Random Jottings

Freezing Friday

Blimey it's cold.   I am sure that compared to Siberia and deepest Russia it is as balmy as a summer's day but not in my opinion.   One of the benefits of living in a small apartment is that one can warm it up very quickly and at the moment I have the heating on, curtains drawn, doors shut and it is pretty cosy, in fact think I may have to turn the thermostat down soon as I am beginning to glow nicely.

Busy week. On Monday I went up to London and met up with Simon from Stuck in a Book as we had both received an invitation to attend an evening by the Folio Society. It was held at the Guardian office in the foyer and all very nice, mulled wine to warm us up and canapes which were laid out and vanished with the speed of light so that by the time I got to the table all I could salvage was a forlorn mini-pastry stuffed full of cream cheese which I promptly dropped on the floor. Had to grab a waiter (Such Fun!) to mop it up quick as it was a marbley type flooring and highly slippery and if anybody had put their foot on this they would have exited stage right pretty quickly.

So recovered from that mishap and then we had a chat by one of the illustrators of the new Folio edition of Pinocchio.   I remember trying to read this book as a child, totally taken by the lovely cover and illustrations and then of course you read it and find it is pretty obnoxious and dark and guaranteed to scare small children witless.  All that Victorian keeping children in their place, OK Collodi was Italian but same feeling behind it. Another such book which made me feel uneasy in my childhood reading was the Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, all those boys being stuffed up chimneys.   Shudder.

Anyway, interesting little chat and when Simon and I left we were given a bag with a lovely Folio notebook inside, much to nice to use and will probably sit on my shelves along with other equally lovely notebooks which I seem to have amassed and have never used but which are good to look at.

A cold evening and a long way to go for just an hour but I was delighted to see Simon who I was supposed to have met the previous week at the Persephone lecture and was stricken.   Glad to get home and, as I made the journey by train, I was thankful all over again after looking at the grey, worn faces of the commuters, that I don't Do this ANY more!

Up to London again on Wednesday to see Helen and my darling girls and in the afternoon we went out to the park. Florence running around soon warm and rosy cheeked, Beatrice snuggled up in her cocoon in the buggy fast asleep, Mother and Grandmother freezing.  Had tea in a lovely warm cafe and then walked back to the house by which time my left knee, which is a tad arthritic, had seized up and was causing me discomfort. By the time I got home it was extremely painful and I could barely straighten it to off to bed with hot water bottle, electric blanket, wheat bag heated up in the microwave and lashings of embrocation.  A combination not to be adopted if you live with somebody else or are expecting company as it is extremely unwelcoming.   Knocked back some Nurofen and this morning getting better and I can now stagger about.   Who was it said that getting old was not for sissies?   Whoever it was, was right.

So today and for the next few days, indoors, wrapping up a parcel to send to Kathryn and sorting a few things out. Good to be in the warm and cosy. And best of all, I have booked my flight to Australia - have been faffing about for ages, going online, doing searches, tracking down prices until my head was spinning. Flights have become so much more expensive since 2011 when I first went.   Travelling economy as I really feel that Premium Economy is not worth the money and as I was as uncomfortable in that as in bog standard economy, decided to grit it out and not waste my dosh on what is basically a slightly wider seat. Food and movies etc are the same though you get nice cutlery in Premium, no sign of plastic knives and forks. I can only assume that they feel if you are in this class you are unlikely to murder somebody or hijack the plane....

In the end have booked to fly with Emirates in one of their new two tier planes (how do they get it off the ground is a worry) and, with the visa required for Oz, no much change out of £1k which is a bit scary. I could have got cheaper but then I would have been flying with Outer Mongolian Airlines or Libya Jet (ok I made those up but you get my drift) or some such and was not prepared to risk it.   It will all be worth it when I get to the other end and there will be Kathryn.

Oh and so delighted was I that I had booked the flight that I announced it to my online reading group and said I was going 'for sex weeks'.   Well, I can live in hope.....

Au reservoir.

Epistolary Delights

I do love books written in the form of letters.  The character of the writer, be it fictional or not, comes through so beautifully with no need to tell us, the reader, anything about them at all.   If a fictional letter writer this needs writing of the highest order to achieve.   I have recently re-read Henrietta sees it Through by Joyce Dennys  (a sequel to Henrietta's War reviewed here) and simply have to mention it again.   Have checked out my earlier post in which this was mentioned and here is what I said then.  I see no reason to change a word.

