Random Jottings

Maestro

Anybody watching this on BBC2? 

It was trailed for weeks and I began to sigh and think Oh dear here we go again, another reality programme but could not resist giving it a whirl and found myself totally taken over with its humour and fun.  'Celebrities' - (I really hate that word), including Jane Asher, David Soul, Peter Snow, Katie Derham, Alex James (both Classic FM presenters, they must be giggling at being on the Beeb), Goldie (a DJ with a mouthful of gold teeth who turned up in an old James Bond movie on Sunday prompting one of those dreadful punning lines from James 'I see you've put your money where your mouth is) and a couple of others whose names elude me at the moment.

First week they were each given a mentor to teach them the art of conducting and if there is one thing this programme is doing, it is dispelling the notion that all a conductor does is stand in front of the orchestra waving his arms about while they play.  It is very hard work indeed, both mental and physical as one celeb complained of shooting pains in her arms after hours of practice.  The star of the first show was Peter Snow and his total inability to beat in 3 or 4 or 1 or 2 or anything reduced his fellow contestants to tears of laughter.  At the end of the first show, they each had to conduct a short piece and Peter Snow's conducting of The Dance of the Knights from Prokofiev's ballet Romeo and Juliet was totally awful with speeds ranging from funereal to off the scale and one violinist laughing so much he had to stop playing.

Most of the celebs conducted with various degrees of success or not and then on came Goldie and conducted a beautifully judged and timed performance of In the Hall of the Mountain King which brought his rather staid looking mentor to his feet yelling and hollering, and thunderous applause.  Sir Roger Norrington, on the panel of judges was amazed 'It's not fair, this man is a natural conductor and he can't even read music' which I think was meant to be funny but as it was said through tight lips, I am not totally sure.

Second programme the other night and they had all come on by leaps and bounds and doing really well. The joy of Maestro is that I can sit at home with my knitting needle conducting away like mad in front of the mirror (this is in between singing and dancing round the room to Waterloo of course) and making like I was Muti or  Abbado.  I find I get a tad impatient when they are conducting too slowly for me and I am beating the tempi and yelling at them to get a move on and to stop being so wooden and to loosen up and that is not a down beat and good heavens what are you doing with that brass, but then it is ok for me.  I am at home with no audience, I am not standing in front of a 100 strong orchestra all looking at you and waiting to be brought in and led through a piece of music.  It must be totally nerve wracking and I am amazed at the aplomb with which some of them are managing it all.

Do check out the website http://www.bbc.co.uk/musictv/maestro which has videos of the performances and good moments from the shows (watch Bradley Walsh have hysterics watching Peter Snow beat time).  Various forums seems to have sprouted up for this as well and it has been very interesting and amusing to read all the comments posted, but this programme seems to have caught the imagination of non-classical music lovers as well who say it has grabbed their attention.

The winner of the series ends up conducting the orchestra at one of the concerts in the park on the Last Night of the Proms - now that will be truly terrifying.

BBC have got a success on their hands it seems.  Next week they are conducting a choral work, now that will be intriguing, not only will they have to bring in the orchestra but also watch the singers.  Must be like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time...

Oxford Letters

I have just finished reading this book by Veronica Stallwood, one of her mystery stories with heroine Kate Ivory and set in Oxford.  Somebody recommended these to me last year and I bought the first two and was not over enamoured with them, thought the plotting was a bit wayward and the denouement far fetched, but I liked Kate as a character and decided to carry on reading them.  I have not been searching them out compulsively but just picked up a few here and there and found that I have been enjoying them more and more.  I have read them all wildly out of order which has made them rather interesting as I go backwards and forwards and meet Kate and her boyfriends and her spirited mother, at different stages of the various relationships.  Keeps me on my toes.

I think Oxford Letters is one of the best yet.  Kate's mother comes under the influence of  a couple, Marcus and Ayesha who, under the guise of caring for her as she has not been well and looking after her, gradually insinuate themselves into her life.  Kate does not trust them and as she begins to investigate their background, she starts receiving emails warning her that something bad will happen to her if she continues down this path.  She ignores this threat and carries on with her investigations and gradually discovers that not only are these two con artists, but there is a possibility that they are murderers too with a trail of death following wherever they go.  She can prove nothing and all that they do is within the law, but little does Kate know that somebody else is also interested in these two impostors and there is a surprising and rather shocking ending to the story.

