Random Jottings

A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan Bradley

This arrived through my letterbox a week or so ago and I gather this is the third Flavia de Luce mystery so how I have missed the other two beats me as I read this in one sitting and simply loved it.

Flavia de Luce, and what a wonderful name for a heroine, is eleven years old and is having her fortune told by a gypsy at the Bishop's Lacey village fete.  The old woman claims to see a vision of Flavia's mother, Harriet, who died on a mountainside in Tibet when Flavia was a baby and she is trying to come home. Well, to have an eleven year old eccentrically named heroine is a good start, but then to discover she had a mother who vanished in Tibet is even more intriguing and I decided that this book was going to be for me.

Flavia is determined to find out what lies behind this vision and, after knocking over a candle and accidentally setting fire to the fortune teller's tent, decides to take the gypsy back to the grounds of her home, Buckshaw, where she can camp and stay and Flavia can talk to her about her mother.  However, when Flavia goes to see her next it is to find she has been brutally attacked and left for dead. Shortly afterwards another body is found - this time hanging bizarrely from a fountain in the grounds and things are beginning to get a bit too close for comfort and Flavia decides she has to use her precocious detection powers to unravel the truth.  

Not only does this heroine have a wonderful name and character but she also rides a bicycle called Gladys which also endeared her to me ('the bicycle had once been called 'Hirondelle', the Swallow, a word that reminded me so much of being force fed cod-liver oil with a gag inducing spoon, that I had renamed her Gladys. Who, for goodness sake wants to ride a bicycle with aname like a sick room nurse?') - she has a spiky sense of humour and a quick mind which she certainly needs to ward off the sarcastic comments and unkindness of her sisters, Daphne and Ophelia (Daffy and Feely) a totally self centred and obnoxious pair who seem to delight in making Flavia's life a misery.

There is something very endearing about Flavia, a dauntlessness about her which keeps her going no matter how depressed and unhappy she may be feeling and she has a wonderfully philosophical  outlook on life.   I was very fond of her by the time I had finished Alan Bradley's book which, though I may not have given this impression, is very funny as well as being compassionate and exciting.   He has a wonderful knack of describing a character so that you immediately know what they look like and how they are.

Take Tilda Mountjoy - 'Miss Mountjoy was the retired Librarian in Chief of the Bishop's Lacey Free Library where, it was said, even the books had lived in fear of her.  Now, with nothing but time on her hands, she had become a freelance terror'

Her sister, Ophelia - "Feely was seventeen and ranked herself right up there with the Blessed Virgin mary, although the chief difference between them, I'm willing to bet, is that the BVM doesn't  spend twenty three hours a day peering at herself in a looking glass while picking away at her face with a pair of tweezers"

I found this narrative style very engaging and its gentle humour made this reader relish every sentence and just enjoy the pleasure of reading good writing.  Difficult to put into words just why this writing is so good - it just IS and is indefinable.  Good writing is just to easy to read whereas bad and clunky narrative is pain inducing and hard work.   Goes without saying that I now need to get hold of the other earlier two Flavia stories and read them as well and I cannot understand how I have missed out on these.  My thanks to Orion for correcting my mistake.

One other thing I must mention that popped into my mind within ten minutes of meeting the characters and their location - I capture the Castle by Dodie Smith - the settings and characters are so similar.  A bright sparky and clear sighted younger sister with two older siblings and a widowed father all living in a crumbling house with shut up rooms and in dire financial straits - surely Alan Bradley must have read this book and been influenced by it, I just could not get away from it all the time I was reading A Red Herring without Mustard.

About ten years ago I attended a large birthday party which was held in a huge crumbling old house in Essex, the name of which now escapes me.  The building was magnificent in its decaying grandeur, huge hall with a fireplace you could roast the proverbial ox in, a toilet that was like a throne all blue and white splendour, radiators that could have graced the Titanic and barely emitted enough heat to take the chill off the huge rooms, a gloriously shabby main room with faded and spotted mirrors lining the panelled walls which made one look soft and beautiful in the light - well, it was I capture the Castle to the life and I was entranced by it all.  It was not until the party was nearly over that I mentioned this to a fellow guest and was stunned to receive the reply 'Oh yes Dodie Smith used to live in the village and used to visit the house' - blimey I thought, here is the original of the Castle in the book.

OK well that has nothing whatsoever to do with this book which is sheer delight but just thought I would sling it in for your edification....