"I found the Admiral on our doorstep.  As soon as I saw his face I knew that something must have happened to Teddy their youngest son in France.............Mrs Admiral was quite calm but her face looked different.   She sat on the kitchen chair and picked up the corner of her apron and examined it closely. 'I keep thinking about him when he was a little boy' she said in a careful voice. 'We're not telling anyone because of the croquet this afternoon. We can't let anybody down"

....some visitors from the hotel wandered into the club....'My dear croquet!' said the Lady Visitor 'and bowls too, how sweet. Of course these people simply don't know there is a war on"

The Admiral dropped his pipe on the grass.  As he stooped to pick it up he laid his hand for a moment on Mrs Admiral's knee"

I welled up when reading this and welled up again just now when writing.

Just simply wonderful and a portrayal of the quiet indomitable English way of country life that just, well, got on with it during the war.  Sad thing is that Lady B, a simply delightful and lovable character, says that after the War is over we should all 'mix more'and not just pull apart after everyone has joined together so well in fighting the common enemy.  This immediately made me think of the Village by Marghanita Laski where, sadly, we see exactly what happens to the class divisions the minute VE Day is over.  An absorbing book and read in conjunction with Joyce Dennys makes for sobering thoughts.

Note: The Village is published by Persephone and is a wonderful study of how the old class divisions rear their ugly heads once the war is over and the unifying factor vanishes.

Then, by coincidence, the next book I picked up this week is Dear Lupin which are letters between a father and his son.   Anybody who has read Diary of a Nobody will pick up on the Lupin reference immediately and the likeness between Lupin and Charlie Mortimer, the son in this book, is exactly exactly what you would expect.    Roger Mortimer was born in 1909 and came from a pretty well off family. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Coldstream guards. He fought in WW2 and was at Dunkirk, later captured and spent the remainder of his war years in a camp prison. After the war he became racing correspondent of the Sunday Times until his retirement.  He seems to have been endlessly mordantly witty with a rather jaundiced but still hopeful view of life and, though his son obviously disappointed him, his affection never abated nor did his financial help, and he sent Charlie letters throughout his life.   If Charlie had been my son I would probably have murdered him so impatient would I have become with his fecklessness, but Roger never did and, as the years passed, became resigned to his way of life.

I could quote the entire book to you as an illustration of the flavour of these letters as it is difficult to pull out some plums as they are all wonderful, but here are a few:

On being moved in a luncheon car in a train: "waiter says 'There's a young honeymoon couple who don't want to be separated and your table would do them nicely. Would you mind moving?.........shifted with ill grace to leave to table to a very dirty young man with a beard like black cotton wool and a dark lady with the promising beginnings of a heavy cavalry moustache.  They may not want to be separated now I thought, but I bet they soon will be....'

and

'Aunt Shirley accompanied by her nurse companion, had to stay three nights in a hotel in Dorset last week. Unfortunately Aunt had to get up several times in the night. Each time she went back to the wrong room and the climax came when she climbed into a bed already occupied by a honeymoon couple. The manager asked her to leave next morning'.

and

'Have you considered the church? There is much to be said for the quiet life of a country curate. Fortunately in the Church of England an ordained priest is not commited to any but the vaguest of beliefs....'

Priceless.

Both these books, one fiction (though pretty sure that Joyce Denys based a lot of her novel on real life) and non-fiction have in common that wonderful English eccentricity, that Wodehousian attitude to life, the famed stiff upper lip and the viewing of any mad and off the wall happening with an enviable sangfroid.   Loved both these books and on a dark miserable day when I had to pull the curtains at 3.30pm and put on the lights, they warmed my heart beautifully.

Both of them so, well, so British......

Strictly Come Dancing - the final stages

You know Christmas is almost here because we are now in the countdown to the final of Strictly so time for me to update you on my thoughts on same.

