Thursday 24 June 2021

Lovin' that Lupin!

I know exactly when I became aware of the lupin flower. It was summer 1963, and Miss Holdforth, our teacher, said we were going to make a floral mural for the classroom wall. 

Everybody was given a piece of pale green sugar paper, cut in the shape of a cucumber, and two little packets of crepe paper petal shapes. We each had two colours - mine were purple and lilac. We spent one long afternoon sticking our petals on the cucumber, to make a lupin. It was flour and water paste, and the purple colour came off the crepe onto my fingers. I didn't really enjoy the activity [I wanted to do a red one, but you never got a choice!] but I became fascinated with the actual flowers. I decided that at some point I would grow lupins in my garden. As yet this has not happened!

However I have recently discovered a TV show called LUPIN, showing on Netflix. It's another Eurocrime series, set in Paris [subtitled] with an intriguing plot. Assane Diop is a 'gentleman thief', who sets out to avenge his father for an injustice inflicted on him years before, by a wealthy family. Diop takes his inspiration from the fictional character Arséne Lupin, created by the writer Maurice Leblanc.

Assane, like his hero, is "un gentleman cambrioleur" - he steals from people who are worse villains than he is, often in a Robin-Hood sort of way, to benefit those worse off. And always to avenge wrongs. He first appeared in print in 1905, just a few years after A J Horning;s "Raffles" stories arrived in the English press. AJH only wrote from 1899-1909 - but Leblanc kept the Lupin chronicles going up till 1940 [Lesley Charteris introduced his gentleman burglar, The Saint in 1928 - although most of us only know of Roger Moore's 1960s incarnation of that character]

The Diop storyline is very clever- there are parallels with the way the contemporary 'Sherlock' Benedict Cumberbatch relates to Conan Doyle's Holmes. You don't need to know the original Leblanc stories to enjoy Lupin. Bob and I knew nothing about them, but both thought that it was a good tale well told.. 

The actual details behind Leblanc's writing are fascinating. The first book was about Arséne LOpin - but a politician with that same name insisted he change, hence LUpin. He also wrote a story called Arséne Lupin Versus Sherlock Holmes. The estate of Arthur Conan Doyle protested, so he called the character Herlock Sholmes instead [weird but true]

Having watched series 1 & 2 of Lupin, I plan to borrow the original stories from the library. BTW if you do not know the "Raffles" stories, listen out for them on Radio 4 Extra, they are repeated on a regular basis and extremely well done.

I definitely rate Lupin [series 1 and 2] starring the gifted actor Omar Sy, with a clear *****


14 comments:

  1. I fell in love with Raffles back in the 1970s and revisit the stories from time to time. Did you know that Hornung married Conan Doyle's sister? Doyle told Hornung that a story of a gentleman thief wouldn't be accepted by the public. I will have to see if I can find Lupin.
    My dad approved of me reading Raffles because I started to show an interest in cricket and would often go to Old Trafford with him.

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    1. Oh this is fascinating stuff Pauline. I never knew that AJH & ACD were brothers in law. I started reading the original Leblanc Lupin last night on Libby. I'm afraid his writing style didn't really grab me. I must try again when I'm not sleepy. Thank you for all this new info.

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    2. I love lupins too, this year is the first time in 6 years we have had a decent show thanks to the weed repellant strulch we put down and the dry spring, the lupins came the and grew up before the slugs could get at them. I plant to grow more when we get DB's greenhouse up. It was not due to September, when we got home on Tuesday there was a message to say it is coming on Monday...ooppss

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    3. I hope that means NEXT Monday, not last Monday when you were in Norfolk. It was lovely to see you both!

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    4. Yes Angela, next Monday, 12 weeks early!! The original delivery date was end of September.

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  2. I read Raffles when I went to Italy 2 summers ago. Such a good book and I associate it with sitting by the pool memories.

    Did you say this series was on Netflix? I might have to look out for it as I love a good Whodunnit. Same with the books...once I've completed all the other books on my shelves!
    I like the Lupin collage idea even if you didn't. It's funny that I never did screwed up tissue collage as a child- maybe my teachers were adverse to it?

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    1. Yes Netflix - I think you two would like it

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  3. My son recommended the Lupin tv series to me but I just couldn't get into it. Might try again. I bought a new Lupin plant on Monday because the slugs had feasted on last year's beautiful plant. It's out-and-out WAS (war against slugs, I just made that up!)at mine this year.

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    1. Reading your comment and SBBEs I now realise slugs are an issue with lupins. Maybe I shan't attempt then till my fingers are a little greener

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    2. One way to stop the slugs devouring your plants are to cut rings out of a plastic bottle, I sue bottles that have had sparkling water in them, as the lupins begin to come through put the ring over them and puch into the ground. I put a ring of vaseline round, just to make sure, once the growth is over 6" tall take the plastic off, you may need to cut it, put on a cane and loosely tie the growth to it to keep it up so the leaves do not trail on the ground. You can get plant rings which you thread over a cane and it keeps the plant upright, you can move it up the cane as the plants grow, stops them from becoming top heavy.

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  4. We've watched Lupin on Netflix too, and thoroughly enjoyed every episode!
    Of course, as good as the storyline is, it doesn't hurt that Omar Sy is drop dead gorgeous!

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  5. The flowers are pretty! I don't think I'd be that interested in the other Lupin, though!

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  6. We are loving the Lupin episodes at the moment, I love the way it jumps backwards and forwards and shows us how he set up what he planned. It's very clever, on a par with that old series Hustle.

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    1. Yes I think the way it shows the planning is clever. You realise that nothing he does is without a reason behind it.

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