it up. 'People don't always see what a deep thinker you are' apparently always goes down well.

      Delete
    3. Dame Eleanor Hull22 May 2026 at 17:45

      Later in 1943 she makes over a cherry-red dress. I foresee that you are going to have to read it . . .

      Delete
    4. Clothes In Books22 May 2026 at 17:57

      I think I am! (I am wearing a cherry-red dress as I write this....)

      Delete
  27. JanW22 May 2026 at 07:57

    Just a question, why are most female fortune tellers titled Madame?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous22 May 2026 at 12:06

      I think they call themselves Madame in Britain because it sounds foreign and exotic - which raises the question of how lady fortune-tellers in France achieve the same effect.

      Sovay

      Delete
    2. JanW22 May 2026 at 14:02

      I have only read Colette in translation but your explanation of English Madame works well. It always amused me when the resolutely down to earth sounding Margaret Rutherford played Madame A.

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books22 May 2026 at 17:54

      Great question, and excellent observation about France!

      Delete
  28. Anonymous22 May 2026 at 12:09

    I can’t resist mentioning paranormal goings-on in one of the earliest detective stories – scrying in Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone - the group of Indians who are trying to track down their stolen diamond are guided by a small boy who can see it in a pool of ink or other dark liquid. Not fortune-telling as such in this instance, but a means of seeing across distance and into locations to which they wouldn’t otherwise have access – used in the same way IIRC in Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.

    Sovay

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books22 May 2026 at 17:55

      Yes I definitely put all those things under the same canopy

      Delete
  29. Marty23 May 2026 at 01:07

    In Sharyn McCrumb's Appalachian novels there is at least one character with "second sight" which isn't fortune-telling of course, but leads to seeing things in the future sometimes. In the Mrs Bradley books, Laura claims that some of her Highland ancestors had "The Gift" which sounds like the same kind of thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books23 May 2026 at 07:57

      I remember reading those Sharyn McCrumb books many years ago - I enjoyed them, and she had a wide field of interests. At least one of them had some supernatural input.
      There use to be a bit of a trope of those Scotish-anscestors-coming-through - now I'm thinking, wasn't there something similar in Christie's Towards Zero?

      Delete
  30. CLM26 May 2026 at 13:04

    There seem to have been a lot of warnings about supporting the Old and Young Pretenders. In Anya Seton's Devil Water, Charles Radcliffe, the impetuous protagonist, gets the classic gypsy warning, which describes his family's tragic fate, involving a tower, a block, and the loss of their Northumbrian lands: “A stone shall fall, a tree shall spring,And a Radcliffe shall be bare.” I just read this and it is an enthralling as Katherine but less uplifting. There is a good bit about the Earl of Nithsdale, which certainly captures the imagination (not so much fun for those left to deal with the embarrassed guards).

    A more sympathetic hero is the Earl of Montrose (beloved by Margaret Irwin and, as a result, me). I don't remember if it is an actual fortune teller or one of his enemies who says he won't be at rest until he is hanged (not very nice!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books26 May 2026 at 13:28

      I never found an Anya Seton book I loved as much as Katherine, but haven't read this one - it sounds splendid. Scottish history give so much scope for dramatic dashing stories.

      Delete
  31. Christine Harding26 May 2026 at 21:16

    What about sinister predictions like the witches in Macbeth who hail him as someone who be ‘king hereafter’? Do their words influence his actions, or was the idea of killing Duncan already there? And what about Oscar Wilde’s The Crime of Lord Arthur Savile, where a palm reader tells Arthur it is his destiny to be a murderer, so he decides he must kill someone before going going ahead with his marriage. It’s a very funny short story, but there is a dark, uncomfortable side to it - and I’m sure Arthur would never have embarked on his course of action without listening to the fortune teller.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clothes In Books27 May 2026 at 14:29

      It's a very good philosophical question isnt it?
      I have friends who quite got into the whole fortune-telling thing, ie consulting people. I deplored the waste of money, but I was struck by the fact that the fortune-tellers seemed to give quite sensible advice, did NOT predict the likes of murders, and acted as a kind of therapy for those going through life difficulties. (I used to say 'I would have told you that for nothing')

      It's obviously a great plot point to move people towards bad actions with your predictions - but perhaps it doesn't happen too much in real life.

      Delete
    2. Marty29 May 2026 at 10:46

      Maybe astrology has more of that effect these days than old-fashioned fortune-telling? Not for murder, that is! But apparently some people do give "the stars" some measure of control of their lives.

      Delete
    3. Clothes In Books30 May 2026 at 13:58

      That's a very good point. And never forget a relevant Josephine Tey murder story!

      Delete

Post a Comment