aliculture

The Arm of Coincidence - by Bill James

2012-02-08T17:36:00.000Z

I read this book because I met the author on one of my Northamptonshire walks. I’m amazed at how ready people are to share their knowledge and achievements with strangers. The main character clearly owes at least something to the author, who has worked in agriculture, and created some splendid metal sculptures in Southwick.

This is Henrietta (Moraes), muse and lover of Lucian Freud, and model for Francis Bacon.

Two sculptures representing the development of agriculture.

Bill James told me he regrets having had the book published by what he later found to be a vanity publisher, and I think that with a little tighter editing in places, this could have found a niche. I found it online, secondhand.

The tale takes place in Halston, an imaginary village near Southwick, and part of its charm for me was in following the main character along some of the paths in the area, recognizing landmarks and routes. Other villages are named, and accurately placed and described.

Our hero, Jim Evans, is perhaps a bit too clever to be true. Adept at photography, operating farm machinery, and driving HGVs, he is also a motorcycle stunt rider and a musician, with very liberal ideas about sex, and he soon makes himself indispensable to almost everyone in the village.

No story is complete without a good villain, and a love story, and as the title tells us, a few good coincidences.

I could have done without some of the technical details about farm machinery and tractors, but no doubt these would appeal to an enthusiast.

Learning by heart

2012-02-08T17:31:00.000Z

Well, I think I've got the Kipling one, and almost got the Frost On a Snowy Evening as well. Internet intermittence issues have advantages.

Binging on poems

2012-02-03T23:21:00.000Z

Those half-learned lines, the ones you nearly remember.

At the moment I've got four - Kipling's The Way through the Woods, Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening and The Road not taken, and not quite on the same theme, but somehow close de la Mare's The Listeners

Now I'm going to learn the first one by heart. I hope.

Benjamin Grosvenor - piano recital

2012-02-02T22:44:00.001Z

I don't claim to be knowledgeable about music, or piano in particular, but Benjamin Grosvenor can play and then some.

Two more films

2012-02-02T22:42:00.000Z

Indecent Proposal - began well, but the character of the man who buys the young woman for a night came across as simply manipulative and not very nuanced - a superficial charmer, but cold. And the ending didn't convince.

When Harry met Sally - very funny in parts, and within the limitations of a rom-com, entertaining and almost endearing.

The Talented Mr Ripley

2012-01-22T12:01:00.000Z

Based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, which I read many years ago, and could barely remember the details - simply that Ripley turns out to be a rather unpleasant character. The film's plot is here.

Tom Ripley is very well portrayed by Matt Damon, with Jude Law as Dickie Greenleaf and Gwyneth Paltrow as his girlfriend, Marge.

Herebert Greenleaf, a New York shipping magnate pays Ripley to go to Europe to persuade his spoilt playboy son, Dickie to return to the US. He insinuates himself into Dickie's life, and eventually, after a row in a boat, he kills Dickie and dumps the body overboard - we're not quite sure whether it's premeditated murder. He then assumes Dickie's identity and the rest of the film consists of the way he deceives others, and ends up with some of Dickie's inheritance, but looking forward to a life of loneliness and deception.

God Collar - Marcus Brigstocke

2012-01-20T15:42:00.000Z

An entertaining and thoughtful examination of why Marcus Brigstocke is a reluctant atheist - covering such topics as how the world's great religions - the Abrahamic ones - despise women, abuse power, and are generally not very nice, yet at the same time many people find comfort, comradeship and happiness within them.

Along the way we learn quite a lot about Marcus himself. An excellent read.

The Ghost - Robert Harris

2012-01-15T12:07:00.000Z

Another page-turner from Harris - it's the 'Blair' autobiography one. Makes you wonder how close it gets to the truth - of course Adam Lang ends up assassinated, but . . .

Revolutionary Road

2012-01-11T22:43:00.000Z

Di Caprio is a better actor than I gave him credit for. Film recording the break-down of a marriage and the loss of illusions/delusions. In spite of the general increasing desperation there are also some very funny episodes.

Joanne Harris - The Blue-eyed Boy

2012-01-11T22:40:00.000Z

Dark parody of the goings on on an online writing site, plus a look into dysfunctional families and parent-child relationships.

The usual brilliant writing, word-play, sensual descriptions and the like.

The Fear Index - Robert Harris

2011-12-27T14:53:00.000Z

Well, it took me two days to read this, so. . .

Black Swan

2011-12-20T23:32:00.001Z

Mixed feelings about his film, but I watched from start to finish, on TV, without floating to sleep. Just noting it down today - will say more later.

Very much the dark side of the ballet world.

Twopence to Cross the Mersey - Helen Forrester

2011-12-19T17:26:00.002Z

Tough times, and a lively tale well-told, of the days before the Welfare State, and the lengths people were forced to when unemployed. As the blurb says, there's no wallowing in self-pity, though there is anger, as Helen was forced to look after her siblings and neglect the schooling which she loved.

Helen Forrester died last November, and it was through reading her obituary that I decided to get hold of the book. Worth a read, for itself, as well as to remind us of how we take our current safety nets for granted.