I adore Brucie, always have done, but am beginning to feel it is time he went.   He is getting more and more doddery and cannot read the autocue properly and is hamstrung by the ghastly script. When he ad libs he is so much better.   Difficult to imagine Strictly without him but we are getting there.   Tess - well what can one say about somebody so vacuous and banal. Nothing. So I won't.    Claudia on the Results show - please darling get your fringe cut and stop blinking through it as if you were a 15 year old Cilla Black. Also wear a decent dress now and then (ditto Tess - her monstrosity tonight - words fail); Memo: Claudia standing with your toes turned in and adopting an air of faux winsomeness does not sit well on a woman of forty or so.

Right over to the dancers.

Louis and Flav - he may be an Olympian, have superb muscles and a wonderful physique but he has the charisma and charm of a newt.  Flavia, who must have felt she had hit pay dirt when she was given him, is getting more and more exasperated by the week.  His mum turns up at rehearsals with baked beans for him which must make afternoon rehearsals fun.

Michael and Natalie - love him. Biased because I remember every single bat and ball of the 2005 Ashes series when he captained the England team, but I do think he has a very engaging personality, works hard, is endearing and has turned into a surprising dancer.   His American Smooth last week at Wembley was pure show biz.  He seems quite taken with his partner....

Dani and Vinthent- if I hear one more reference to them being small, Smurfs or Munchkins I shall scream. Tess, in particular, adopts a teeth grating condescension when she speaks to Dani as if she were talking to a 12 year old and surprised Dani hasn't socked her by now. Vinthent is so in love with himself everything goes over his head anyway.   Great pairing though and great dancing.

Lisa and Robin - Rumba this week did not suit her at all though the got pretty good marks from the judges as I think they appreciated that she had done her best and they rather like her. So do I and am totally glad she got through.

James and Denise - well, these two charmless people really irritate. I have said it before and will say it again that if she wins it will be totally unfair.  This Oh I am really really nervous and I really really don't know how to dance pleading from Miss VO is a pain. She gets through week after week though I have yet to discover anybody in my wide circle of Strictly aficionados who like her or who admit to voting for her.   She and James really are excellent together and turn in beautiful routines but hardly a surprise.   And if she makes a phone gesture again to the camera when being interviewed by Tess I shall not be responsible for my actions.

Kimberley and Pasha - I like this pairing very much and find them both warm personalities with great charm and this comes across.  They get on well, like each other and are having fun and I hope she gets through to the final.

The Irish boy band singer whose name I can never remember as they all look the same to me and the new professional lady this year whose name has also escaped me. It's late and I cannot be bothered to look them up.   I have no feelings about this pair at all and usually make a cup of tea while they are on.

Victoria and Brendan - don't know who looked more relieved tonight when they were voted off, V or B.  Clear they have zilch chemistry, don't like each other and can't wait to see the back of each other. She barely tried this week and has the fluidity and natural grace of a broomstick.  And the constant tear welling up got a bit tedioso after a while and making that heart shape with her fingers, boooooooring.   The audience cheering tonight I swear was because they were glad to see the back of her and not because they were happy Michael was still there.   Should be interesting to see their interview on It takes Two tomorrow night, should rank alongside the one that Brendan did with Lulu last year when she talked for five minutes without stopping, did not look at her partner once and failed to thank him.   Laden with charm and modesty that woman.

So who will win?  Pretty sure that the judges would like to see Denise and James raise the glitterball at the end of the series, their preference is pretty clear and, at the moment, they have the power of veto in the dance off so even if she fell flat on her face and ended up in the dance off, they would save her. They did that for Brian and Ali a few years ago until the public got pissed off and managed to boot them out first opportunity they had.   I think the dance off ceases at the semi-final so it is up to the public then totally to choose who they want to go through and am hoping that Denise who has never danced on stage oh Chicago for a year doesn't count van Outen will then fox trot off into the distance.  Fingers crossed.

You can tell I am loving it can't you  'cos I am.

 

One shade of grey - Persephone Books

Bishop's Castle is a small market town in the Shropshire Marches. It is built on a hill and, being miles from anywhere, has a mood all of its own: hunkered, reticent and so amazingly unchanged that if a battalion of men suddenly marched down the high street on their way to the Somme, you'd hardly bat an eyelid. To visit is to be a kind of time traveller. Thanks to its tottering streets and its ancient hotel, it is unnervingly familiar. But only because you have read about places just like it in dusty novels and, quite possibly, the poems of AE Housman.

via www.guardian.co.uk

Great article, Please note Making of a Marchioness on TV on Boxing Day!

