Bill's Dunnett Blog

This one might be a bit controversial!

Anyone who’s read my Twitter/X contributions over the last few years (and increasingly Bluesky now that Musk has driven so many away from X) will probably have seen some of my responses when people post overly macho choices for our favourite “hero to end all heroes”, Francis Crawford of Lymond, (other Dunnett heroes are available).

We naturally all have our own ideas, our own internal vision of the various characters of the Lymond Chronicles, and the arguements over The Great Casting Game have been running for many years. Our thoughts vary considerably of course – we all react differently and our mental images vary accordingly – but I was always rather bemused when they differed markedly from the textual descriptions.

But things really started to get perlexing when folk started posting photos of rugged, strongly built men, often tall, who were completely at odds with what Dorothy was telling us. I’ve remarked many times on social media that if you can’t put a long blond wig on the chosen actor and have him make a convincing Marthe then they really don’t work for me.

You see they are almost identical twins, the comparisons are made often enough for there to be no doubt of that. Such as

“For Francis Crawford and Marthe were alike. Sometimes the physical resemblance between them was striking enough to be uncomfortable.”

Even their voices are similar enough that Philippa is fooled when she first hears Marthe before seeing her, and Marthe is described in glorious terms that make it clear that she’s very beautiful. Lymond is described thus too, so must surely have a delicate aspect to his own renowned beauty in order to be compared to her so often.

But that’s not the only reason for rejecting conventional hero actors. The ever-persuasive reach of Hollywood and the equally pervasive TV series on both sides of the Atlantic have made it almost impossible to imagine a hero who isn’t tall, muscular, and square jawed. If you mention someone is blond then thoughts these days will probably turn to the likes of Thor and a bleached Chris Hemsworth! You just don’t see small-medium heroes any more; with the possibe exception of Spiderman and Ant-Man. And inevitably some of the female readership tend to be swayed in this rugged direction. For years I read discussion groups where some insisted that Lymond must be reasonably tall, and most assumed that he was conventionally handsome.

But a careful reading of the actual descriptions Dorothy gives us of Lymond show us a very different picture! For fear of shattering countless cherished mental images I have avoided laying out all the evidence for long enough, but I can take only so many photos of rugged six foot plus men with bulging biceps before rising in protest. So finally, inspired by a discovery a few months ago, I’m taking the plunge.

First, the evidence.

Lymond Descriptions

Being the introductory book, Game of Kings naturally has a number of descriptions of him, as well as hints in how he moves, and the mental images are further coloured by the atmosphere around those descriptions.

“His hair soft as a nestling’s” sets the scene, while the use of “winnowing” suggests agility and lightness rather than any sense of brute force. But the phrase that really first sticks in the memory is:

“Lucent and delicate, Drama entered, mincing like a cat.”

and it’s followed up with:

“With careful and porcelain tread”

and

“scanned the dairy-maid skin, the gilded hair, the long hands, jewelled to display their beauty”

But what of height? Our first direct indication occurs in the guise of a Spanish captain:

“Don Luis de Cordoba uncrossed long, exquisite legs”

They may be exquisite but the length is a shapely illusion – for when he requests spare clothing that isn’t full of lice we get:

“It was true enough. They were all big men, far taller than Don Luis.”

As the story develops we get little suggestions like:

“With a soft elegance Lymond slid into the seat opposite”

and we even get this first hint of androgeny:

“The blue, feminine gaze moved to Gideon”

These little micro-descriptions continue to add up – he has exquisite wrists and hands

“With the musician’s hands”

“his expression angelical”

Until we get this first reference, which will be echoed in Pawn in Frankincense where it will describe Marthe:

“With the face of a Della Robbia angel”

So what does a Della Robbia angel look like. Here’s a couple.

Many, but not all, of the following photographs are clickable for larger versions.

Della Robbia angels are often figures who are of uncertain sex – beautiful with cherubic faces and long curling hair. It’s hard to tell whether they portray a pretty young boy or a pretty girl. Once again the use of this description is a hint of androgeny, or at least a universal delicate beauty that would be equally suitable for male or female.

I remember Dorothy telling of a visit to the house of the Earl of Crawford to see a manuscript for research. As she entered the library she found to her delight a Della Robbia angel on the wall.

To return to descriptions, cats are often used as motifs, echoing that first one at Midculter.

“stretching like a cat”

All of these descriptions suggest a light, almost delicate frame with elegance and supple beauty. Even in the most masculine activity of the book – the dramatic swordfight between the brothers, the two best swordsmen in Scotland, the descriptions of Francis suggest a light athleticism rather than a crude or heavy combat, though obviously a strong arm must also be present. There is also this one direct reference:

“To do his endeavour, Lymond waited in the hall of Flaw Valleys, a slender, feral figure”

In Queens’ Play we get some more hints about height:

“Round, compact and shining with salt, a scrubby figure whisked up the loose foremast rope”

Round is from the leather-padded stomach disguise, but compact suggests an absence of height.