The Way

2011-12-13T22:01:00.000Z

Though I didn't really watch - was doing something else in the same room, while others watched. But it caught my interest when I realised it was about the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the setting for a different film La Voie Lactée, directed by Luis Buñuel in the 1960s.

Tosca - from NY Met - on TV

2011-12-05T18:21:00.001Z

Miserable and compelling. This production was controversial, indeed booed on the opening night, partly because it was such a contrast to the lavish Zeffirelli production of Tosca, which had been performed at the Met for some time. The scenery was much less elaborate. Bondy's production also shocked by exposing a breast on the Madonna, and introducing three prostitutes into the scene in Act Two where the evil and lecherous Secret Police Chief, Scappia, is planning how to seduce Tosca and kill off her lover the painter, Cavaradossi.

As usual I was like the open-eyed kid watching, loving every minute of the story, and found the settings superb.

A Streetcar named Desire - Tennessee Williams - Elia Kazan

2011-12-03T22:38:00.003Z

The 1951 film, in black and white, with Brando as Stanley Kowalski, Vivien Leigh as Blanche Dubois and Kim Hunter as Stella.

Blanche Dubois is an ageing Southern Belle who’s been sacked from her job as a teacher for having an affair with a 17-year-old student, after her husband has committed suicide, and the family estates have been 'lost'. She continues to live out her fantasies, attempting to seduce any potential suitors.

She arrives in New Orleans, where her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski live in an apartment in the French Quarter.

There’s a marked contrast between Blanche’s pseudo-refinement and Kowalski’s coarseness and domination of Stella. Stanley discovers some of the secrets of Blanche’s past, and brings this into the open, resulting in her having a nervous breakdown. In the end Stanley has her committed to a mental institution.

Stella leaves Stanley, and the final scene has him desperately calling her name.

Claustrophobic – almost all the scenes take place inside the apartment, where it’s impossible to escape from the others, or from the neighbours. Iconic scenes - gambling and drinking, domestic rows and reconciliations, Blanche’s attempts to ‘keep up appearances’.

A note from wikipedia about the title:

The Desire Line ran from 1920 to 1948, at the height of streetcar use in New Orleans. The route ran down Bourbon, through the Quarter, to Desire Street in the Bywater district, and back up to Canal. Blanche's route in the play — "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at — Elysian Fields!" — is allegorical, taking advantage of New Orleans colorful street names.The Desire Line ran from 1920 to 1948, at the height of streetcar use in New Orleans. The route ran down Bourbon, through the Quarter, to Desire Street in the Bywater district, and back up to Canal. Blanche's route in the play — "They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at — Elysian Fields!" — is allegorical, taking advantage of New Orleans colorful street names.

One thing I hadn't realised was that the Almodóvar film All About my Mother was influenced by the dialogue of some of the supporting characters in Streetcar.

Tamar - Mal Peet

2011-12-03T18:23:00.000Z

Just finished this one - a story in two time frames - the present day, from the point of view of the teenage Tamar, who receives a box of clues and coded messages from her grandfather. He has just committed suicide, but clearly intends her to find the box and solve the mystery. The other story involves another Tamar, a man who was involved in the Dutch resistance to the Nazis in the 1940s.

Tangled relationships, the unravelling of the story and its consequences for Tamar, her father and her future make this a really absorbing read, and I learned a lot about the realities of World War II in Holland.

Peter Reading

2011-12-03T15:56:00.000Z

I note the death of Peter Reading - who sounds interesting, but whose poetry I have not read.

The Return - Victoria Hislop

2011-11-28T17:35:00.002Z

(I finished this book by Nov 24th.)

The way this book starts it could be chick-lit - two friends go to Granada for a holiday, one to forget her latest romance, and the other to escape from her stale marriage for a while. They go away for a course in dancing - salsa, and later flamenco. For the first quarter of the book, we get 21st century local colour, and some hints of why Sonia may be particularly interested in Granada.

Then we get the stories of people who lived through the Civil War and the times of Franco. Well-written, and hard to put down - ok there may be some implausibilities in the plotlines, but the book gives a real picture of what it must be like to live in a civil war, and under a dictatorship. It left me with the thought that such things can go from feeling quite impossible, to happening before people realise.

It's only within the last decade or so that Spain has tried to come to terms more openly with some of the aftermath of the Civil War, and the Franco regime which followed, with the Law of Historical Memory of 2006-7. Though that has also involved controversy.

Life:An Exploded Diagram, Mal Peet

2011-11-28T15:27:00.002Z

Supposedly a Young Adult book. A coming of age story, about Clem Ackroyd, a working class grammar school boy living in Norfolk, who falls in love with the daughter of the local landowner. In parallel we follow his development as an artist/ illustrator, and the story of his parents/ grandparents is there as background.

Alongside this the Cuban missile crisis of 1963 threatens to end the world.

I'm still not entirely convinced about the ending, but I read the book at great speed, and never felt it was talking down to a YA audience.

Craig Ogden - guitar - Gretton Village Hall

2011-11-26T22:17:00.003Z

We first saw a concert by Craig Ogden in Uppingham, a couple of years ago, and were delighted to find him performing just down the road! Varied, entertaining programme - from Albeniz to modern compositions by William Lovelady and Gary Ryan, from a piece in 11/8 time, by Serbian, Miroslav Tadic, to an arrangement of Over the Rainbow, with Django Reinhardt's Nuages as an encore.