The difference between Oxford Letters published in 2005 with Death and the Oxford Box, which is one of the earlier ones and the first of this series that I read, is quite marked and I am now going to make sure I read the rest of the Kate Ivory adventures. I am finding I am enjoying Veronica Stallwood's writing very much.

I have about another six to go so that should keep me occupied for a while, well, perhaps a week or two anyway.

The American Musical

This simply gorgeous book arrived on my desk at work a few weeks ago, courtesy of Oxford University Press and I have been gloating over it ever since.  I adore musicals, being a life long fan of Fred and Ginger, Gene Kelly et al and never tire of watching them over and over again, and as I have most of them on DVD, do so on a regular basis.  Nothing like a great song and dance routine to cheer you up when you are feeling low.

Anything you could ever want to know is in this Companion.  Dip in and check out The Harvey Girls.  Not a very well known film, but it starred Judy Garland going out west to find a husband, Angela Lansbury and Cyd Charisse in a supporting role, featured the Oscar winning song "On the Atchison Topeka and the Sante Fe" and also has a terrific dance solo for Ray Bolger, who had earlier played the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz with the young Judy Garland.

Then I checked out Jules Munshin.  He is the third man to Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in On the Town and Take me out to the Ball Game (a film which starred a very wooden Esther Williams - can't act but she can swim well and her first appearance is in the hotel swimming pool), but quite often stole the show though he is not much remembered now.  A shame. Tall, lanky and morose looking he was very very funny.

Gordon Macrae next.  A lovely lovely man with a superb baritone voice.  Before he hit the really big time when he landed the part of Curly in Oklahoma, he sang in Desert Song (pure kitsch this film but I love it and also starred Kathryn Grayson after whom my elder daughter is named), and my two favourites By the Light of the Silvery Moon and On Moonlight Bay with Doris Day.  There is, however, no mention of either of these two films in the Companion which I find slightly odd so this rather contradicts my earlier assertion that Anything you could ever want to Know is in this book, but I suppose not all can be fitted in.  These two films are on similar lines to Meet me in St Louis, set in idyllic small town America complete with a swing on the porch and a wise cracking family retainer.  In fact, Leon Ames, who plays the father in this film, also turns up as the father in the two Gordon Macrae/Doris Day movies as well.

And until I checked out this entry I was unaware that the screenplay for this film was written by the delightfully named Irving Brecher and Fred Finkelhoffe.

I have already spent many happy hours looking up my favourite movies and musicals and on turning the pages again tonight, I have spotted even more entries that have grabbed my attention.  As Marvin Hamlisch says on the cover "Everytthing you have ever wanted to know about the American musical at your fingertips. What could be better or more useful?"  Not going to argue with him on that one.

'Heaven, I'm in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak, and I seem to find the happiness I seek when we're out together dancing cheek to cheek...."

"You're going out a youngster but you are going to come back a star"

"Let me entertain you"

OK who can identify these movie quotes....

Didn't we do well?

Tee hee - the Australian commentator who said very sarcastically that the Brits were only good at sports where we were sitting down, must be pea green today as we seem to be sitting down really well with all the gold, silver and bronze medals showering onto Team Great Britain (I refuse to call it Team GB) in the last two days.  And what makes it all the sweeter is that the Coxless Four gold won by the four sitting down Brits yesterday beat Australia.....

Now if only we can do the same in the Ashes next year and prove that the Brits can beat the Aussies standing up that would be even better. I am, however, honest enough to admit that this is a remote possibility.

In the meantime I am just enjoying the moment.

