Thursday, November 10, 2011
Thursday, November 03, 2011
More of wot I have read…
The Taker by Alma Katsu
Subtitled - An Immortal Love Story – this is a strange book that I am not sure knows what it wants to be, a love story or a horror story, perhaps it is trying to capitalise on the current trend for supernatural romance brought on by twilight, true blood and vampire diaries.
It was an alright read but it didn’t grab me, and I didn’t feel strongly enough about the characters to really care about them. I thought the ending was ambiguous and could have done with being slightly tidier.
‘Have you ever loved someone so much that you’d do anything for them?
When Dr Luke Findley turns up to his hospital shift in the small town of St Andrews, Maine, he’s expecting just another evening of minor injuries and domestic disputes. But instead, Lanore McIlvrae walks into his life – and changes it for ever. For Lanny is a woman with a past…
Lanny McIlvrae is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. Hers is a story of love and betrayal that defies time and transcends mortality – but this tale cannot end until Lanny’s demons are finally put to rest. Her two hundred years on this earth have seen her seduced by both decadence and brutality – yet through it all she has only ever had one true love in her life. Until now.’
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
This is the first Jack Reacher book I have ever read. There were several of them in a pile of books a friend had finished with and it wasn’t until a heard the author interviewed on the radio that I decided to give them a go.
It is a very entertaining and exciting example of its genre. It rolled along at a good pace and had enough hooks in it to keep you reading. The author allowed you to discover information out before the characters thus giving you a feeling of power, and dread for them.
I think I will be trying the others in the series now.
‘You do not mess with Jack Reacher.
September 11th changed Reacher’s drifter lifestyle in one practical way. As well as his folding toothbrush, he now carries photo ID. Yet he is still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get. So when a member of his old Army unit finds a way to get a message to him, he knows it must be deadly serious: I want you to put the old unit back together.
You do not mess with the Special Investigators. They always watched each other’s backs. Now one of them has shown up dead in the California desert. And six others can’t be found at all.
You do not mess with Jack Reacher. His old buddies are in big trouble, and he won’t let that go. Not now, not ever.’
Subtitled - An Immortal Love Story – this is a strange book that I am not sure knows what it wants to be, a love story or a horror story, perhaps it is trying to capitalise on the current trend for supernatural romance brought on by twilight, true blood and vampire diaries.
It was an alright read but it didn’t grab me, and I didn’t feel strongly enough about the characters to really care about them. I thought the ending was ambiguous and could have done with being slightly tidier.
‘Have you ever loved someone so much that you’d do anything for them?
When Dr Luke Findley turns up to his hospital shift in the small town of St Andrews, Maine, he’s expecting just another evening of minor injuries and domestic disputes. But instead, Lanore McIlvrae walks into his life – and changes it for ever. For Lanny is a woman with a past…
Lanny McIlvrae is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. Hers is a story of love and betrayal that defies time and transcends mortality – but this tale cannot end until Lanny’s demons are finally put to rest. Her two hundred years on this earth have seen her seduced by both decadence and brutality – yet through it all she has only ever had one true love in her life. Until now.’
Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
This is the first Jack Reacher book I have ever read. There were several of them in a pile of books a friend had finished with and it wasn’t until a heard the author interviewed on the radio that I decided to give them a go.
It is a very entertaining and exciting example of its genre. It rolled along at a good pace and had enough hooks in it to keep you reading. The author allowed you to discover information out before the characters thus giving you a feeling of power, and dread for them.
I think I will be trying the others in the series now.
‘You do not mess with Jack Reacher.
September 11th changed Reacher’s drifter lifestyle in one practical way. As well as his folding toothbrush, he now carries photo ID. Yet he is still as close to untraceable as a human being in America can get. So when a member of his old Army unit finds a way to get a message to him, he knows it must be deadly serious: I want you to put the old unit back together.
You do not mess with the Special Investigators. They always watched each other’s backs. Now one of them has shown up dead in the California desert. And six others can’t be found at all.
You do not mess with Jack Reacher. His old buddies are in big trouble, and he won’t let that go. Not now, not ever.’
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Cake by cake…
While I was away getting all medieval out in France, Sue was keeping herself busy in a different way.
Mum’s Birthday
With Aunts and Jamie all coming around to our place, Sue put on a spread for her mother’s birthday that included some of her favourite cakes.