All interwoven with anecdotes, technical info about the guitar and how a guitarist keeps his fingernails in tip-top condition.

Brilliant.

Ballet Cymru - Under Milk Wood

2011-11-25T09:42:00.000Z

At Stamford. Lovely performance and characterisations. The backdrops and the music were excellent, the dances conveyed the humour and sadness, and Gwyn Vaughan Jones as the narrator was very impressive.

I had doubts about a ballet interpretation of this work before we went, but none whatsoever once it had started.

Music: Thomas Hewitt Jones

Choreography: Darius James

Costume Design: Yvonne Greenleaf

First Voice: Gwyn Vaughan Jones

Paintings for projections: Jeremy Thomas

Guernica - by Dave Boling

2011-11-20T16:53:00.005Z

I recently read Winter in Madrid by C J Sansom, and it re-awakened my interest in the period of the Spanish Civil War and just afterwards.

This book, written by a Chicago journalist married to the descendant of Basque immigrants, brought a lot of local colour and knowledge of the area and its history to life. The characters are presented in a sort of rural idyll - with their own quirks, such as the seasick fisherman Miguel, the blustering Justo who has had to bring up his brothers after his mother's death and his father's disintegration, Miren, the magical dancer who wins Miguel's heart, blind Alaia, brought up in the convent, but finding independence, with the help Miren's friendship, the sale of home made soap and by becoming a kind of prostitute with a heart of gold.

Some of the tension comes from knowing that the bombing will happen, and not knowing how it will affect the families involved.

Afterwards we see the characters re-adjusting to life without those who died, and some of them become more involved in the politics of resistance.

I was not so keen on the interwoven threads about the Red Baron planning the bombing raid, and about Picasso and the painting.

But all in all a very engaging book, with an ending that gives room for hope.

From the New Statesman

Peter HainHeart-rending yet enthralling, Guernica (Picador, £7.99) by Dave Boling is the story of the ordinary residents of Guernica whose lives and community were destroyed in 1937 by Nazi bombing, with the full support of Franco's Fascists. Where Picasso's painting so vividly captured the hellfire of the town's destruction, this book fills in the humanity. The characters, the culture and the landscape are all lovingly described, in direct contrast to the cold and clinical destruction of 1,500 inhabitants of a town that was central to the Basque identity.

Other reviews of this book can be found here
and
here

Up - Pixar Disney animation

2011-11-18T23:01:00.001Z

The animation is so good you almost forget about it. Great effects, with the flying house supported by helium balloons, some dizzy heights and impossible swinging around on the end of ropes.

And the message, live your dreams, but don't get stuck in the same one for ever? And heroes can turn out to be villains too.

Albert Herring on TV

2011-11-18T17:50:00.001Z

Performed in Rouen. 2009.

Based on a Conte by Guy de Maupassant - 'Le Rosier de Madame Husson'.
Very funny, but of course with serious undertones. Much lighter than Peter Grimes.

The Year of the Flood - Margaret Atwood

2011-11-16T16:09:00.000Z

A novel set in a near future, where the world is ruled by the corporations and their security corps - CorpSeCorps. There are dissidents called God's Gardeners who live as 'green' a life as possible, and while they have no answers, they do ask a few questions. Then we have the pleeblands - the equivalent of our 'sink estates'.

This is the same place and time as 'Oryx and Crake' - but from a different point of view. Most of humanity is wiped out by a plague, and The Year of the Flood takes place just before and after this event.

More later

Il Viaggio a Reims - Rossini (on TV)

2011-11-11T23:01:00.001Z

A recording of the production at the Chatelet in Paris, a combined effort of the Kirov Opera and Théâtre du Châtelet

Had me googling to remind myself of the history I "studied" years ago. This one-act opera was written to celebrate the coronation of Charles X of France in 1824. The monarchy was briefly restored after the Revolutionary years, and Napoleon.

Some very entertaining singing and acting - particularly the Contessa de Folleville (great name) in her extravagant costumes. No wonder we could hardly follow the plot, though - there isn't much of one - a crowd of European aristos trying to get to Reims for the coronation, and the problems they have.

(I may add more later.)

Die Fledermaus on TV

2011-11-09T13:23:00.001Z

This was the 1990 performance at Covent Garden, on New Years Eve, where Joan Sutherland made her last public appearance in the party scene - in fact she, Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne almost hi-jacked the opera. ;-)

Alas no subtitles. They would have helped, even though the singing was in English. An odd one - with a lot of talking , which did help to understand the story - which basically involves a lot of flirting and deception and confusion of identities all round.

La Traviata in Northampton

2011-10-27T23:53:00.008+01:00

Excellent evening in Derngate Theatre. La Traviata performed by the Ukrainian National Opera of Kharkiv.

The evening went by at high speed and was thoroughly entertaining.

Winter in Madrid - CJ Sansom

2011-10-16T14:59:00.004+01:00

I looked for this a couple of times last week after a friend mentioned Sansom's historical detective stories featuring Shardlake. I couldn't find it. I wondered if I'd given it away. Then, as usual, it turned up, just when I'd stopped searching. So I'm reading it again.