Reading catch up - Janet Evanovich and books to come

Still feeling wiped out so my post on Margaret Forster which requires some research for me will have to wait until next week.    I have been lolling around in a heap with a box of tissues and vapour rub and sneezing like a maniac and it is driving me POTTY and any reading which requires concentration is out of the question.

So the latest Stephanie Plum book, Notorious Nineteen, was just the thing I needed and I greeted it with cries of joy when it was delivered by my lovely postman who just laughs at me now when I open the door and he hands over yet 'More parcels'.

Very soothing to read Janet Evanovich as you know exactly what you are going to get and there are no surprises.   Stephanie and her side kick Lula are trying to track down Geoffrey Cubbin who is facing trial for embezzling millions from a posh living facility for senior citizens when he is rushed to hospital suffering from appendicitis.   When the nurses go to check on him they find an empty room and no sign of their patient.  As Vinnie has bonded him out Stephanie has to find him else the bond will be forfeit and everyone will be out of a job and on the streets.

Well the usual mayhem follows Stephanie around, exploding cars, shoot outs, rocket launchers through her apartment window, falling into a grave and, a new one this time, catching a 'skip' from a nudist beach in Atlantic City which means both she and Lula have to strip off.  No place to hide a stun gun though Lula comes up with an ingenious solution which I will not go into....

As always Stephanie is torn between the two men in her life, Morelli and the Ranger.  I have to say the Ranger does it for me every time and he would be the one I would choose, but the series has to have a sexual tension and this dilemma provides it.  So great fun, perhaps not quite up to the standard of earlier titles in this series but at Nineteen hardly suprising.  Wonder how long she can keep it going?

Books on the way at the moment and which I am eagerly awaiting are the latest Montalbano book by Andrea Camilleri and the Isabel Dalhousie series by McCall Smith. After a shaky start with Camilleri when I was not overwhelmed by them, I have now become totally addicted to them and cannot wait for each one to arrive.   I am getting slightly worried, from a purely selfish viewpoint, as the author is now getting on a bit and I wish him long life and health for obvious reasons.   The TV series is also wonderful and I have recorded the last one just recently shown on BBC4 (good old BBC4 - a wonderful channel) and have a few saved up yet to watch.  I shall allow myself one every now and then as a treat.

The Isabel Dalhousie books I have already written about on Random - I love the slow, leisurely reasoned way they unfold, no mad rush, just gentle and calming.  I have given up on the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series now as I rather feel they are now just a formula which AMS trots out and feel there is very little thought to them.  I am probably totally wrong.  All the other series set in Scotland Road etc I have also given up on as there is a certain sameness about them after a while. I appreciate that the Dalhousie series is the same but there is something about these that appeals to me so will stick with them.

Have been sent a lot of catalogues recently from lovely publishers asking if I would like to receive any titles for review - is the Pope Catholic?   I have to make a huge effort to restrain my greed and drooling which overcomes me when I search through all those wonderful titles.   Coming up next year another in the Detective Grace series by Peter James, the fifth in the series set in Amish Country by Linda Castillo which I love, another Camilleri due in March and have also spotted, with some delight, that Macmillan are reissuing all the James Herriot books.   I used to have all of these but my battered paperbacks vanished years ago and would love to read these again so a plea has gone in and we shall see if I am lucky.

Lots to read when my head clears a bit and I stop feeling as if I have gone ten rounds with Mike Tyson.   In the meantime I am turning to comfort reading so Gaudy Night or similar may have to come out again soon....

Au reservoir

Snivelly Wednesday

Sore throat, sneezing and snivelling today and generally feeling sorry for myself.  I hate being under the weather, no matter how trivial, and get really bad tempered especially when it means I have had to cancel a day in London tomorrow.  I was to meet good friends from my book group, have tea in the London Review Bookshop and then attend the Persephone lecture in the evening.  Instead I am sitting here ponging of Vick and wiping my streaming nose.   It is only a head cold and will go within the next 24 hours, pretty sure of that, but it is just irritating.

So my plans for posting today up the creek.   But I have spent a rather interesting afternoon reading one of Margaret Forster's early books, The Bride of Lowther Fell, which I suddenly decided to have a look at after, well must be twenty years, and sat and read it right through.   I love this author, think she is excellent and rather under appreciated in my opinion, so have decided to post all about her and hope to be well enough to do it tomorrow.