Swish Party
A swish party is an event where people bring unwanted clothes and accessories and gather together to swap them. It also seems to involve much eating and drinking. Sue hosted and spent several days making cakes; large ones, small ones, sweet ones and savoury ones, until the table was groaning under the weight of them.
Held a friends place Sue joined this party where olive oil and various other condiments were being sampled with the objective of enticing you to buy them. Needless to say more food and drink were also available to sample.
Always the social butterfly Sue had arranged to become involved in several different events (so that she would not have to spend time pining for me all alone at home – that’s what she tells me anyway), such as:
Comedy Night
This was an event at Sue’s sister’s work place where up and coming comedians performed as invited guests enjoyed an evening meal and drinks.Mum’s Birthday
With Aunts and Jamie all coming around to our place, Sue put on a spread for her mother’s birthday that included some of her favourite cakes.
Swish Party
A swish party is an event where people bring unwanted clothes and accessories and gather together to swap them. It also seems to involve much eating and drinking. Sue hosted and spent several days making cakes; large ones, small ones, sweet ones and savoury ones, until the table was groaning under the weight of them.
Work Girls Night Out
This was another excuse to get together with friends and to eat and drink while catching up on gossip.I would like to think this was just a case of ‘while the cat’s away’, but, you know…
…squeak, squeak!
Cakes, and such, baked include:
- Carrot Cake
- Coffee Walnut Cake
- Apple n Cider Cake
- Cinnamon and Blackberry cake
- Apple and Plum Flap Jacks
- Mini Jam Tarts
- Mini Banofee Pies
- MonteCarlo Biscuits
- Cucumber, Smoked Salmon, Egg and Cress Sarnies
- Carrot and Chili Flapjacks
- And Mini Savory Tartlets
Since then Sue has also been to another event;
Held a friends place Sue joined this party where olive oil and various other condiments were being sampled with the objective of enticing you to buy them. Needless to say more food and drink were also available to sample.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Brick by brick…
Last week I was in the 13th century working as a builder at a French castle.
Along with a friend I went to volunteer at Guedelon where they are half way through a 25 year project to build an authentic castle in the 13th century style using only the skills and materials available at the time.
We had made our plans after seeing a few of the organisers running presentations and demonstrations at Bodium castle. We were taken with the project and made enquiries, finding out more and eventually arranging to join them late in October just before they closed the site for the winter.
Part of the deal was that you had to look the part, as the site is a tourist attraction and the visitors like to see the workers looking in keeping with the surroundings. I must admit I took this all to heart and along with the linen smock Sue’s mum made I got some accessories – a leather belt pouch, a bota drinking skin, and even getting contact lenses so that I didn’t need to wear my glasses. Along with the safety boots, the travel and accommodation costs and the site fees (you have to pay to work for them, unless you are a permanent or contract worker), it was getting to become a reasonable expensive trip.
We drove down in my car (as it was a company vehicle), taking the Dover to Dunkirk crossing and stopping the night there before driving on to the gite we had hired, near the castle, in the Burgundy region.
Not knowing what to expect on our first day we got to the site early (I get anxious about being late for things – we were so early at the ferry that we got on the earlier sailing). We were the only ones there and started to wonder if we had made a mistake, when after some time the other staff arrived in dribs and drabs.
Our lack of language skills was a bit of an issue, but luckily we were helped by a few native English speakers and a few other foreigners who were multi lingual, and for the rest we were able to use our pigeon French, their pigeon English and suitable sign language to make ourselves understood. I think we would had got much more out of the experience had we been able to communicate better, and to this end I have ordered a language course to improve my feeble skills.
The weather was glorious for the whole time we were there, some of the hottest few days in October they had known, and no rain to be seen. Had it been different I don’t think we would have enjoyed quite as much. But enjoy it we did.
It is hard to imagine this project ever being permitted in the UK with all the safety implications and nanny state bureaucracy. But in France this site works well. Concessions have been made to safety such as steel top capped boots, hard hats for work under the crane (though they are covered in cloth to disguise them), netting around the working areas at the top of the towers and on the building roof, and face masks and goggles in the quarry to protect the eyes from stone chips and the lungs from silicosis. But for the most part the site looks as much like a medieval work site could.
The first task we were given was to run the squirrel cage, which is what they call the drum crane. A contraption of two large wheels (like hamster wheels) inside which we walked, that in turn pulled a rope over pulleys, to lift stone and mortar from the ditch outside the walls up to the top of the tower for the masons to use. The crane did have extra netting at the sides, a brake (that would not have existed on the original device) and steel armoured rope (that looked normal to the casual eye). It was job normally reserved for slaves and captured prisoners, and on this site it was mostly left to the volunteers as it is hard work.