I find myself involved with the characters in the way I used to be when much younger.

I finished it. The ending is sad in several ways, plus an odd twist at the end. I find Sansom's writing impressive.

Guardian interview with the author

Peter Grimes - Britten

2011-10-14T09:58:00.002+01:00

NY Met Opera from 2008, televised.

Brilliant scenery, totally in tune with the dark story-line and the powerful music. Based on the Net-drying sheds at Hastings .

Review in New York Times

More on Peter Grimes as a character from the Independent 2004

John Clare

2011-10-11T16:48:00.002+01:00

A recent walk from Helpston has made me wish to read a little more of this 'Northamptonshire Peasant Poet'. But where the hell have I put that book?

The book has turned up, so I'll read some of the poems in the next few weeks.

More later.

Jane Eyre - with Charlotte Gaisbourg

2011-10-11T16:19:00.000+01:00

Gainsbourg makes a fine adult Jane, but the action feels very compressed.

Opera on TV - Tales of Hoffmann

2011-09-28T08:37:00.000+01:00

More details later - great visuals in the production we saw.

Concert on TV - Gustavo Dudamel - Ana Maria Martinez - Waldbühne

2011-09-21T21:56:00.002+01:00

Chávez: Symphony No. 2 Sinfonía india
De Falla: Siete canciones españolas
Revueltas: Sensemayá
Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras No. 5
Ginastera: Estancia, Ballett Suite Op. 8a
Márquez: Danzón No. 2

Great atmosphere all round. Very theatrical. Magnificent 'amphitheatre'.

Hansel and Gretel

2011-08-23T11:06:00.004+01:00

This was a recording from the New York Met seen on TV. We started watching towards the end of scene 1, just before Mother arrives home to scold the children, and watched through to the end.

An absorbing and very dark fairytale, with, of course, a happy ending. Great scenery and stage effects - quite Alice in Wonderland in places, especially the fantasy banquet scene with the chefs and the butler-fish. I wasn't sure whether they were evil or good.

Odd to hear opera in English - good to have subtitles even so!

Here's a link to a 2007 review of the production http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/26/arts/music/26gret.html

Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue - Lynn Knight

2011-08-09T22:00:00.001+01:00

I caught this on Radio 4 early on August 3rd - I guess it was the mention of Chesterfield and in particular Whittington Moor which caught my ear. So, I ordered it.

It turns out Lynn Knight used to be an editor at Virago, too, and has written some women's history books

I think anyone would find the social and personal history interesting - Lynn concentrates on the three adopted children, her great-grandfather, Dick, her great-aunt Eva, and her own mother, Cora. Around their tales, she includes a lot of local history.

For me, the book has a particular resonance, since my father's family lived in Chesterfield, and the Whittington area at that. She talks about Pearson's Pottery, where my grandfather and uncle still worked when I was a child, and Shentall's grocer's - the yard was very close to Queen Street where my father and his brothers and sisters grew up.

A Winter's Tale at Tolethorpe

2011-08-03T23:48:00.000+01:00

As usual a very enjoyable performance by Stamford Theatre company in their outdoor theatre at Tolethorpe Hall.. Some good set pieces - sword dance and morris dancing, Especially liked ... as Paulina, ...as Autolycus, and ... as the young shepherd.

Don Giovanni - film from Glyndebourne

2011-07-31T22:52:00.001+01:00

I hadn't realised how much humour this opera contains. Brilliant show, apart from one thing - it's a shame they had to break the atmosphere up with interviews at the beginning of the second half of the film - we went back, all ready and eager to be plunged into the story again - and lo! analysis and explanation . . . I thought these guys were supposed to know about dramatic tension.

Jean-Claude Izzo and food

2011-07-31T22:50:00.002+01:00

A book about him and his relationship to Marseilles, its food etc.
Love death and basil - the Marseillais cooking of Jean-Claude Izzo, by Pierpaolo Pracca.

It includes lots of recipes (in Italian) at the end of the book.

Darkover stories - Marion Zimmer Bradley

2011-07-20T09:08:00.001+01:00

Thanks to Djibril for recommending these.

La Traviata on TV from Royal Opera House

2011-07-20T09:07:00.001+01:00

Faceless Killers - Henning Mankell

2011-07-20T09:07:00.000+01:00

I think this is the first of the Wallander series -

The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht

2011-07-03T22:29:00.001+01:00

An absorbing book - with shades of magical realism in the way Obreht uses myths and stories to illuminate the narrator's own more down-to-earth approach to life in the Balkans just after the wars of the 1990s.