Another reason I am feeling rather melancholy at the moment is that yesterday I went to Mersea Island, here in Colchester, to be with the family of my lovely friend Sue who died earlier this year, as a tree was being planted at her grave.   She specified a woodland burial and at the funeral instead of a coffin coming in, which always sends a chill to my soul, she had the most beautiful wicker casket decorated with wreaths of spring  flowers.   The area where she was laid to rest will gradually revert to woodland and the Trust who run it plant a tree each year at those who have been buried there in the last twelve months.   It was a bleak day with scudding clouds and the wind blowing in across the estuary and while I was there, I thought of the opening scene in Great Expectations as it had the same lowering sky and greyness.   I felt such sadness while I was there, realising that I will never see Sue again and I really appreciated her daughter, Mary Lou, inviting me to attend.   We all had lunch together afterwards, hot soup which was much needed, and I was delighted to see Henry, Sue's grandson and to see what a lovely little boy he is, though I felt sorrow again that Sue was not there to delight in him, she loved him so much.

The combination of the snivel and the sadness have rather knocked me back today and I am glad to be indoors in the warm and to realise that, perhaps, it is a good thing I am not going up to town tomorrow.   I find these days that I need all the stamina I have to go to London, much though I love it and if I am not 100% no point in even trying it.

Off to bed in a bit with tea and paracetamol and hope to feel better tomorrow.

Thanks to all who entered for the Trollope give away and I only wish you could all have won a box set. I have another give away coming up soon, but this is purely for Romantic novel lovers as Mills & Boon have sent me a special set to offer up.   It won't have Obadiah Slope but sure to have some dashing heroes in it to cheer us all up, so watch this space.

Au reservoir.

Pallisers Box Set OUP Give Away and the winners are.....

 JAN CLEMSON in Canberra and TEJE ELLIS - across the pond but don't know the exact location.

Over 70 entries to this give away, one of the most popular I have ever done and my appreciative thanks to Oxford University Press World Classics who initially donated one box set and then when I begged for another one, agreed immediately.

I know I am always going on about this wonderful series of books but I love them so much am always glad of an opportunity to write about them.   I have collected classic paperbacks from other publishers but now I concentrate totally on those from OUP, not only because of the scholarship which goes into the introduction and the notes etc, but for the pleasure of looking at the gorgeous covers, and the feel of the paper.  The font is also clear and well spaced and as I get older and my eyesight not what it was, this is a huge help.

Do check out World Classics here and if you can resist purchasing one or two, then I will be surprised!

So JAN and TEJE please send me your postal address - if you click on the email me link on my blog you should be able to contact me or follow me on Facebook and leave a message for me there. Up to you.

Many many congratulations to you both and my thanks to all of those who took part and, of course to OUP.

Oh and in case you are wondering how I picked the winners I did it in a really really scientific way. Too many entries to write on and cut up slips of paper, so I wrote all the names down on the back of a large bit of old wallpaper, in a huge circle, totally at random and then put it on the floor, stood back and lobbed a sultana at the list (you will have to excuse the use of dried fruit, I have just cooked my Christmas cake) and picked out the name it landed on, repeated the exercise twice and there you have it  (oh and I had my eyes closed when I threw the sultana as well).

As I said, really really scientific...

Christmas Cake

I have been baking my cake. Check it out!

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_and_the_great_colc/2012/11/christmas-cake-.html

Random Friday

Feel a tad guilty that my blogging has been a bit spasmodic of late but family and events seem to conspire to keep me from sitting down, reading a book and writing about it.  Delighted of course that Oxford University Press have offered two sets of the Palliser novels for a give away and delighted at the number of you who have entered. I will be drawing it at the weekend and then two lucky people will be sent a box set just in time for Christmas.   I do have another give away coming up soon - this time it is romance and wallow courtesy of Mills & Boon, but more of that later.

I had my sister staying with me this week and we planned very little but just took it easy. I would make a cup of tea in the morning and take it in to her and then we would just sit and chat and put the world to rights and generally be very politically incorrect. All great fun and reminded us both of when we used to do this as children. Visited Hall Farm in Suffolk for coffee and then popped into their lovely farm shop and bought an item or two for Christmas and then exhausted by our madly exciting outing we spent the afternoon doing a jigsaw puzzle of the bay in Sorrento harbour full of boats and sea and lots and lots of sky.....left that to Judith to do...