Lydia Bennett's Story - Jane Odiwe

I am absolutely amazed at the seemingly never ending stream of books being published telling the story of nearly all of the characters in Pride and Prejudice.  One sometimes wonders how many more the market can hold and surely these must come to an end soon.  I cannot imagine that anybody would want to know about Kitty or Mary Bennett but I daresay they will soon have a book devoted to them.  I do wonder about the perennial fascination with all things P&P.  I fully understand that the BBC version of ten years ago simply swept everyone up and was sold worldwide, sparking off a huge upsurge in Austen interest but find it odd that these spin off books focus mainly on this Austen novel and none of the others.  Amanda Grange has written a Diary Of series of the male protagonists in each novel which I have read and found very enjoyable (I have Colonel Brandon's waiting me as I write),  but there appear to be very few prequels and sequels involving characters in the other books.  Joan Aiken wrote Mansfield Revisited and Jane Fairfax but, unless I have missed them, other follows ups are lacking. 

When I received Lydia Bennet's Story from Source Books (and oh how I love receiving fed-ex book parcels at work - makes my day!), I was a little doubtful about it.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Jane Odiwe has caught Lydia's gushing, breathless manner beautifully in those parts of the book which are purporting to be her diary.  Too many explanation marks for my liking, but I daresay Lydia would have written like this, all dash and full of enthusiasm.

Lydia is thought of as the villain of the piece along with Wickham, the thoughtless, conceited younger daughter who was only interested in officers and flirting and getting married before her sisters and we forget that when this happened she was only sixteen years old.  Precocious yes, but still young.  the interesting thread in this book is the constant striving by Lydia to win her father's approval and affection.  She thinks of Jane and Lizzy as boring and proper and destined to be old maids, but it is clear that these are the thoughts of a childish and jealous younger sister who is aware that her father thinks she is one of 'the silliest girls in the country' and that he is wrapped up in his close relationship with Elizabeth.  Lydia adopts the attitude 'ok he expects very little of me so I will prove him right' and continues to behave in a silly and outrageous manner hoping to gain his attention and is disappointed when she hopes, optimistically, that when she comes home with her husband, Mr Bennett will greet her and congratulate her on her marriage. 

Lydia's behaviour is classic look at me, attention seeking and outrageous, to obtain a reaction which never comes and I found myself rather warming to her as I read her Story.  She is honest enough to realise that she has made a terrible mistake in marrying Wickham and to admit that she has nobody to blame but herself and to feel sadness at the obvious affection and happiness in her sister's marriages which is sadly lacking in her own.

So, a story that turned out to be better than I thought, rather sweet and made me feel sorry for Lydia.  A silly feckless mother and a father who ignored her, two elder sisters regarded as the beauties and best of the Bennett girls, no wonder she behaved as she did.  I found it quite a coincidence that I finished reading this book the day before the papers were full of the hasty marriage of Peaches Geldof and the ensuing publicity.  I found it rather sad that she left her new husband behind and rushed straight to see her father.  One assumes to seek his approval. She certainly gained his attention.

A book that gave me more food for thought than I was expecting and, as will all those I have received from Sourcebooks so far, beautifully presented, lovely smooth paper and clear print which make it a pleasure to hold and look at as well as read. 

The author has a lovely blog at http://www.janeodiwe.blogspot.com  do nip over and have a look

Cambridge on a Saturday

Back from Cambridge and a lovely lunch with Jan and a wander round the city.  There is something magical about this wonderful place and every time I am there I love it all over again.  We had our lunch on a small balcony outside a restaurant overlooking the Backs and had great fun watching the punts and wincing at some of the near and not so near misses taking place below us.  I was a little worried about some ducks who were in danger of getting squashed between two boats who seemed determined to re-enact Titanic and the Iceberg until Jan pointed out to me that they could dive under the water.....

Did my usual trawl of bookshops and visited one of my favourites, The Haunted Bookshop which is always full of interesting stuff and crammed into the tiniest one up one down little house you could ever see. Books are not only double but treble packed and I am sure that some of the stock at the back of all these heaps never gets looked at.  The very expensive Richmal Crompton I have been eying up for four years is still there and after I bid successfully for another one a few months ago, I keep thinking I should have a crack at this one as well, but as I will be unemployed by the end of the month, decided I had better keep my money in my purse.

