Friday, May 27, 2011

Outnumbered

I always start watching this and think I'll stop after ten minutes, but carry on regardless. One of the funniest sitcom things I've seen recently.

Until the episode where the obligatory suspicion of a drunken kiss took over for a little too long...

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Carmen in Leeds



I should have written about this in February when we saw it!  A very enjoyable experience, although some of the reviews I read afterwards were less than overwhelming!  It was set in Seville, Ohio - though that didn't matter, and did explain the soldiers' costumes.  Sung in French, of course...but still felt pretty Hispanic to me.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Shelters of Stone - Jean Auel

Good in parts, repetitive in parts - especially the mystical sequences and the song of the Earth's Mother.

I enjoyed the earlier ones, this was ok, but I've read many poor reader reviews of her latest - Land of Painted Caves - and I'm afraid they have put me off buying it.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

What's this book?

Another book I read while away in the New Forest.

Starts with a girl about ten (?) running away from home in London, so that she can't be evacuated to the countryside during WW2.  She meets a young man called Sam (?).  Her grandfather (William) was a famous actor in a nearby theatre.  She is raised by her grandfather and his Scottish sister -in-law, after her mother's death.  The mother  committed suicide in front of a bus after apparently being deserted by an Italian boyfriend.  It later turns out that he didn't know she was pregnant. He appears later on, is from Florence.[I think he brings her a present he has made - though I could be confusing this with another book - Glassblower of Murano?]

She's unimpressed at the time, but later goes to Italy.   Oh yes, he dies in a convent - she sees him not long before his death.

There's also a woman who makes costumes who is a surrogate mother, and acts as a fairy godmother financing her studies, under the pretence of money from the girl's father.

For  a while she is involved with a suave successful actor, who can't cope with real life, and has lost himself in the characters he plays.

The protagonist ends up as a scenery painter, and costume designer, and works with Sam.  Romance, of course.

All very bitty and I can't recall author, character names, title, publisher...anything!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

A binge on thrillers

Erin Hart - Haunted Ground
Peter Robinson - The Summer that Never Was (an Alan Banks story)
Kathy Reichs - Cross Bones

Reading for a week in a holiday cottage - much enjoyed.  And, may be a coincidence, but each of these books worked on a double time-scale.

The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliffe

Another older children's book, about a Roman legionary who takes it on himself to investigate the fate of his father's legion, the Ninth, and to recover its standard.  He is injured, and although no longer an active soldier, he continues his quest. Along with this the book shows his relationship with various British natives - one of whom is his slave - he sets him free -  and another of whom becomes his wife.

It gave an extra dimension to our visit to the Roman Villa at Rockbourne , Hampshire,  in early May.