Next we were put on the top of the great tower to help them build up the layers of stones. From here we had a panoramic view over the entire site and could watch the activities at the blacksmiths, the mortar tent, the stables, the quarry and stone cutter and stone masons buildings, the carpenters lodge and the rope makers building. Only the woodland village, obscured by the trees, was hidden, where the wood cutters, basket maker, tile maker and dyer were resident.
After lunch with the staff I spent much of the rest of the day on my knees placing the stones in the mortar, and it wasn’t until we got back to our accommodation at night that I realised that had been a mistake. I forgot how corrosive lime mortar is and where it had soaked into my trousers it had burned my knees leaving them sore and dried out. I didn’t do that again.
Paul is a woodsman in the winter time in the UK and so when the organisers found out they wanted him to use his skills in the woods. He had arranged to bring some of his tools and many of the staff crowded around him when he brought them out looking at how they differed from the ones they used. One of his specialities is making hazel hurdles (woven fence panels to you and me), and together on the last day we went at gathered the material from the woods and Paul made a hurdle (as I supervised). This went down particularly well with the site supervisor and the woman who started the project (all of the animal enclosures are currently fenced off using wood and wire fencing that is not in keeping with the period), and so he was asked if he would consider coming back the following year for a month to teach others how to make the panels.
As an unskilled labourer I moved around the site doing many different jobs including breaking huge boulders in the quarry using only a hammer, chisel, wedge and sledge-hammer. It was hard work but very rewarding to bust a lump of stone into several pieces by hand. I also used finer tools to shape the stone with a curved face ready for use in the tower. I chopped and split logs in the woodland village so that they could be split into batons and shingles for the roof, and helped the carpenters raise a large oak frame for a new building in the woods.
Our day off was Wednesday, and so we explored the countryside taking in local markets and two contemporary castles; the huge Saint-Fargeau Castle (owned and renovated by the guy who originally came up with the idea for Guedelon), and the wonderful Ratilly Castle where the owners had started a pottery and where they had an old dove/pigeon tower with the original moving ladder still intact.
We were sad to leave at the end of our stay, and I think the other staff were sad to see us go too.
The journey back was long, and tiring, especially when we missed our diversionary route and ended up going around the Paris Peripherique during the morning rush hour (don’t do it – it is horrific! I’ll never complain about the M25 again).
All in all we had a great time and thoroughly recommended it to others. You do not have to break rocks or lift huge timbers as they will find work that suits people of all abilities, but if you are interested in architecture, archaeology, castles, medieval re-enactment or the great outdoors, then this might just be for you.
Along with a friend I went to volunteer at Guedelon where they are half way through a 25 year project to build an authentic castle in the 13th century style using only the skills and materials available at the time.
We had made our plans after seeing a few of the organisers running presentations and demonstrations at Bodium castle. We were taken with the project and made enquiries, finding out more and eventually arranging to join them late in October just before they closed the site for the winter.
Part of the deal was that you had to look the part, as the site is a tourist attraction and the visitors like to see the workers looking in keeping with the surroundings. I must admit I took this all to heart and along with the linen smock Sue’s mum made I got some accessories – a leather belt pouch, a bota drinking skin, and even getting contact lenses so that I didn’t need to wear my glasses. Along with the safety boots, the travel and accommodation costs and the site fees (you have to pay to work for them, unless you are a permanent or contract worker), it was getting to become a reasonable expensive trip.
We drove down in my car (as it was a company vehicle), taking the Dover to Dunkirk crossing and stopping the night there before driving on to the gite we had hired, near the castle, in the Burgundy region.
Not knowing what to expect on our first day we got to the site early (I get anxious about being late for things – we were so early at the ferry that we got on the earlier sailing). We were the only ones there and started to wonder if we had made a mistake, when after some time the other staff arrived in dribs and drabs.
Our lack of language skills was a bit of an issue, but luckily we were helped by a few native English speakers and a few other foreigners who were multi lingual, and for the rest we were able to use our pigeon French, their pigeon English and suitable sign language to make ourselves understood. I think we would had got much more out of the experience had we been able to communicate better, and to this end I have ordered a language course to improve my feeble skills.