I did, however, buy one book.  In an earlier post I had asked for recommendations for a new author I could try, having gulped down Mapp and Lucia in the last few weeks and now feel stranded, and the name of Angela Thirkell has come up.  I have been contemplating her for some time, particularly as she has written a series of books The Barchester Chronicles, which makes them almost irresistible as far as I am concerned, but have never got round to them.

Well, now I will.  I picked up a copy of County Chronicles and will be seeing how I get on with this in the coming week or so.  There were plenty more of hers in the Haunted Bookshop but I resisted until I see how I get on.  Anybody out there hold thoughts and opinions please on this author?  Would be pleased to hear.

Have just spotted a small side paragraph in my paper.  A signed copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is currently fetching £650 and the Enid Blyton Adventure books with dust jackets, £125.  Pleased to see this as I have the entire Adventure series and a signed copy of Goblet.  Shall sit on them a little longer I think until I fancy a Caribbean Cruise.

Off now for a lazy hour or two on the sofa and will be catching up with what seems to be the most splendid day at the Olympics for Team GB (Mem:  why GB?  Why not Great Britain I ask myself)....

Saturday

Fraught day yesterday so no time for posting and I am annoyed as I do like to write on a daily basis, but could not be helped.

Thanks to those of you who have left suggestions for further reading.  Angela Thirkell was one author mentioned and I cannot believe why I did not think of her before. So just a bijou postette as I am now off to Cambridge to meet up with my good friend Jan for lunch where, no doubt, the sticky toffee pudding at our regular haunt will be consumed, and the book shops of this wonderful city raided.

Back later

Thursday Ramblings

Well, this will be a ramble as I am sitting here at my laptop, bone idle, wanting to do nothing at all but as I like to post every day, it is a good discipline, I am going to inflict one of these meandering Posts about Nothing Much on you all today.  I have Abba's Golden Hits on the cd player as I have had the songs going round and round in my head since I saw Mamma Mia on Sunday and it has been driving me mad so gave in and am singing along to Chiquita right this minute, in fact my fingers are hitting the keys in time. Sad really.

OK I need suggestions from all you nice kind people out there.  I am all Mapped and Luciad out.  In my usual binge reading fashion I have read them all in five weeks, including the two Tom Holt books, and am now totally lost and cannot turn my mind to anything else and I must as I have a pile of review books looking at me reproachfully.  The DVDs of Mapp and Lucia arrived a day or two ago and I have just watched the first episode but am rationing myself severely so that the pleasure of this purchase can be extended.

Now I know Major Benjy by Guy Fraser-Sampson is coming out soon but that is not till September so I will have to wait till then. Had an email from Guy the other day informing me that he is giving a talk at the Friends of Tilling in Rye about the book and why don't I pop along?  A truly seductive thought but glancing at the website all attendees are dressed up Hitum and not sure I can cope with that at the moment.  I need a little while to get into true Lucia mode before I can get the glad rags out.  However, a visit to Rye certainly will be undertaken as soon as I can manage it.

So the suggestions I mentioned?  I would like all of you to rack your brains and come up with another author for me to try.  Preferably someone who has written a whole screed of titles that will keep me happy for a month or two.  I like writing of the 1930's etc so if there are any subfusc Benson types lurking waiting to be discovered then do let me know.

(We are onto Voulez vous at the moment and once again my fingers are dancing in time to the music.  These ABBA songs are just so tuneful and such fun, no wonder they have lasted so long).

Further rambling now - my current work contract comes to an end at the end of August so I am back on the market again, so to speak, and have spent some time in the last couple of days at my agency, doing these infernal tests again that the clients request, which I hate doing.  I had to take a spelling and comprehension test this afternoon for which I was allowed 45 minutes and handed it in in 15 much to the amazement of the staff (all aged about 12).  When I spoke to my consultant about this test she sighed and said she knew it was pretty pointless me doing it but also said that I would be surprised at the standards, or rather lack of them, that some of their candidates possessed.  My reply was that I was not surprised at all.

Bonus was that I caught an early train and home at a reasonable hour.  One of the posts I am applying for at the moment is a part time one at a firm near Liverpool Street. Less money obviously, but just think what bliss it will be to only work three days a week.  O joy. Fingers crossed.