“‘Liam aboo!’ returned his ollave concisely from the yardarm, and like a soiled raindrop, slid down to the deck.
Tis a bard out of Banachadee. My little, weeshy ollave,”

“On the arch over the bridge, something moved. Plump, nimble, fluttering black, light as leaf on find, a man dropped from the pediment and clung firm among the upset, steaming urns on the bull elephant’s back.”

Nimble, light – again this has no suggestion of any great height.

When out of disguise and visiting Tom Erskine we return to the slim and cultured:

“Slender in black silk, the thinly textured fair skin neatly tailored over its bones.”

Much later when the Thady Boy disguise has been discarded we get Vervassal:

“beside this elegant person, fine as a fan stick carved under warm water, from pale hair to the pale, moving light of his rings.”

“Beneath the golden light the other man’s face was luminous as alabaster”

More feline grace:

“catlike young man”

He is extremely attractive to the French nobles, many of whom appear to be bi-sexual:

“Cest une belle, mais frigide. Une belle, vois-tu!” (It’s a beautiful one, but frigid. A beauty, you see!)

“Throughout the introductions, d’Enghien’s gaze did not leave him: moving slowly over the burnished head, the indolent face, the beguiling limbs.”

Beguiling! An interesting choice of words; the OED describes it as meaning “charming or enchanting, often in a deceptive way.”

In Disorderly Knights the androgenous aspect is raised again with rather more force, as we find him organising an ambush dressed as a girl! And he’s convincing! Not just from a cannon shot distance like his men, but convincing enough for Sir Ralph Bulmer to lift him up to his horse!

“A light hand on his arm stopped him short. Below, her floating gown filthy, the girl of the hilltop beseeched him, her eyes anxious cisterns of blue. For the merest second, Sir Ralph Bullmer studied her. Her hands were empty and her thin dress innocent of weapons.”

How many typical Hollywood heroes could pull off that trick? The only ones that come to mind as successfully playing female roles are Tony Curtis in Some Like it Hot and the lightly built Dustin Hoffman as Tootsy – both with a lot of makeup. But never in a thin flowing gown.

In Pawn it is Marthe who gets most of the great descriptions. But in Ringed Castle we start seeing him through Danny’s eyes after their first meeting in Russia.

“His eight officers, staring edgily back, saw a delicate-looking gentleman in a pretty paned and pinked tunic with the finest voile shirt bands and a link-belt of Italian enamel work. A man whose yellow hair, dry and light and unevenly tipped, eclipsed the sunlight behind him, and whose Attic profile and unoccupied, long-shafted hands caused a small moan of ecstasy to burst, very circumspectly, from Mr Hislop’s baby-pink lips.”

Surely we can now leave the rugged conventional leading men behind please.

We also get a better idea of height in RC. When Philippa first meets Chancellor at the Sidney’s house:

“…revealing a short, stocky man in his thirties, with untrimmed black hair and a beard”

Why this is important is revealed later, but first, what was the average height at that time? 5ft 7in for men and 5ft 2in for women seems to be the the consensus.
So what would “short” suggest. Perhaps 5ft 1in or 2in?

After Chancellor has travelled to Russia and he and Lymond meet and the party is ordered to retreat to a church for the night, we get:

“From a disadvantage of four inches and a quantity of stupefaction, Diccon Chancellor bowed.”

So that makes Lymond around 5ft 6in at most.

Also in RC, returned from Russia, he and Philippa meet again for the first time since Volos, and when they go to a room to talk in private she observes him – and Dorothy produces a memorable line:

“Against the dark panelling the clear, colourless skin and fair hair looked deceptively delicate, like a tutor she had once had who turned out to be a practising gelder.”

In Checkmate he masqerades as Hilary and we discover he sings as a counter-tenor.

Later we get

“this fair, slender man with the sculptured face and wide, watchful eyes, and the lyre marks of satire and also of arrogance about the long mouth.”

More than anything else he and Marthe are described as being nearly identical twins,  Her beauty is described eloquently – so his must be strikingly similar.

Heading for Russia, Danny surmises he will be gorgeous and that is confirmed by Adam and as we’ve heard, shortly after when when they meet in Moscow.

Some early ideas

All this, even allowing that I might not have picked up all of it on first or second read, was why when I first ventured into the The Great Casting Game my choices for Francis were David McCallum with his Ilya Kuriakin boyish good looks – not tall but no less a hero for that – and Jason Connery, who with long blond hair as Robin Hood, carried off the combination of handsome beauty while still being clearly masculine.

Many of the following photographs are clickable for larger versions.

But the more often I read the books the more I started to put together these hints of an androgenous aspect to Lymonds looks, and the more I considered it the more it matched the reactions of people to him. The way both women and men are physically and sexually attracted to him, why Adam sketches him so often, partly why he commands such a presence – beauty was greatly revered – and why he was underestimated by both his supposed father and his elder brother as being an effete brat. For those who believe Jerott was attracted to him physically – a common opinion among gay and bi readers – it perhaps also explains how the attraction started in their teens.