Random Round Up

Neat little pile of books here awaiting my reviewing attention and am a bit bogged down so I am going to review a few in one post so that I don't fall behind.

The Perfect Hero - Victoria Connelly.

Kay Ashton runs a Bed and Breakfast in the seaside town of Lyme Regis (yes, the one where Louisa Musgrove fell!) and is fairly gobsmacked when the cast and crew of a new production of Persuasion descent upon her.  The actor playing Captain Wentworth, one Oli Wade Owen (where did the author get that name from?) is the latest heart throb and she is thrilled to bits that he is actually sleeping under her own roof.

Seems the leading actor, with whom Kay Ashton falls madly in love, has not the integrity of Wentworth himself and he embarks on a brief affair with Kay and we all know it is going to end in tears and so it does. But lurking in the background we have a real Captain Wentworth, the producer Adam Craig, who is content to wait for his love to realise his true worth and fall into his arms. Bit like faithful old Dobbin in Vanity Fair really.

Does she? Well, is Richard Armitage gorgeous?   Delightfully light hearted and amusing book and a must for all those of us who love Jane and, in particular, Frederick Wentworth by far and away my favourite Austen hero. Yes, I know but Darcy is a bit of a pain let's face it....

The Last Enemy - Grace Brophy

Given to me by a friend who thought I might enjoy it and so I did in a subfusc sort of way. Set in and around Assisi and featuring Commisario Alessandro Cenni (doesn't Commissario sound better than Chief Inspector?) who is rather charismatic and gorgeous, he is set to solve the mystery of a woman found dead in a crypt. She looks as if she has been raped but it seems not, the murderer has arranged the body to make it look that way.  The victim is a niece of a local aristocratic family with connections so the police have to tiptoe round it all, cue lots of haughty put downs from Counts and Countesses.  Fun read, nothing exceptional and I notice on the back there is a quote "fans of Donna Leon will be ecstatic to find a kindred spirit in Grace Brophy" which I think is overstating it just a tad.  Mildly interesting yes, ecstatic, no.

Drawing Conclusions - Donna Leon

And here we have the real thing and I tried to put off reading this for a day or two so I caould prolong the anticipation but gave up almost straight away and plonked myself down and read. 

A young woman returns from holiday and finds her elderly neighbour dead and calls the police. On the face of it she appears to have died from natural causes and the autopsy shows that, yes, her death was the result of a heart attack.  However, Guido Brunetti finds marks on her shoulders that show she may not have been alone when she died and though he is not sure if this is a murder case or not, he decides to investigate.  Brunetti talks to her neighbours, her son and the nuns and residents of an old age home where the victim volunteered to find out if there was anybody who would wish to do her harm.  He learns that people 'talk to her' and tell her their secrets and it is the knowledge that has been divulged to her that may have led to her death.

This is a quieter more philosophical book than others in the Leon canon, when reading I found I was comparing it in style and flow to the Sunday Philosophy Club books of Alexander McCall Smith, in its serenity and gentle narrative style.   I loved reading it as I have all her others and only wish she would write two or three a year, but like La Serenissima, Ms Leon goes her quiet understated way.

PS I hate to say this but it has been creeping up on me for some time.  I am beginning to find Brunetti's Henry James addicted, cooker of superb meals every single day wife, Paola, a tad irritating.....

Stories - All new tales edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantino

I am not a lover of short stories as you know and cannot say I particularly loved this book, but I found it quirky and fun in places and spooky in others. Joanne Harris has a story in this collection 'Wildfire in Manhatten' which tells the tale of ancient gods living in New York, bit creepy; 'Unwell' by Carolyn Parkkurst is about sibling rivalry and I found the ending unsettling and odd; 'Fossil Figures' by Joyce Carol Oates tells the tale of a demon brother feeding off his lesser sibling from the womb onwards - definitely horrid and one by Neil Gaiman himself 'The Truth is a cave in the Black Mountains' which really freaked me out.  This is a mixture of styles and tales which will appeal to your dark side, if you have one, and brilliant though they were in narrative, writing and content, they left me feeling a bit uneasy and with a tendency to check under my bed before switching the light out.....

And finally:

Disgrace and Desire - Sarah Mallory

A historical regency novel sent to me by the author who has obviously twigged that I love a good romance and a wallow and this was perfect.  Dashing Jack Clifton, a friend of Lord Allyngham who was killed at Waterloo, returns to London a year after his death to return some mementos to his widow, Eloise.  He has vowed to watch over his late comrade's wife but, of course, finds her incredibly exciting and falls in love with her.  It seems that the lady has acquired a reputation, the Wanton Widow, and is besieged by admirers on all sides but she seems to have eyes only for her childhood friend, Alex Mortimer.   But all is not as it seems and the lady is hiding a secret which she dare not reveal to the ton. So what is it and can Major Clifton and she be happy together?