(Am now up to Gimme Gimme a Man after Midnight which is probably not an appropriate song to be playing as I am contemplating an early night tonight.....)

Off I go to my lonely bed

'sigh'

Death of a Murderer - Rupert Thomson

This is a slightly creepy little book and not sure that I can say I honestly enjoyed it.  Impossible to use this word in the context of the Moors Murders and though Rupert Thomson does not name any names during his narrative it is obvious who the book is about and a picture of Myra Hindley on the cover does little to retain any mystery.

Billy Tyler is a policeman, a beat copper, no ambitions to rise higher, he likes his job as it is.  He is married to Suzi whose father thinks she had married beneath him and who despises Billy for his lack of ambition.  They have a Downs Syndrome daughter Emma, now eight when the story begins.

Billy receives a call from the station and he is given a night shift in the mortuary of the local hospital where the body of a notorious murderer is awaiting cremation.  A 24 hour watch is mounted in order to deter sight seekers or anybody seeking a souvenir, however macabre, of this woman.  So Billy is left alone in the silence in the small hours of the morning on his night watch.  This part of the book reeks of atmosphere as Thomson describes the slightly battered and worn mortuary, the marks on the doors where the trolleys have banged and marked the paint, the silence and an overall pervading miasma of evil emanating from the closed and locked refrigerator wherein lies the body.

Billy, unsure of himself and harbouring doubts about his life and his marriage, doubting his love for his daughter, is affected deeply by this atmosphere and begins to hold conversations with the dead woman who he sees clearly, a rather ordinary looking woman in a lilac suit, unlike the only photograph the public have seen of her with the fixed look and brassy blonde hair.  With these conversations she forces him to face up to parts of his life he has doubts about and revisit adventures and escapades of his youth and his search for his father who abandoned the family when he and his brother were small.

Those of us who are old enough to remember Myra Hindley and Ian Brady and the Moors Murders in the 60's will also remember the horror and revulsion felt by all as we realised that one of the perpetrators of the torture and death of these children was a woman.  Ian Brady, though despised and hated, did not receive the full force of the anathema and outrage felt by everyone and though her release was mooted on occasion, the loathing for this murderer was so deep that it was felt she could never be allowed into society again.  It is against this background that this book must be read.  I remember the events portrayed here that occurred after her death.  The armed guard on her body, the search to find a funeral parlour who would deal with the cremation (many refused to have her body under their roof), the closely guarded ceremony and her ashes taken away under police escort.  It was an unsettling time as she took secrets to her grave and some of the parents of those children murdered all those years ago, were left not knowing their final resting place.

An odd, slightly creepy story, atmospheric and disturbing. I could not put it down but half way through wished I could.

Unjustly neglected

An article about EM Delafield appeared in the Independent the other day and, though brief with not a huge amount of background, I am linking this into my post here so that, hopefully, anybody out there who only know her for Diary of a Provincial Lady will be spurred to seek further and track down her books in secondhand bookshops.

While the Provincial Lady is unsurpassed and one of my favourite all time books, she wrote many others and the themes and topics contained are as relevant today as they were then, albeit in changing circumstances.  My daughter Helen had 'Faster Faster' by EMD on her recommended 'if you can get hold of a copy reading list' for her thesis (soon to be published and I will be boring the pants off everyone - just thought I would warn you so you can flee the country now...), and my street cred shot up several hundred notches when I received a call 'Mum have you heard of this book at all?' and was able to say in a very off hand careless sort of way 'Oh yes I have a copy on my shelves'

Another writer, also Unustly Neglected, is Dorothy Whipple.  I posted about her at some length some months ago now so will not repeat all I said.  If you wish to have a look at this earlier blog entry the link is  here. As a huge fan of DW I was delighted to receive a link this morning from Adele Geras who has written a very perceptive article on this author for Normblog and as I really enjoyed reading it, would encourage you to nip over to http://normblog.typepad.com/ and have a look (am having trouble with the link so just scroll down a bit please!)

Had never heard of these writers until about ten years ago and the list of books which I still have to track down and locate by these authors, adds a certain zest to bookshop hunting.

Lots of clicking this morning on links but wanted to share with you all.