The revelation

One day I was musing on Marthe and what she looked like. Perhaps subconsciously to begin with, my mind was tackling the problem from the other end. What if we work out what she looks like, find a model or actress that matches, and then try to work out what Lymond might look like from there? I started looking for photos of blond models – such are the sacrifices I make for my readership! 😉

And quite soon I came across this image that immediately shouted Marthe at me – if a modern version of her – beautiful, blond, wonderful cheek bones – but with a suggestion of firmness that showed her determined and individualistic nature.

I checked the name and easily found another – wow, even more gorgeous.

Odd that that was the word that sprang to mind… or maybe not.

“There was a little pause. Looking into that angelic, fair face Philippa saw the authority she had missed before: the small lines round the mouth; the winged curve of spirit on either side of the fine planes of the nose: the faint, single line between the arched brows.”

You can almost hear this cool elegant creature delivering Marthe’s cutting remarks.

Now I don’t follow high fashion or I might have already been aware, but I then read, with some considerable astonishment, that this captivating girl was in fact, a guy! A male model who had become famous for being so androgenous and so beautiful that he modelled both mens and womens clothes with equal success and was in high demand on the catwalks of Europe. His name was Andrej Pejic. He’d apparently been voted the 98th sexiest girl in the world in FHM magazine. I had to wonder where he’d have finished if the voters hadn’t known he was a boy!

I should say that while looking for more images and background information I soon discovered that, perhaps not surprisingly, he was now she – having had gender re-assignment surgery and changed her name to Andreja, and was now firmly established as a supermodel. Apparently he’d known since the age of 13 that he should have been a girl. I’ll leave you to guess or research which photos are pre-transition and which are post – they are remarkably consistent and certainly explain the demand for his/her services as a model both prior and post the transition. I wish her well; I know a few transgender people and know how much courage it takes to transition, and even to just try to live a normal life.

But back to Marthe and to Lymond.
It was around this point that a couple of voices from Russia whispered in my ear –

“Is he gorgeous dear Adam?”
“Undoubtedly gorgeous.”

It was all starting to come together. I was already convinced I had my Marthe. Though of course I had to go back and make sure!

Yeah, I’m sure.

And the more I thought about it and remembered and looked up the descriptions I’ve quoted above, the more I felt this must surely be the sort of dramatic beauty that attracted most of the French court and caused that “small moan of ecstasy” from Danny. But this time enclosed in the definitely male persona of her brother.

Any more masculine and Marthe couldn’t be so beautiful and Sir Ralph might not have been convinced. Any more feminine and Lymond would never be able to command as he does, while Marthe would be reduced to exotic window dressing and lose some of her strength. It’s a fine line when dealing with near-identical siblings.

So considering just Marthe for the moment, this is what I feel she may, must, surely have looked like. I find these images compelling, quite apart from the intriguing androgenous aspect – unquestionable beauty, a sense of aloofness, strength and independence of mind. Those long slender hands – oh those hands! – echo the elegant musican’s hands we hear about so often with her brother. No wonder Jerott was so madly in love with her.

Lymond of course is more difficult.

There aren’t anything like as many photos showing Andrej in male guise other than the following young ones I’ve included here – perhaps it’s not surprising given the media attention was mostly on how convincing a girl he made pre-transition and how beautiful she was afterwards. He was 17 when scouted and before 20 was wowing audiences across Europe and working for Jean-Paul Gaultier. Now there’s a coincidentally similar name 😉

In this first one he’s strikingly handsome and definitely male, yet change the clothes, add a little subtle shading with makeup, and he’s not that different from the convincing feminine person we see in the modelling shots.

In this second one, posing for the camera, perhaps for Vogue, he’s still clearly male but the potential is also very evident. He’s still fairly young though.

So I can’t show you a photo and say ‘that’s Lymond as we know him in the books’, but  these younger photos of Andrej can perhaps give us an idea of Lymond as a teenager if we can get past the long hair.

Andrej transitioned at 24 so of course we can never know what he might have looked like as a mature man in masculine guise – how, as Marthe thinks in Lyon, he had grown into his looks – so it maybe doesn’t get us too much further to “seeing” Lymond in his later 20’s directly, but I do feel that if we can imagine the young Andrej a little more mature with shorter hair and clothes of the period then we are getting much closer.

The next time you hear someone suggest Tom Hiddleston or the like – send them over here.

There’s only one slight problem with all this. We’ve established that Lymond is around 5ft 6in. Andreja is 6ft tall.

But hey, you can’t have everything exactly right! Or as Lindsey Davis likes to say of her books – “It’s fiction, I made it up.” Though some readers will never believe that of Lymond!

But I hope I’ve given you cause to re-examine your mental picture of Lymond as Dorothy describes him. He’s a lot more complex and intriguing than any of us realised on that first read. Well into double figures I’m still learning new insights.

“Every line of him spoke, palimpsestwise, with two voices.”

To conclude with a little postscript, everyone seems to have a Taylor Swift pic these days, so here’s one of her with Andreja. As Danny might have said – Double Gorgeous!