Another book in which the relationship between grandchild and grandparent is vital.

more to come

La Maison sans Racines - Andrée Chedid

2011-06-25T12:03:00.004+01:00

Andrée Chedid died in Paris in March 2011, aged 90. She was essentially a French writer, though her family is originally Lebanese, and Egyptian. She herself was born in Egypt, brought up to speak English and French and Arabic, but lived in France from 1946.
This novel is set just before the outbreak of the civil war in Lebanon in 1975, and is written around a single incident - two young women, one Christian, one Muslim wearing a yellow scarf to symbolise hope, meet in the centre of a square. A shot rings out - one of them falls to the ground, and Kalya, a grandmother, approaches the two of them. Intertwined with this key incident, which is told in short two or three page bursts, are two longer stories, which give it a factual and emotional context. The first, set in 1932, concerns a holiday Kalya spent as a child with her grandmother Nouza. In the second, Kalya, herself now a grandmother who lives in Paris, is spending a holiday in Beirut with her own (nine-year-old?) grand-daughter, Sybil, who lives in New York.

A mix of cultures, times and lives that encompasses much of the twentieth century Middle East, but through the close family relationships, and filtered through the cultures of the West as well.

The ending is shocking, but logical, and the book ends with a symbol of hope - the scarf floating.

(still in progress)

Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord - Louis de Bernières

2011-06-19T18:17:00.001+01:00

A strange book - social criticism, politics, magical realism - I may have to read it again before making any more comments. Late night drifting doesn't really do it justice.

I've just checked it out on Wikipedia (link in title of this post) and discovered that it is the second of a trilogy. One of the risks of picking up a book second-hand and just reading it! I hadn't realised Bernieres had lived in Colombia.

Les Valseuses

2011-06-05T13:04:00.000+01:00

I'm afraid I didn't watch more than the first few minutes, in spite of the big names - Depardieu, Jeanne Moreau among them.
Made in the 70s it shows two obnoxious young blokes causing mayhem - stealing cars, mistreating women etc. Supposedly very subversive according to some, but a bit too unpleasant to watch.

Outnumbered

2011-05-27T22:09:00.001+01:00

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...

Carmen in Leeds

2011-05-18T15:44:00.004+01:00

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.

Shelters of Stone - Jean Auel

2011-05-17T13:20:00.001+01:00

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.

What's this book?

2011-05-14T15:10:00.006+01:00

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!

A binge on thrillers

2011-05-08T22:21:00.001+01:00

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

2011-05-08T22:18:00.002+01:00

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.

'Mumlit' after 'chicklit'

2011-04-07T08:03:00.001+01:00

Interesting comments too - are relationships all about who does the housework once kids are on the scene?

Oh la la - Parisian music evening

2011-04-06T17:36:00.001+01:00

At Gretton Village Hall, courtesy of Northants Touring Arts.
A selection of French and English songs - Piaf, Henri Salvador and others, plus some jazz. Instrumentalists - violin, guitar and double bass were excellent. Singer a bit too gimmicky, and not close enough to the originals for my taste, especially in Les Amants d'un Jour , La Vie en Rose. Would have been good if she'd included Milord.

However, pleasant and entertaining evening, and very close at hand. CD is good.

A previous event of Estonian music was more exciting and involving - Ro:ToRo

Enchanted Glass - Diana Wynne-Jones

2011-04-06T17:24:00.000+01:00

An older children's fantasy novel, with magic interlaced with reality. I read this after an article on her recent death. Thoroughly enjoyable as a light read with enough depth to hold my attention.

Mothers and Daughters - Kate Long

2011-04-06T17:19:00.004+01:00

As usual, entertaining, not heavy going, but intelligent and well-written with a good story and dealing with some serious issues along the way.

Does this count as mumlit or even granlit? ;-) See blog post link for 7th April.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Noonan (Tressell)

2011-03-18T12:03:00.002Z

Published in 1914, three years after its author's death from TB. Grim tale about capitalism and the lives of a group of painters and decorators working on the restoration of a house. They are the 'philanthropists' - giving selflessy of the products of their labour for the benefit of the 'Idlers' who exploit them, and cream off the wealth.

March 18th - I am still ploughing slowly through this, with its discussion of capitalism and socialism...

April 6th ...must get back to this...

May 18th ...still not finished this...

Edith Piaf - Without Love we're Nothing at All

2011-03-12T20:55:00.002Z

Sans amour on est rien du tout

What a life, but what a voice!

Stephen Leather

2011-03-03T19:08:00.000Z

I downloaded his 'The Basement' but really hated it - in fact I have read only the first couple of chapters. Sadistic misogynistic main character.

Larsson, Nesbo, Indridason

2011-02-24T18:45:00.002Z

I'm having a binge on Scandinavian crime books - had to hurry through some of the gory violent bits in the 'Girl' trilogy, and in Nesbo's Snowman but have found all of them so far as absorbing as previous crimi-binges (Cornwell, Nicci French, Kathy Reichs etc).

I have downloaded some classics on my Kindle - but these crimis are first choice just now.

Julie and Julia

2010-04-21T20:53:00.001+01:00

With Meryl Streep

Mo, Avatar and another

2010-04-21T20:51:00.001+01:00

Seen on the plane from NYC to London, on April 8th to 9th 2010

Flowers for Algernon

2010-04-21T20:48:00.002+01:00

Book published in 1966, tells the story of Charlie - a young man with an IQ of 68 who has the chance to undergo surgery which turns him into a genius.

Everybody's Fine

2010-03-24T13:13:00.002Z

Robert de Niro as a fairly new widower, wonders why his kids don't visit - decides to go unannounced and see them.

