The Very First Damned Thing

No one loves this series more than I, and of course I thoroughly enjoyed reading this very short story (the length of 1-2 chapters) which tries to briefly sketch out thumbnails as to the origins to this series, explaining how St. Mary’s was initially set up and staffed. I recommend this to anyone, but in all fairness, it only is meaningful to those of us already familiar with the place and its’ characters. So, get your own “Just One Damn Thing After Another” and start your own adventure with these people!!
Like any good story, it raises more questions than it answers, and incites passions that we fans all share. I want to throw some Fascists out of Cardiff! I want to struggle on and triumph at the Battersea Barricades! What actually happened with Markham setting the fire? What is it with these Bessant women? What about Mrs. Enderby & Mrs. Shaw? What happens next to Guthrie and Grey? Ditto Kal and Dieter? Will Baby Maxwell stop everything? Why do we (here in the USA) keep closing our borders? Why can’t I get a St. Mary’s T-shirt, or a “University of Thirsk” sweatshirt? Of course, most of all, what’s going on with Mrs. Partridge?!!

It was very, very cool to not only get a glimpse of the origins St. Mary’s but also a peek into Dr. Bairstow’s head. At this point in the series, seeing his relationships with the people that he intentionally sought to staff St. Mary’s was more interesting than the jump to Waterloo (despite the delightful surprise guests we find there).

This story also gave us tantalizing details about the near(?) future in which this series exists. It starts hitting a little close to home, in some ways, which just makes me even more determined to keep following this world to learn more.

And to enjoy the madcap adventures of the historians, of course.

As other reviewers have noted, this is best read after youve read at least the first book of the series. It makes perfect sense whereas reading it beforehand, it might be a bit confusing. Second, be aware that this is one of the stories in The Long and Short of It, so, if youve bought that but havent read it yet, dont buy this single. If you havent bought it yet, go ahead! Its well worth it, even if you end up buying The Long and Short of It later on (there are so many additional great shorts to go with it you wont mind a retread).

In this short, you get to learn about how St. Marys came to be, how Bairstow found the core group of remarkable characters, and why the smell of cabbage (it just happens). His dealings with his growing staff are hilarious, as are his dealings with the first (of many) members of the Society for Preservation of Old Buildings. As I mentioned at the start, having already read at least the first St. Marys book helps a lot. In fact, in the collection of shorts, its positioned about mid-way through the contents – I suspect for that very reason.

I love the St. Marys series – full-length books as well as the shorts. The characters and the situations they get into are side-splitting and Jodi Taylors tongue is firmly planted in cheek for this one. I grew up in Pasadena and, to be honest, the goings on at St. Marys remind me a bit of some of the things that Cal Tech students would get up to. I love Bairstow – Id have paid good money to have him for my boss when I was working. And Markham – a wise class clown with heart and one of my favorite characters. So, do pick this up in some form or another and have a good chuckle – if not out-loud laugh – over the origins of St. Marys and its crew of historians, security folks, and support teams.

I usually hate novellas, but I love this series. This is the origin story of the founding of St Mary’s in which Dr Bairstow comes and convinces people to fund historical research in contemporary time and assembles key members of his team. There is also a good amount of background on things readers may have wondered about like what is the deal with America or why there were battle tested people laying about. Inspired me to reread whole series for more details.

Having come to the series a little later than most, I’m glad I picked this up as one of the first couple of books I read. I think I read this short story 3rd, so I got a little bit of background!

I discovered early on that it’s worthwhile to look up the publication order of the St. Mary’s Chronicles. Reading them in order was so much less confusing (than when I had bought the next suggested book from Amazon, and was TOTALLY confused!)

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