The weather was glorious for the whole time we were there, some of the hottest few days in October they had known, and no rain to be seen. Had it been different I don’t think we would have enjoyed quite as much. But enjoy it we did.
It is hard to imagine this project ever being permitted in the UK with all the safety implications and nanny state bureaucracy. But in France this site works well. Concessions have been made to safety such as steel top capped boots, hard hats for work under the crane (though they are covered in cloth to disguise them), netting around the working areas at the top of the towers and on the building roof, and face masks and goggles in the quarry to protect the eyes from stone chips and the lungs from silicosis. But for the most part the site looks as much like a medieval work site could.
The first task we were given was to run the squirrel cage, which is what they call the drum crane. A contraption of two large wheels (like hamster wheels) inside which we walked, that in turn pulled a rope over pulleys, to lift stone and mortar from the ditch outside the walls up to the top of the tower for the masons to use. The crane did have extra netting at the sides, a brake (that would not have existed on the original device) and steel armoured rope (that looked normal to the casual eye). It was job normally reserved for slaves and captured prisoners, and on this site it was mostly left to the volunteers as it is hard work.
Next we were put on the top of the great tower to help them build up the layers of stones. From here we had a panoramic view over the entire site and could watch the activities at the blacksmiths, the mortar tent, the stables, the quarry and stone cutter and stone masons buildings, the carpenters lodge and the rope makers building. Only the woodland village, obscured by the trees, was hidden, where the wood cutters, basket maker, tile maker and dyer were resident.
After lunch with the staff I spent much of the rest of the day on my knees placing the stones in the mortar, and it wasn’t until we got back to our accommodation at night that I realised that had been a mistake. I forgot how corrosive lime mortar is and where it had soaked into my trousers it had burned my knees leaving them sore and dried out. I didn’t do that again.
Paul is a woodsman in the winter time in the UK and so when the organisers found out they wanted him to use his skills in the woods. He had arranged to bring some of his tools and many of the staff crowded around him when he brought them out looking at how they differed from the ones they used. One of his specialities is making hazel hurdles (woven fence panels to you and me), and together on the last day we went at gathered the material from the woods and Paul made a hurdle (as I supervised). This went down particularly well with the site supervisor and the woman who started the project (all of the animal enclosures are currently fenced off using wood and wire fencing that is not in keeping with the period), and so he was asked if he would consider coming back the following year for a month to teach others how to make the panels.
As an unskilled labourer I moved around the site doing many different jobs including breaking huge boulders in the quarry using only a hammer, chisel, wedge and sledge-hammer. It was hard work but very rewarding to bust a lump of stone into several pieces by hand. I also used finer tools to shape the stone with a curved face ready for use in the tower. I chopped and split logs in the woodland village so that they could be split into batons and shingles for the roof, and helped the carpenters raise a large oak frame for a new building in the woods.
Our day off was Wednesday, and so we explored the countryside taking in local markets and two contemporary castles; the huge Saint-Fargeau Castle (owned and renovated by the guy who originally came up with the idea for Guedelon), and the wonderful Ratilly Castle where the owners had started a pottery and where they had an old dove/pigeon tower with the original moving ladder still intact.
We were sad to leave at the end of our stay, and I think the other staff were sad to see us go too.
The journey back was long, and tiring, especially when we missed our diversionary route and ended up going around the Paris Peripherique during the morning rush hour (don’t do it – it is horrific! I’ll never complain about the M25 again).
All in all we had a great time and thoroughly recommended it to others. You do not have to break rocks or lift huge timbers as they will find work that suits people of all abilities, but if you are interested in architecture, archaeology, castles, medieval re-enactment or the great outdoors, then this might just be for you.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
More of wot I have seen…
Dr Marigold & Mr Chops by Charles Dickens
Dr Marigold and Going into Society are two short readings by Charles Dickens that he would perform on tours to packed audiences. These two stories have similar themes; both have main characters who ‘perform’ to an audience for the purpose of gaining financial reward, one as a travelling sales man come hawker of wares, and the other as a proprietor of a freak show. They are also social commentaries on how people treat others not the same as they are and on how the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.
This two part one man show was performed in the attractive little Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford by the exceptionally talented and spellbinding Simon Callow. Although Sue did fall asleep it might have had more to do with the substantial lunch and liquid refreshment than the quality of the acting (she has been known to fall asleep in the cinema as the massive battle scenes unfolded at the beginning of Gladiator only to wake moments later to ask “have I missed anything?”).