Again, is Richard Armitage gorgeous? Silly question.  Loved it and spent a wallowing couple of hours reading and enjoying.

OK that is it for the moment.  I felt so guilty about all these books piling up and not having written about them and I have another five or six to write about as well, but as I am now off to London for the weekend with my family and to babysit my gorgeous Florence, they will have to wait.

Have a good weekend all Random Visitors.

And the winner is....

Henry hasn't done a prize draw for a while and was thrilled to bits when I asked him to put his paw into a bowl and choose two names for me, and when he heard it was for Return to the Olive Farm he insisted on having relevant props to hand so here he is with his olive oil and his crostini...

And the two winners are:

Joan Kyler

Danya

Congratulations to you both and if you could email me offblog with your mail address I will get these off to you as soon as possible.

Enjoy!

Return to the Olive Farm - Carol Drinwater - Give away

Will be drawing this later on today so anybody who wishes to leave their name, please do so in the next 7 hours to be in with a chance.

Go on, you know it makes sense.....

Only Time will Tell - Jeffrey Archer

Anyone who remembers the Thatcher years and the excesses of the 80's will remember Jeffrey Archer.  An MP who had to resign because he went bankrupt and who then wrote a best seller to restore his fortune, his Shepherd's Pie and Krug parties at his penthouse in the Barbican attended by the glitterati of the day, the trial for libel when he got away with lying to the court as the judge could not believe that Archer would go with a prostitute when he had his wife Mary ('Is she not fragrant?' became the quote of the year) to make love to, the revelation years later that he had lied in court and he was then carted off to jail during which time he wrote a Prison Diary which sold thousands when he came out...oh the list goes on and on.  He has been quiet for a while but now he has appeared on the horizon once more with a new series of books The Clifton Chronicles, of which Only Time will Tell is the first volume.

According to the blurb on the proof copy sent to me by Macmillan 'the Clifton Chronicles will span the twentieth century from 1919 onwards....Only Time will tell is as compelling as the Forsyte Sage and as powerful as Kane and Abel (one of his earlier titles).  A huge advertising campaign is under foot including a bus ride around Bristol to which I was invited and to which I would have gone if it had been nearer, and a Global Campaign with full author tour and feature coverage.  Wow, they are certainly pulling out all the stops on this one.

I have read one Jeffrey Archer and that was Not a Penny Less, Not a Penny More, the book which restored him to financial security after his bankruptcy and have to say that I was distinctly underwhelmed.  I read some of his short stories some years later which I remember being impressed with but since then nothing.  So when this dropped through my letter box I really did not know what to expect.

Well, I loved it.  I have heard all the rumours that seven editors or more sit down with seven pens and rewrite Archer's books and was never sure if this was true or not, or just one of those apocryphal stories that do the rounds, but I did rather sheer away from his output because of this.   Read this through in one sitting and if ever the phrase a 'page-turner' was the right description, then it certainly is applicable here.

Harry Clifton is the son of a docker who had died in mysterious circumstances, and his mother is struggling to bring him up in dire poverty.   Harry is fascinated by the docks, plays truant from school and doesn't seem to have much going for him.  But he is the possessor of a beautiful, treble voice and this leads him to a choral scholarship at a posh school where he meets and befriends two companions who are going to influence his future life.  One of these is Giles Barrington, son of a wealthy businessman and owner of the docks where Harry's father died.   As soon as we meet Hugo Barrington and see his reaction to Harry, the reader already knowing that his mother might have had an affair with him, we are left in no doubt as to the possibilities for intrigue and underhand machinations ahead of us.  And so it proves.

The story is told from several viewpoints, Harry, his mother Maisie, Hugo, Old Jack Tar (a mysterious and educated man who is one of Harry's supporters but who lives a reclusive life), Giles Barrington and his sister Emma.    Not a huge amount of characterisation or details given in this book, the protagonists are there for one purpose only and that is to be the hook for the story line and to be moved around accordingly.   The plot turns are signalled well ahead and are easy to spot before they even happen and the ending of this first volume entirely predictable, but this did not lessen my enjoyment in any way.  It is a rattling good yarn, with pacy narrative and once started, almost impossible to put down.  In some ways it reminded me of Catherine Cookson when she was writing at her very best (Katie Mulholland being a title that came into my mind when reading this), before she became too formulaic and we had 'trouble t'mill' and thieving landowners and weeping virgins en masse, and this is not meant to be a slight in any way at all, au contraire.  Good story telling is what this book has in abundance and I think it is going to sell millions, be a TV mini-series and bounce Mr Archer back into the limelight. Good for him.