All makes him realise that his wife had shielded him from the reality of their lives.

(Another in-flight movie)

An Education

2010-03-24T13:10:00.003Z

A film which clearly relates to the period - late 50s/early 60s of its setting - schoolgirl aiming for Oxford has affair with older man, loses her virginity, tastes the sophistication of his lifestyle - till it turns out he's employed by a Rachmann type landlord. Eventually she gets back on track.

Neat details, like singing along to Juliette Greco songs, and surreptitious smoking with her friends.

(I caught this one on the flight, so missed some of the dialogue because of engine noise and poor earphones!)

Godfather 1 and 3

2010-02-05T21:21:00.000Z

Godfather 1 - excellent, Godfather 3 - got bored part way through!

Godfather 2

2009-12-03T08:12:00.001Z

A film I had never intended to watch, but very well made. Kept me enthralled for over 3 hours. Now I must watch the others.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)

2009-03-12T16:14:00.003Z

Elia Kazan directed this adaptation of the novel. I was struck by the portrayal of Brooklyn in the early 20th Century, and the way the family still seemed rooted in the cultures its members had come from - Austrian and Irish. The American dream of anything being possible in the new country, unlike in the old ones, is powerful. But so is the poverty, and crowded lifestyle.

Followed the book closely although it stops earlier in Francie's life than the book.

Un Coeur en Hiver (1992)

2009-03-09T14:38:00.004Z

Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Beart and Ravel - a very slow, very French film. A love triangle, in which one of the lovers is gay, but we are unaware of this until the end.

The Sixth Sense

2009-03-09T14:38:00.001Z

Will need to watch from the start, now I know what's going on!

Play Misty for Me

2009-03-05T17:55:00.005Z

A 1971 film, complete with long hair and flowery shirts. A thriller set in Carmel, California and directed by Clint Eastwood, who also played the male lead - a radio DJ, Dave, who is stalked by Evelyn who listens to his show. After a one-night stand, she becomes increasingly insistent and jealous. She attacks his cleaner, and is locked in a psychiatric hospital. When she gets out she turns her attention to Dave's long-term girlfriend.

More catching up Concert Feb 19th

2009-03-05T17:49:00.003Z

Feb 19th we went to Stamford for a concert by Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, who played her own arrangement of Bach's Goldberg variations. The performance was excellent, although I don't think we needed the long introductory film about it - twenty minutes was too much - five would have been enough. She intended to play through without an interval, but towards the end a fire alarm interrupted and we had an enforced fresh-air break of about fifteen minutes.
Catrin seemed quite unphased by this, and managed to restore the magic.

My Friend the Enemy

2009-02-15T11:29:00.002Z

by Paul Briscoe. Autobiographical. Insights into Nazi Germany, and how easy it was to be caught up in the general approval of Hitler and the anti-semitism.

Paul's mother was involved in

Catch up again

2009-02-14T20:44:00.003Z

I'm recovering from 'orrible shingles and have been reading and re-reading stuff.
List incomplete at the moment. The comments may result from a slightly warped view on life, and poor concentration. ;-)

How the Dead Live - by Will Self - inventive and funny, but I lost interest about half way through.

Kate Atkinson - Case Histories and One Good Turn - very complex crime stories with loads of overlapping characters and stories.

Margaret Atwood - Oryx and Crake in a genetically engineered future, where Snowman is the only surviving human with all the failings of the race - until the very end. I found it absorbing, but ultimately uninvolving. And I love Atwood's work.

Oryx and Crake - Atwood

2009-02-09T21:33:00.000Z

I have just read this for the second time.

In a Dark Place (2006)

2009-01-13T21:42:00.000Z

A modern version of Henry James's Turn of the Screw

Evil Seed - Joanne Harris

2009-01-13T11:30:00.002Z

Her first novel, written when she was 23 and recently published.

I guess it shows a bit, but you can see the elements of darkness and sensuality which she develops later.

Concert in Stamford

2009-01-11T16:31:00.007Z

Yesterday we discovered that as part of Stamford Arts Centre's Classical music programme, there was a performance of Brahms, Robert and Clara Schumann's work. Performers were Ronan O'Hara (piano), Graham Oppenheimer (viola) and Julia Riley (mezzo soprano)

I was particularly taken by the songs - two were by Brahms - Op 91 Gestillte Sehnsucht, and Geistliches Wiegenlied. The second one uses the melody from the 14th century carol 'Joseph lieber, Joseph mein' as a recurrent theme.

Then there were six short but magical songs with music by Clara Schumann.

Apart from these Ronan O'Hara played Fantasy for solo piano by Robert Schumann, and the programme finished with Brahms Sonata in E flat for viola and piano.

Good to hear viola as a solo (?) intstrument.

Eva Luna - Isabel Allende

2009-01-05T17:22:00.002Z

A strange story - hope to come back with more later - again. Procrastination is what?

What's Cooking?

2009-01-02T17:51:00.002Z

Thoroughly enjoyed the light-hearted approach to some serious problems in this film by Gurinder Chadha - caught on New Year's Day. hadn't realised she was responsible for Paris. je t'aime as well.

