Painting old lining paper on ceiling

[richardrich79]

The sitting room ceiling in our early Victorian house need repainting. It has lining paper which seems basically sound apart from a couple of areas where it has blistered.
The ceiling itself looks to have a couple of cracks under the lining paper which don't seem to be a problem, but I'm reluctant to strip the ceiling and expose a can of worms.
From past experience I know that when painting over lining paper it can cause it to come away from the wall and end in disaster.
What is my best way to approach it ? I cannot afford a professional so it's diy unfortunately.

I'm afraid the photo's aren't very clear

 

[dcdec]

Remove, address the cracking and re-line is the best option. Not expensive, but time consuming and needs competent DIY skills.

Or save up and pay someone.

Or line on top in the opposite direction or apply an anaglypta which will hide the cracks better.

My feeling is always do it properly so you only have to do it once, but if you want to take a chance you have options.

 

[richardrich79]

Yes whilst I agree that it's best to get the job done properly, frankly saving up is not an option as I'm disabled, and, whilst my wife works its only min wage in this part of the world.
I recon we can strip the old lining off and hopefully sort out the 'cracks'.
It's the original lath and plaster and I've sounded out local plasterers but they all just want to put up plasterboard and skim, again at an unaffordable price.
If it doesn't work out it'll have to be anaglypta.
Thanks