Next day we drove down to Frinton and went for a walk by the sea. I love Frinton, it is very quiet and old fashioned and has managed to successfully fend off the threat of candy floss, Macdonalds and fish and chips, all of which can be found a mile or so along the coast at Walton where the pier is loud, brassy and noisy.  Frinton is, well, genteel is the only way to describe it and the high street has several bakers, a fishmonger, small grocery shops, a hardware store where you can buy a single nail should you wish to do so, a 'department store' which is a large bow window fronted shop with an excellent stock of clothing and footwear. I remember going in there with my lovely mum and she found a pair of sandals which suited her beautifully.   Coffee shops aplenty of course and we had a coffee break and then decided to make a foray into the charity shops. I love charity shops - you never know what you are going to find and this was brought home to me in no uncertain manner when we entered the first one.

Those of you who have read my recent posting over on my baking blog about the birthday cakes I used to cook for my girls when they were small, will have seen a very dim and not very good photo of the Seven Dwarves cake which was a Jane Asher creation some thirty years ago.  Efforts to track down a picture or the recipe proved fruitless (though when I asked on Facebook a good friend had a pic and sent me one) and then, to my amazement, I had a quick reccy of the cook books in this charity shop and lo and behold there it was - a pristine copy of the Jane Asher book of Cakes for £2 contining the recipe and details of the Seven Dwarves Cake. I let out a shriek and went into full Victor Meldrew mode waving the book around to cries of 'I don't believe it'.   Talk about serendipity.

I also picked up some Peter Robinson Inspector Banks books and then discovered a book shop in aid of the St Helena Hospice, a local charity who I support whenever I can, and am determined to go back and have another look at this as it was very well stocked indeed and I had a good rummage. Struck gold again with some Green Viragos which are now residing on my shelves. I do have two copies of Miss Mole already but no way was I going to leave that one behind and as I am meeting up with my bookgroup this week and we swap books, this will be coming with me.  The Daisy Chain I have never read and, again, no green Virago is ever left behind by moi. Then an Edith Wharton and my day was complete.  Is there anything nicer than rummaging in a second hand book shop?   Well, sure there is, no need to go into detail (you get my drift) but it is one of life's pleasures.

Then up to London on Wednesday to spend the day with Helen and my darling girls and Judith met Beatrice and it was one of those glorious mild sunny autumn days and we went to the park and down by the canal and this is a very long sentence.  

So a busy, happy and satisfying week.  Am in the throes of doing another jigsaw puzzle this afternoon, curtains drawn, all cosy and gemutlich and loving it - a Canaletto of the Grand Canal (lot of sky again) and nearly finished it.  Earlier on a cup of tea with my good friend Rosemary, a shop to get all the ingredients for my Christmas cake which I will be making this weekend and all in all, I am feeling very content with life.

I hope you all have a great weekend.   I have loads of exciting things lined up, consisting of Strictly Come Dancing, Homeland and, best of all, The Killing 3 with the redoubtable Sarah Lund solving another case - sooo looking forward to that.

Winners of the draw will be up on Monday so do check in and see if you have been lucky.

Au reservoir.

OUP - Anthony Trollope Give away

As you are probably all aware by now I love the new editions of the OUP World Classics paperbacks and I simply love looking at them as they are so beautifully produced.  

  All of the Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope,Can you Forgive Her; The Eustace Diamonds; Phineas Finn; The Prime Minister; Phineas Finn Redux and The Duke's Children have all been reissued and I have them all on my shelves and have re-read each title as received and realised all over again, as if I could forget, just how much I love this author.

Now those gorgeous lovely people at Oxford University Press have offered a complete box set of these Palliser novels as a give away on Random Jottings and I am most grateful to them.  What is more, they will send them anywhere so this is not limited to my UK readers.

 Please leave your name in the comments section below - I will leave this post at the top of my blog until next Monday when I will make the draw and announce the lucky winner.

Look forward to hearing from all you Trollopians out there....

STOP PRESS:  Because of the overwhelming response to this draw OUP are now giving away TWO sets of books.   YAY!!