Paris, Je t'aime

2008-12-05T16:25:00.003Z

Surprisingly entertaining series of snippets about different arrondissements of Paris, and the people living there. Made by different people too.
More details later.

Vikram Seth, An Equal Music

2008-12-05T16:24:00.000Z

Loved it. More details later

Vikram Seth, The Golden Gate

2008-08-05T09:04:00.007+01:00

A novel in sonnet form, published in 1986, about several people in San Franciso and the area.

We meet John who works in armaments, and his college mate Phil who has given up his high-flying job for reasons of principle, after his wife has left him with their seven-year-old son. There's the Dorati family, wine growers in Sonoma County, and their three grown-up children, Liz the high-powered lawyer, Sue the international cellist, and Ed who is gay, but can't reconcile it with his Christianity.
Then another friend of all of these, Jan the sculptor with her two Siamese cats, Cuff and Link. The story covers love, gay and straight, friendships, families, birth and death and politics.

And California is another living character in the book - the city with its clubs , cafés and galleries, and in contrast, the natural and cultivated world, whales off the coast, gardens, the vineyard.

A brilliant book, easy to read, light in touch, and as sparkling as the San Francisco air.

As soon as I'd finsihed this one, I picked it up and started reading it again, and am enjoying the witty allusions to other poets too. Marvell, and Belloc for starters.

Smith, Betty - A Tree grows in Brooklyn

2008-08-02T18:53:00.005+01:00

I've just re-read this book about a girl growing up in early 20th century Brooklyn. Full of details of everyday life.

The tree of Heaven, the sumac, that tough weed of a tree which shoots out suckers everywhere, indestructible. The kind you find growing up from neglected backyards, reaching for the sky.

Interesting thoughts on writing, truth, lies and imagination. I'll copy them in later. And a great story too.

Gently, Teacher explained the difference between a lie and a story. A lie was something you told because you were mean or a coward. A story was something you made up out of something that might have happened. Only you didn’t tell it like it was; you told it like you thought it should have been.

Francie always remembered what that kind teacher told her. ‘You know, Francie, a lot of people would think that these stories that you’re making up all the time were terrible lies because they are not the truth as people see the truth. In the future, when something comes up, you tell exactly how it happened but write down for yourself the way you think it should have happened. Tell the truth and write the story. Then you won’t get mixed up.’

It was the best advice Francie ever got. Truth and fancy were so mixed up in her mind – as they are in the mind of every lonely child – that she didn’t know which was which. But Teacher made these things clear to her. From that time on, she wrote little stories about things she saw and felt and did. In time, she got so that she was able to speak the truth with but a slight and instinctive coloring of the facts.

Francie was ten years old when she first found an outlet in writing. What she wrote was of little consequence. What was important was that the attempt to write stories kept her straight on the dividing line between truth and fiction.

If she hadn’t found this outlet in writing, she might have grown up to be a tremendous liar.

Maeve Binchy - Circle of Friends

2008-07-30T11:53:00.002+01:00

Another feelgood - but she certainly makes her characters live in my head, and her plots are well constructed. A picture of the changing society in Ireland, conflicts of old and new, a worldy-wise nun, two very different gold-diggers who come to grief or at least to reality, a decaying aristocratic family with a disowned wayward daughter, and the central friendship between two girls who grow up together in a small town and then Dublin.

Bill Bryson - Made in America

2008-07-23T09:35:00.003+01:00

Another re-read. As always with Bryson, very entertaining, even when packed full o' facts. The book takes us through the development of American English from the early colonists to the present day. Well, 1994, when he wrote the book.
Along the way he debunks some of the popular myths of American history. Even Independence Day is celebrated on the 'wrong' day.
Excellent.

Carrington (1995)

2008-07-18T23:30:00.002+01:00

The story of (Dora) Carrington, Lytton Strachey and other artists and writers of the early 20th century. Beautiful colours, lots of bed-hopping, and many people making themselves thoroughly miserable for the best of all possible motives. ('I don't believe in jealousy.')
An absorbing and well-told story.

WritersDock Poetry Competition Winners

2008-07-15T22:50:00.000+01:00

1st - Sabita Banerji More Gardened Against Than Gardening
2nd - Grace Galton Awakening
3rd - Geoff Lowe Death Comes in Two Parts

You can read the winning entries here.I act as a moderator for WD, but as someone who didn't enter or judge the competition, I'd like to congratulate the winners, and the judging team, and say how much I enjoyed all three poems.

I, Claudius

2008-07-13T12:19:00.001+01:00

We finished watching the series on DVD last night - what a lovely lot, those old Roman rulers were! It tends to put our modern sleaze and corruption stories into perspective a little.

Violence? We don't know the half of it.

Books I read at school

2008-07-07T22:16:00.010+01:00

Someone on Writers' Dock has started a topic about reading in school, and whether it put us off particular books. Now, ok this is half a century ago, so...

I have very little memory of the books I read at primary school - I was devouring Enid Blyton adventures and the like at that stage, although my father didn't approve. I think we may have been encouraged on an individual basis rather than reading as a class.

At High School, we did read books as a class - I remember Moonfleet, by John Faulkner, which I loved. An adventure yarn with smuggling, treachery, mystery and so on. Mysterious noises in the church vaults during morning service. A cracking yarn.