Baring a few small changes to the script, to alter a few anachronistic words and to make more suitable for a monologue by the character, there is remarkably little difference from the original scripts, which still have a relevance in today’s world while giving us a view into those aspects of yesteryear that have disappeared without trace.
Dr Marigold and Going into Society are two short readings by Charles Dickens that he would perform on tours to packed audiences. These two stories have similar themes; both have main characters who ‘perform’ to an audience for the purpose of gaining financial reward, one as a travelling sales man come hawker of wares, and the other as a proprietor of a freak show. They are also social commentaries on how people treat others not the same as they are and on how the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.
This two part one man show was performed in the attractive little Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford by the exceptionally talented and spellbinding Simon Callow. Although Sue did fall asleep it might have had more to do with the substantial lunch and liquid refreshment than the quality of the acting (she has been known to fall asleep in the cinema as the massive battle scenes unfolded at the beginning of Gladiator only to wake moments later to ask “have I missed anything?”).
Baring a few small changes to the script, to alter a few anachronistic words and to make more suitable for a monologue by the character, there is remarkably little difference from the original scripts, which still have a relevance in today’s world while giving us a view into those aspects of yesteryear that have disappeared without trace.
More of wot I have read…
The Ghost – Robert Harris
We were given this book, along with a pile of others, from a prolific reader friend of ours. It is an intriguing and entertaining foray into the darker political recesses of government while managing to feel authentic and still have a good yarn to it. Now that I have read it I might be interested in watching the movie that was made out of it.
‘The moment I heard how McAra died I should have walked away. I see that now…
A body washes up on the deserted coastline of America’s most exclusive holiday retreat. But it’s no open-and-shut case of suicide. The death of Mike McAra is just the first piece of the jigsaw in an extraordinary plot that will shake the very foundations of international security.
For McAra was a man who knew too much. As a ghostwriter to one of the most controversial men on the planet – Britain’s former prime minister, holed up in a remote ocean-front house to finish his memoirs – he stumbled across secrets which cost him his life.
When a new ghostwriter is sent to rescue the project it could be an opportunity of a lifetime. Or the start of a deadly assignment propelled by deception and intrigue – from which there will be no escape…’
Next by Michael Crichton
This is another book from our friend. I have read a couple of other novels by this author (Prey and Airframe), and they, like this, had a very screenplay sort of feel which must be a style Michael Crichton has that is related to his experience in the movie industry. Many of this author’s novels have an important message to say about big business, corporations, governments and other organisations that would put their own interests above those of the public, the world or even common sense, and this book is no different. Concentrating on genetic manipulation and the potentially big money spin-offs from the scientific research it makes some very powerful points about the industry. It is however wrapped up in a story that strays off into wilder speculation for the sake of entertainment, but that is fine, as long as the reader doesn’t buy every word without a second thought.
‘Is a loved one missing body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Has a human already cross-bred with a monkey?
We live in a GENETIC WORLD. Fast, frightening – and potentially VERY lucrative. There are designer pets; a genetic cure for drug addiction; a booming market in eggs and sperm. But is there is also a talking ape in Borneo? Has a “master” gene for controlling others been found? Could an innocent man and his family be hunted cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes…?’
We were given this book, along with a pile of others, from a prolific reader friend of ours. It is an intriguing and entertaining foray into the darker political recesses of government while managing to feel authentic and still have a good yarn to it. Now that I have read it I might be interested in watching the movie that was made out of it.
‘The moment I heard how McAra died I should have walked away. I see that now…
A body washes up on the deserted coastline of America’s most exclusive holiday retreat. But it’s no open-and-shut case of suicide. The death of Mike McAra is just the first piece of the jigsaw in an extraordinary plot that will shake the very foundations of international security.
For McAra was a man who knew too much. As a ghostwriter to one of the most controversial men on the planet – Britain’s former prime minister, holed up in a remote ocean-front house to finish his memoirs – he stumbled across secrets which cost him his life.
When a new ghostwriter is sent to rescue the project it could be an opportunity of a lifetime. Or the start of a deadly assignment propelled by deception and intrigue – from which there will be no escape…’
Next by Michael Crichton
This is another book from our friend. I have read a couple of other novels by this author (Prey and Airframe), and they, like this, had a very screenplay sort of feel which must be a style Michael Crichton has that is related to his experience in the movie industry. Many of this author’s novels have an important message to say about big business, corporations, governments and other organisations that would put their own interests above those of the public, the world or even common sense, and this book is no different. Concentrating on genetic manipulation and the potentially big money spin-offs from the scientific research it makes some very powerful points about the industry. It is however wrapped up in a story that strays off into wilder speculation for the sake of entertainment, but that is fine, as long as the reader doesn’t buy every word without a second thought.