Apropos of nothing, when Archer went to jail he was abandoned by all his Tory friends, no surprise there then, but one person who did stand by him (not only Mrs Thatcher) was John Major who did not turn his back even though being a friend of Jeffrey was not good for any career at the time.  I admired him enormously for that, sticking with your friends when they are in trouble, even self inflicted and deserved as this was, is true loyalty.  Many members of the Establishment sneered at John Major when he became PM and mocked him and yet I remember the day he was defeated in the polls and left No 10, he turned up on the Member's Balcony at Lord's Cricket ground in the afternoon, pint of beer in hand and enjoying the Test Match.   That man has got his priorites right I thought at the time.

I think Sir John as he now is would enjoy Only Time will Tell and do hope that Jeffrey has sent him a copy....

A Discovery of Witches - Deborah Harkness

"The leather bound volume was nothing remarkable. To an ordinary historian it would have looked no different from hundreds of other manuscripts in Oxford's Bodleian Library, ancient and worn, but I knew there was something odd about it from the moment I collected it"

This is the opening paragraph of A Discovery of Witches and ah this sound promising I thought.  This manuscript has been asked for by Diana Bishop, a historian and, as she touches the leather 'a mild shock made me withdraw my fingers quickly, but not quickly enough,  the tingling travelled up my arms...."  Why? Well, apart from being a historian, Diana is a witch of impeccable lineage, the last of the Bishop witches from America.  She has renounced her heritage and has created a life which depends on reason and scholarly abilities, not hunches and spells.  She was in Oxford to complete a research project and, unknowingly, has summoned up a manuscript which is bound by a spell.  Once the spell has been let loose Diana finds herself surrounded by witches, demons and vampires all preying on her as all, unknowingly, she has led them to this document, No 782.

She is in danger and in need of a protector who appears in the unlikely form of a Vampire, and a Vampire geneticist at that, one Matthew Clairmont, and he is a spot on Mills & Boon hero - "broad shoulders narrowed into slender hips, which flowed into lean muscular legs. His hands were strikingly long and agile, a mark of physiological delicacy that made your eyes drift back to them.....his face was striking, all distinct planes and surfaces, with high angled cheek bones.....but the most unnerving thing about him was not his physical perfection it was his feral combination of strength, agility and keen intelligence....he looked like a panther that could strike at any moment..."

Phew I thought no wonder Diana is attracted to him.  BUT as I said he is a vampire and witches and vampires are forbidden to fall in love with one another or become involved in any relationship at all, and it is clear there will be tears before bedtime.

Now at this stage of the book, I was thinking this is going to be good, I am really going to enjoy this, but then came a slackening off of my interest, the pace slowed down to funereal and I started skimming pages, always a bad sign.  However, I decided to persevere as I felt that I had had such a promising start that I would enjoy it, I would....

And yes I did in the end, but lots of longueurs along the way.  I had recently re-read and reviewed HP and the Deathly Hallows a book of equal length to that of Deborah Harkness, and felt very strongly that the middle section could have done with some pretty strong culling.   A Discovery of Witches is another example of a book that would have been improved with some editing, in my opinion of course, I hasten to add, not laying down ground rules here.  The author is a historian of science and a professor of history at the University of Southern California and is obviously a pretty brainy lady, but this reader did begin to feel that she was the recipient of a lecture on DNA and alchemy that went on way too long.  Great chunks of this which, quite frankly, were incredibly boring and the skipping began again.  In between all of this, the love story between Diana and Matthew grows in intensity and this is the core of the book which was in danger of getting lost in all this scientific information.  Now I will admit freely that vampire books are not my thing, I find them distinctly creepy, but what saved it for me was the fact that Matthew is a few hundred years old, knew Christopher Marlowe, met Shakespeare, has pithy things to say about Washington and other presidents and it is all wittily done and fascinating.

