Solid! Said the EarlSolid! Said the Earl is a 1948 comedy novel by the British writer John Paddy Carstairs, best known as a screenwriter and film director. An American serviceman unexpectedly inherits an English title and country estate.Film adaptationIn 1955 it was made into the film A Yank in Ermine directed by Gordon Parry and starring Noelle Middleton and Diana Decker, with Carstairs adapting his own novel.