‘Is a loved one missing body parts? Are blondes becoming extinct? Has a human already cross-bred with a monkey?
We live in a GENETIC WORLD. Fast, frightening – and potentially VERY lucrative. There are designer pets; a genetic cure for drug addiction; a booming market in eggs and sperm. But is there is also a talking ape in Borneo? Has a “master” gene for controlling others been found? Could an innocent man and his family be hunted cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes…?’
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
A Folking Good Time…
In what is fast becoming a new tradition we again went along to the Towersey Village Festival where we slept drunkenly under canvas in a damp field after enjoying the musical talents of a wide and varied selection of artists.
Just the few of the many that we managed to see…
- Cara Dillon – sweet voice, lovely tunes
- The Spooky Men’s Chorale – great fun, silly Aussie humour, talented singers
- Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick – old school traditional folk, talented but not our tastes
- Lau – lively and youthful exuberance
- 17 Hippies – there are more than 17 of them, they are not hippies but they are great foot stomping band
- Karine Polwart – lovely voice full of passion
- Tim Edey and Brendan Power – superb talents, and Power is a Kiwi!
- Kate Rowe – fun, playful lyricist
- Saltfishforty – exciting and salty tunes from the northern isles
- Roy Bailey - a stalwart of the folk scene with a large following
- Emily Portman – dark and haunting lyrics sung with the lightness of an angel’s voice
- The Old Dance School – talented bunch of youngsters who are set for big things
- David Ferrard – charming and moving songs
- Alasdair Roberts – complex and interesting songs with great soul
And at the Three Horseshoes Pub – here we met my uncle and his band mates who sing and play along in a jam session with other talented musicians while we attempt to drink the pub dry.
We are already planning to go again next year.
More of wot I have seen…
We had planned to visit Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre ever since we toured it when it was being built, but usually once the weather became nice enough for open-air performances we found all the convenient tickets had been sold. As it was we decided to go to a non-traditional non-Shakespearian show this time and we were glad that we did.
On the Saturday we met up with Jamie earlier in the day near where he lives in Bermondsey for breakfast before strolling through the cobbled streets lined with artist studios and curio shops to the river, along the waterside to a pub for pre-show refreshments before entering the theatre.
The show was fantastic, lively, noise, rude and sexy and we had a thoroughly entertaining time. The venue is a masterpiece and has great atmosphere; we don’t know why it took us so long to visit.
Award-winning writer Chris Hannan’s moving, hectic and hilarious new play, The God of Soho, comes to life in a world addicted to drugs and handbags, to flash-bulbs and tabloid exposure, and to the overwhelming need for attention.
The cast of loveable misfits includes Phil Daniels (Quadrophenia, A Clockwork Orange at the RSC, Holding On, The Long Firm, Outlaws and most recently The Beggar's Opera at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre) playing Big God, Emma Pierson as Natty (Little Dorrit, Hotel Babylon) and Edward Hogg ( Bunny and the Bull, White Lightnin' and Woyzeck at The Gate) as Baz.
Sexy, feisty and real, The God of Soho is a morality tale for the modern age, a story about love at its dirtiest, maddest and most bittersweet.
Bursting with dirty language and filthy content.’
More of wot I have read…
Neverwhere – author’s preferred text by Neil Gaiman
'Disgraced journalist Mikael Blomqvist is hired by Henrik Vanger to investigate the disappearance of Vanger’s great-niece Harriet. Henrik suspects that someone in his family, the powerful Vanger clan, murdered Harriet over forty years ago.
Starting his investigation, Mikael realizes that Harriet’s disappearance is not a single event, but rather linked to series of gruesome murders in the past. He now crosses paths with Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker, an asocial punk and most importantly, a young woman driven by her vindictiveness.
Together they form an unlikely couple as they dive deeper into the violent past of the secretive Vanger family.
'Lisbeth Salander is wanted for a triple murder. All three victims are connected to a trafficking exposé about to be published in Mikael Blomqvist’s magazine Millenium, and Lisbeth’s fingerprints are on the weapon.