"Did you know Jefferson?"  " I knew Washington better, he was a soldier - a man who let his actions speak for him. Jefferson was full of words"

An awful lot of dreadful things happen to Diana along the way, captured by wicked witches who torture her to find out what she knows about the mysterious document she unearthed in the Bodleian, thrown down an oubliette from which she is rescued, highly improbably and in the nick of time, by Matthew and is then forced to learn and practice her long rejected skill in witchcraft to withstand these attacks upon her.

The last part of the book when she and Matthew seek refuge with her family back in America picks up speed and we then fairly charge towards the finishing line as Diana and Matthew realise they have to time travel and go back in time in order to hide from the fate that awaits them, back to the reign of Elizabeth I.

"I can smell the quinces" our new life was already calling to me. "Remember don't let go, no matter what"

Home I thought. My heart tugged with longing. An unfamiliar bell tolled the hours. There was a warm sense of fire against my skin and the air filled with scents of lavender, beeswax and ripe quince. "It's time".  Together we lifted our feet and stepped into the unknown'

A few years ago I read a book called The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  Lots of publicity, lots of PR and it all started off in a very similar fashion, with vampires and witches and mysterious libraries and dark corners and all exciting and gripping.   Then, another dip as it went on and on, more scary moments in more libraries, all over the world this time, endless narrow escapes from dark shadows etc until I leapt forward and read the, frankly, unbelievable ending.  I totally lost patience with it and was pleased to see that my daughter, to whom I had given my copy, reacted the same way so that I knew it wasn't just me.

I thought of this book when I read A Discovery of Witches as I had the sinking feeling that my pattern of reading was going to be the same, and so it proved.  A good start, a slowing down, huge dip in the middle, and then we were up and off towards the denouement.   A bumpy ride all through and I really had to persevere in order to finish.  However, I am glad I did.   Still find the whole vampire bit a bit stomach turning and a bit too much detail about the hunting and drinking of blood, but in the end, this is a love story and I am a sucker for a good romance. OK it is covered up with far too much verbiage and a few too many 'with one bound she was free' moments, but it was fascinating enough to keep me going and, on balance, I think I have to say that I enjoyed it.

The reader can either take the ending as the finish and that is it, or, which I suspect is more likely, there will be a second book in due course.   The two main characters of Diana and Matthew, with their background and history, have been well drawn and presented to us so strongly that I cannot think Deborah Harkness will be able to give them up. (Have just checked and see it is the first of a trilogy)

So I look forward with interest to the second and hope it is a little easier to love than this one.  

Has anybody else read this and, if so, could you let me have your thoughts on same - I know it has been mooted around the blogsphere and I have already read one post which also mentions The Historian, which just shows that some of us are on the same wave length when it comes to A Discovery of Witches.   I don't like giving negative reviews of books as you know. If I don't care for a particular title I tend to keep stum, but I will admit I have very mixed feelings about this one so thoughts from any other readers would be most welcome.

One Book, Two Book, Three Book, Four... and Five...

Another idea nicked from Stuck in a Book but as Simon says please do it, then I am conscience free.  SO here goes:

1    The book I'm currently reading. 

Well, I have two on the go.  First up, Only Time will Tell by Jeffrey  Archer.  I have never read a book by this author in my life but certainly know a lot about him as he had certainly had a colourful career.   This is the first in a projected series The Clifton Chronicles and so far is a rattling good yarn and am enjoying it very much.

The second is A Red Herring without Mustard by Alan Bradly featuring an eleven year old detective, Flavia de Luce, all very Dodie Smith and great fun.

2    Last book I read. 

A Discovery of Witches which I will be reviewing very soon.

3    The next book I want to read

The Hand of Fatima by Idelfonso Falcones.  I loved his Cathedral by the Sea and am so looking forward to this one.

 4    Last Book I bought

The latest Donna Leon - Drawing Conclusions.  Love these books set in Venice, love Brunetti and I have all of these on my shelves and no Kindle acquisition here - I want the really thing and it is on its way to me from Amazon as I write this.

5   Last Book I was given 

By coincidence this came from Simon of Stuck in a Book and it is The Unbearable Bassington. A glorious discovery and a wonderful piece of writing.

Simon has encouraged other bloggers to carry out this rather charming exercise so please do and leave a link in the comments so that we can all share.

Beautiful day here in Colchester and went down to the beach today with a friend who was staying with me and a walk and a paddle under blue skies - lovely.

 

A Random Hair Cut

I have just finished reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, a tome weighing in at over 500 pages and will be reviewing and posting for Monday.  I know over the weekend that Random Visitors drop off, better things to do of course, so if I have a review coming  up in which I have a lot to say, I save it till the start of the week.

