The Return - Victoria Hislop

(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

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

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

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

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

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

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.