Lisbeth vanishes to avoid capture by the justice. Mikael, not believing the police, is despairingly trying to clear her name, using all his resources and the staff of his magazine. During this process, Mikael discovers Lisbeth’s past, a terrible story of abuse and traumatizing experiences growing up in the Swedish care system.
When he eventually finds her, it’s only to discover that she is far more entangled in his initial investigation of the sex industry than he could ever imagine.'
'Two seriously injured people arrive at the emergency ward of the Sahlgrensa hospital in Gothenburg. One is the wanted murderer Lisbeth Salander who has taken a bullet to the head and needs immediate surgery, the other is Alexander Zalachenko, an older man who Lisbeth has attacked with an axe.
In this third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth is planning her revenge against the men who tried to kill her, and even more importantly, revenge against the government which nearly destroyed her life. But first she must escape from the intensive care unit and exculpate her name from the charges of murder that hangs over her head.
In order to succeed with the latter, Lisbeth will need the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He is writing an exposing article that will shake the Swedish government, the secret service and the whole country by its foundations. Finally there is a chance for Lisbeth Salander to put her past behind her and finally there is a chance for truth and justice to prevail.'
I bought this book for Jamie a while back when a bought a copy of the TV series to re-watch, but I had never read it myself. So I borrowed it back off him and found it to be a great read, slightly different to the show as this is how the author intended it to be.
‘Under the streets of London there’s a place most people could never even dream of. A city of monsters and saints, murderers and angels, knights in armour and pale girls in black velvet. This is the city of the people who have fallen between the cracks.
Richard Mayhew, a young businessman, is going to find out more than enough about this other London. A single act of kindness catapults him out of his workday existence and into a world that is at once eerily familiar and utterly bizarre. And a strange destiny awaits min down here, beneath his native city: neverwhere.’
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Men Who Hate Women)
- The Girl Who Played with Fire (The Girl Who Played with Fire)
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (The Air Castle Which Got Blown Up)
Initially this series passed us by, but we were recommended it by a family member. The writing is exciting, the translation superb and we enjoyed aspects of the narrative that exposed Swedish habits and traits different than our own. Some of the characters are frustrating, probably deliberately so, and some circumstances stretch the credibility, however that is minor criticism for an otherwise fabulous read. It is a shame the movie of the first book did not do the story or characters justice and I doubt we will watch the others or the American versions when they appear.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Starting his investigation, Mikael realizes that Harriet’s disappearance is not a single event, but rather linked to series of gruesome murders in the past. He now crosses paths with Lisbeth Salander, a young computer hacker, an asocial punk and most importantly, a young woman driven by her vindictiveness.
Together they form an unlikely couple as they dive deeper into the violent past of the secretive Vanger family.
The Girl Who Played with Fire
Lisbeth vanishes to avoid capture by the justice. Mikael, not believing the police, is despairingly trying to clear her name, using all his resources and the staff of his magazine. During this process, Mikael discovers Lisbeth’s past, a terrible story of abuse and traumatizing experiences growing up in the Swedish care system.
When he eventually finds her, it’s only to discover that she is far more entangled in his initial investigation of the sex industry than he could ever imagine.'
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest
In this third novel in the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth is planning her revenge against the men who tried to kill her, and even more importantly, revenge against the government which nearly destroyed her life. But first she must escape from the intensive care unit and exculpate her name from the charges of murder that hangs over her head.
In order to succeed with the latter, Lisbeth will need the help of journalist Mikael Blomkvist. He is writing an exposing article that will shake the Swedish government, the secret service and the whole country by its foundations. Finally there is a chance for Lisbeth Salander to put her past behind her and finally there is a chance for truth and justice to prevail.'
The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
I have not read the first part of Stephen Fry’s autobiography and only read this as I was given it as a present; I usually do not read biographies. I was somewhat surprised at the self loathing and poor self esteem he has and this did become wearing at times, but it did reveal a side of him that he knows himself is often hidden from the public behind his apparently fake appearance of confidence.
‘Thirteen years ago, "Moab is My Washpot", Stephen Fry's autobiography of his early years, was published to rave reviews and was a huge bestseller. In those thirteen years since, Stephen Fry has moved into a completely new stratosphere, both as a public figure, and a private man. Now he is not just a multi-award-winning comedian and actor, but also an author, director and presenter. In January 2010, he was awarded the Special Recognition Award at the National Television Awards. Much loved by the public and his peers, Stephen Fry is one of the most influential cultural forces in the country. This dazzling memoir promises to be a courageously frank, honest and poignant read. It will detail some of the most turbulent and least well known years of his life with writing that will excite you, make you laugh uproariously, move you, inform you and, above all, surprise you.’