A friend of mine is coming down for the weekend and we are going to chat, gossip, watch DVD's and generally chill so won't be logging onto Random probably until Sunday evening.

OK one thing I have to mention as I have had so many emails about this, as well as comments on Facebook, is yes I have had my hair cut.   I am quite astonished about the reaction to this as I had forgotten that I had it done while in Australia.   Within 24 hours of arriving the heat and humidity made it stand up round my head and turned it into an unmanageable mess unless I blew dry and tonged etc and as I was swimming and walking and getting hot and showering about 3 times a day this was a pain.  Off I hied me into town within 48 hours of landing and had all those locks which I had grown all throughout the winter,chopped off and glad I was to see the back of them.  I had a brilliant cut and was thrilled to bits with it and decided to maintain this style on my return and when I went to my hairdresser yesterday to have the old roots done and an inch or so off I asked him to use straighteners on it instead of the usual round brush. It was therefore smoother and looked much shorter than hitherto, and looked so different from the way I usually wear it that everyone has thought I have only just been shorn.

I was so pleased with the result that I took lots of pics of me in various outfits and poses grinning like an idiot at my digital camera, an awful lot of them were deleted I can assure you as being unfit for human consumption, but I managed to come up with a few I was happy with.  I loathe having my photo taken and tend to freeze into a granite faced harridan or grin like a lunatic when the lens is pointed towards me, so doing it myself at home, where I could giggle at myself, was much better. 

So my thanks to you all who have paid me compliments and have asked about my hair cut and wanted to know all about it - did not realise that putting a new photo up would cause such a furore.  

Normal service will be resumed on Random as soon as possible.  This is a book blog after all................

Return to the Olive Farm by Carol Drinkwater - Giveaway

You will see from my earlier post, here, that I appear to have Carol as a friend on Facebook - not quite sure how or why, but it is delightful to read her posts, hear direct all about the Olive Farm, her family and friends and how things are going alongside my reading of her trilogy about her life in France. 

Return to the Olive Farm is now out in paperback and Orion have very kindly given me two copies which are up for grabs from any Random Reader who would like to read this lovely book.  Just leave your name in the comments below and I will make the next week to give you plenty of time to enter.

As well as being an accomplished actress, Carol is a wonderful writer and has achieved best selling status with her Olive Farm series. She is currently working with UNESCO on a documentary series inspired by her books The Olive Route and the Olive Tree so do keep an eye out for this.  If you check out her website at http://www.caroldrinkwater.com/ there is a video trailer and details of the Olive Farm, with pics, etc.

I will post anywhere in the world, though if you are pony trekking in Tibet or following penguins in the Antarctic then I might have a problem, but other than that, sure the Post Office can manage to find you....

 

Odd ramble

Sun still shining though breezy and, all in all, we have been really lucky this Bank Holiday weekend and I am sure all the crowds in the streets for the Wedding are very relieved too.

After all the excitement things getting back to normal now and I am back to my usual habit of avoiding the news on the radio and TV and, yes I know it is cowardly and I am sticking my head in the sand, but really it is just so depressing that I now tend only to read the papers or on line which stops my blood pressure rising quite so much.

Having a quiet day today but one thing I have to mention here on Random is a little anecdote about the  wedding coverage.   This has already been mentioned by a friend of mine over on Facebook and I was sure she would spot it, and she did, but must put it here.   I turned over from the BBC coverage which ranged from the portentous (Huw Evans) to the mind stoppingly shriekingly banal (Ferne Cotton anyone?), and stayed with ITV who, very wisely, eschewed all advertising breaks for the day.   I do wonder what they would have advertised if they had booked time (suggestions please....).

Philip Schofield who was the lynch pin is a fun presenter.  He used to do children's programmes years ago and when my girls were tiny he used to be on the BBC, in a cupboard with Gordon the Gopher who was  source of perennial delight to the McCarthy family.  He is all grown up now but still, for me anyway, retains a casual and relaxed charm and an easy manner in front of the cameras and is not irritating.  Others will disagree I know.

He was interviewing Michael Roux, an English based French chef and they were talking about wine and food and looking out of the studio window at the Mall, when Michael said 'Everyone back home in France is so jealous of all this wonderful pageantry and wonders why we cannot do it' and the reply from Philip, as he leaned forward confidentially, was 'because you keep chopping off their heads'............

Perfect.

And, of course, you gotta love this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDaLPUAHc4E