Chapter 1 of WOLP is titled 'Absence of Breakfast'. Thursday remarks that altough dinner, lunch and tea are written about, mentions of breakfast are much less common. My first thought on reading this was: 'not in pony books'.

Characters in pony books are fond of food in general, and breakfast gets mentioned frequently. The heroes have to get up early in order to prepare their ponies for the gymkhana/hunter trials/1 day event/hunt/show. All that mucking out, grooming etc clearly builds up a good appetite, and breakfast is fitted into the schedule. Alternatively, an attack of nerves can cause the hero to feel sick and unable to eat their breakfast before the big day. I'm not sure how many fictional riders could only nibble at a bit of toast before the event, but there must be dozens of them. Perhaps the Toast Marketing Board is sponsoring the writers of pony books....

Makes a change form Goliath being in charge of everything.

Breakfasts are also mentioned in LOTR. either Merry or Pippin refer to second breakfast too, iirc.

PG Wodehouse is good on breakfasts too...



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If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

Breakfasts appear in quite a few mysteries & police proceedurals that I've read, too, often because the detectives concerned have had difficulty finding enough time for any other regular meals (rather than snacks grabbed from fast-food establishments of various kinds) whilst they're running around trying to solve crimes...

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"God rot Botchkamos Istochnik!"

Jane Austen's characters have often just had, or are going to have, breakfast when a major plot development takes place (Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park). Either way, breakfast gets an honourable mention, even if they don't get to eat it.

Correct me if I'm wrong someone, but I seem to remember quite a bit of breakfasting going on in Tolstoy as well, though someone is always sulking upstairs, so not everyone gets to have it.

V.

You get rather a lot of breakfasts in girls' school story books, and in the Chalet School stories you get continental ones with milky coffee. You get so much food in the Chalet School books that plot devices of forgetting picnics on expeditions are necessary to stop the girls getting too fat.

"Chuckle" at your suggestion about the deliberate use for dietary purposes of that plot device.

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"God rot Botchkmos Istochnik!"

Breakfast is also served abundantly in almost all Bertie and Jeeves books - in bed, in country homes, in cottages - there is no shortage of kippers and steaming cupfuls of the tissue restorer.

Mmmmm..breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, although I seldom eat it. The solution: breakfast foods for dinner.

Welcome to the fforum, Val. (And Mary, too? I can't tell.)