‘Stretching from Fry’s success at Cambridge, where he met the comic love of his life, Hugh Laurie, to his first forays into television, this is one of the funniest, most generous, most daring pieces of confessional writing published in years. Most readers will want to close the book and give it a hug.’
This was a strange and very silly little book that does not pretend to be anything else. I like the Steampunk genre even though I have read little in it, and there were elements in this that a loved and had enjoyable imagery for me; however the silliness and violations of the fourth wall grated after a while.
‘This is Robert Rankin’s Far-Fetched-Fictional Steampunk sequel to The War of the worlds and, like the Japanese Devil Fish Girl herself, nothing quite like it has ever existed before… Nearly a decade has passed since Mars invaded Earth, and since wrecked, reverse-engineered Martian spaceships carried The Queen’s Own Electric Fusiliers to the Red Planet, Mars is now part of the ever-expanding British Empire and trade has been opened up with other planets. So what any less-than-scrupulous sideshow proprietor needs now is a sensational attraction that will pull punters in from all parts of the solar system. Something exceptional: like the most wonderful being in all the universe. The Japanese Devil Fish Girl. Professor Coffin’s quest to possess this ultimate showman’s exhibit will take him to realms as yet unchartered and cause considerable friction. Sufficient, in fact, to spark off Worlds War Two…’
This was recommended to me by a friend as a good read in the Steampunk genre, written for teenagers and including nice black and white drawings throughout. Some of the world details I found unusual and some were surprising in their freshness. The story was sometimes slow, but as a series it allowed for nice plot and character development.
‘Two opposing forces on the brink of war:
The Clankers, who put their faith in machinery, are squaring up to the Darwinists, who have begun evolving living creatures into tools.
Prince Aleksander, the would-by heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, comes from a family of Clankers, and travels the country in a walker, a heavily-fortified tank on legs.
Deryn Sharp, a girl disguised as a boy, works for the British Empire, crewing an airship made of living animals – the ultimate flying machine.
Now, as Alek runs from his own people, and Deryn crash-lands in enemy territory, their lives are about to collide…’
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Going to Build a Castle…
I have arranged with a friend of mine to go and help build a castle in France. We saw a demonstration of medieval skills recently at Bodium and I was intrigued with the project. Apparently a wealthy Frenchman who likes to restore old chateaux decided he wanted to build one from scratch using the authentic skills and designs of the 13th Century. They started Guedelon Castle in 1997 and expect the project to take 25 years in total, so they are only half way through. They welcome volunteers who want to participate and learn techniques and experience the living archaeology of the site, so we put our names down and we are due to go at the end of October. I am really excited about the project.
With Bells On…
We went to the annual Aldbury Morris Weekend Away that this year was based at Worcester, a lovely city with a great cathedral and fabulous old cobbled streets lined with rickety old buildings.
As is the want at this event we got well oiled the first night as they took over the bar and sang and played music. I was unable to make breakfast in the morning but soon perked up at the first destination on our tour once I had a hair of the dog, and then there was no stopping us. We travelled around many of the beautiful villages in the area, the side singing and dancing with a little drinking to lubricate the voice and knees.
The side even danced out for a wedding in a quaint village for a bemused party of well-wishers and a handsome couple.
As is the want at this event we got well oiled the first night as they took over the bar and sang and played music. I was unable to make breakfast in the morning but soon perked up at the first destination on our tour once I had a hair of the dog, and then there was no stopping us. We travelled around many of the beautiful villages in the area, the side singing and dancing with a little drinking to lubricate the voice and knees.
The side even danced out for a wedding in a quaint village for a bemused party of well-wishers and a handsome couple.
Sue’s Birthday…
We went out to dinner and an open air Shakespeare at Guildford on the big day and we are going to go to the Globe to see another play, not Shakespeare, this time it is The God of Soho, which we are looking forward to.
The following weekend we had the family around and Sue cooked a roast beef dinner for them that included vegetables from the allotment and a wicked horseradish sauce that I make to a Mrs Beaton’s recipe.
The following weekend we had the family around and Sue cooked a roast beef dinner for them that included vegetables from the allotment and a wicked horseradish sauce that I make to a Mrs Beaton’s recipe.
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