I could never resist reading on ahead, rather than following whoever was reading in class. I was always two pages or more ahead, with one finger keeping my official page..

We read Hard Times, by Charles Dickens. I wasn't so struck by that at the time.

We read at least one Shakespeare play per year - Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth all stick in my mind. We used to take the parts and read them out.

I don't think we read Jane Austen or the Brontes in school, though I certainly read them at home.

It would have taken more than school to stop me reading as a child. Even the hour at the end of Friday afternoon didn't achieve that. That was when our revered headmistress 'taught' us Religious Studies by reading chunks of the Bible, evidently unaware that some of us eleven-year-olds were wriggling around trying not to wet ourselves.

2008-07-05T10:55:00.002+01:00

Just re-read Five Quarters of the Orange, by Joanne Harris. I think this is my favourite of hers. I love the stories where her darker side emerges.

I am reading Friends, Lovers, Chocolate, by Alexander McCall Smith. I like this better than his Mma Ramotswe books about Botswana. He is pretty good at getting inside the head of a modern, intelligent woman.

Light in the Piazza

2008-06-27T12:18:00.004+01:00

An odd film, made in 1962, set mainly in Florence. We started to watch it for the scenery, but we continued to watch , in spite of misgivings and being unable to suspend disbelief completely.

Jane Gardam - Old Filth

2008-06-27T12:17:00.002+01:00

Just read this - liked it much more than I expected to. Hope to post more on it later.

Kate Long - The Daughter Game

2008-06-20T13:02:00.006+01:00

Kate Long's books always keep me reading. I read Swallowing Grandma on a transatlantic flight and it entertained me for the whole journey. I especially enjoy her witty, realistic dialogue, and sharply observed characters.

Her most recent novel, The Daughter Game, doesn't have so many laugh-out-loud moments as the others, but I still picked it up first thing in the morning in preference to my laptop.

The book starts with a scene where the main character, Anna, melts her headmaster with a flamethrower – letting us know that she has a good line in imaginary vengeance, and setting the tone for this lively, warm, and funny though sometimes disturbing book.

Anna is a successful school teacher, but her apparent confidence hides conflicts. She has a history of miscarriages, and is increasingly dissatisfied in her marriage to an ex-teacher who is now a full-time writer. All of the pressures lead her to question everything about her life, from her relationship with her dead mother to her longing for a child.

She has an affair with her brother-in-law, but he wants more from her than she can give. In school a friendship with a promising new female student becomes too intense as Anna sees her as a daughter figure.

Anna’s journey takes us from classroom to staff room, from her middle-class home to a rented caravan to a run-down slum, and I travelled with her all the way.

I have to admit I was rooting for a different ending, but the one in the book makes sense, and I guess it shows I was involved with the characters.

More short notes

2008-06-11T21:33:00.005+01:00

I've indulged in something like a reading orgy over the last 2 weeks in Bristol:

The Flamboya Tree - Clara Olink Kelly

Here on Earth - Alice Hoffman

Shuttlecock - Graham Swift.

Talk to the Hand - by Lynne Truss

The Book Thief - I haven't been able to finish this one yet, as it's not mine and I have to leave it behind. I should have started with this one.

Catch-up again

2008-06-01T21:01:00.003+01:00

I seem to be reading a lot at the moment, in a not very analytical way.

Daphne du Maurier's House on the Strand for the third time. One of thse slip through time books, this time with the aid of a drug and the added attraction of falling in love with someone who has been dead for 600 years. Same kind of magic as Traveller in Time by Alison Uttley which I read over and over again at the age of 10 or so.

Carol Shields' The Box Garden - a basically upbeat book - Charleen Forrest returns to the house where she was brought up for her widowed mother's wedding to a man she met at the oncology clinic. During the story we learn of her marriage and divorce, her new relationship with an orthodontist, her lovely son, Seth, and her relationship with her sister. She also has a talent for poetry, and writes letters to a mysterious monk, Brother Adam.

I Claudius

2008-05-22T19:39:00.003+01:00

Well, in spite of my negative comments a couple of posts ago, I finished it, and intend to look out for Claudius the God. This book makes our modern politics look ethical. Almost.

We still haven't watched the remaining episodes of the DVD.

The Glass-Blowers - Daphne du Maurier

2008-05-17T08:35:00.008+01:00

I picked this up in the pile of secondhand books sold for charity at my local Co-op.

It's a fictionalised account of the life of du Maurier's own French ancestors around the time of the French Revolution. Must look up the newish biography of D du M.

The central character is sister to a master-craftsman glass-blower, and married to another. They become involved in the new revolutionary politics, dispossessing the old aristocracy and later end up being attacked in their turn, when the political wheel moved round. An absorbing story, full of warmth, and strong characters. I used to think that such inhumanity to others in times of economic hardship belonged to the dark ages, but now the story has too many resonances with what we see daily in news bulletins.

More on this I hope, when I have time.

I, Claudius

2008-05-16T10:25:00.002+01:00

What's to be done about Claudius?

I loved this episode, showing how he developed into a young man. Plenty of comedy too to lighten the darker manipulations of Livia.