Random Jottings

Phil Hughes -RIP

As you all know by now I write about other events and happenings as well as books and this week I feel I have to post about this shocking event, the death of Phil Hughes, the Australian Test Cricketer, at the age of 25.

I saw him play a few times when watching TV but I do not know him personally, obviously, just that he is an Australian cricketer and yet when I heard of his accident and then his death I found myself very upset. Why? I have been pondering on this and on reading the comments left below the line on articles online I have come to realise why. Apart from the usual trolls and moaners there have been some really heartfelt tributes and one hit the nail on the head when the poster said that many Test and Country cricketers play with amateurs in Shield matches and games so that the cricketing fraternity get to know players more. Highly unlikely in a sport such as rugby or football.

There was one occasion when Piers Morgan, whatever you may think of him a huge cricket fan and player, turned up to his village cricket team with an extra man to go out with them who turned out to be Kevin Pietersen. Everyone had a great time, chance to meet him and watch him play and have a cucumber sarnie with KP afterwards.    This kind of thing happens quite often in the cricket world.

So I think for those of us who love cricket a death like this knocks you sideways

But one thing I have found heartening. Sean Abbott, the 22 year old bowler who send down the bouncer that hit Phil Hughes, has received nothing but support from everyone. I am sure there are ghastly Twitter trolls out there who will have a go, but as yet none seem to have emerged.  His team mates have rallied round, at the hospital the Hughes family insisted he sit with them, and he is being given all the help possible.

But how do you recover from something like this? He will be forever known as The Man who bowled That Ball. While everyone will be sympathetic towards him he knows that everywhere he goes he will be watched and whispered about. If he is in the pub having a pint with his mates and laughing and joking you can bet some idiot will make a comment and so on and so on.   Yes Phil Hughes has lost his life and we mourn the tragedy but Abbott has to get on with his and I am not sure he will ever recover or ever play cricket again.

This cartoon appeared in an Australian paper and has gone global. If Abbott does manage to get on with his cricketing/daily life than we should be grateful that there are good understanding people in the world.

There have been people who have derided the outpouring of tributes that follow a death like this and say that he cannot have been such a saint as made out but it is worth remembering that in the Aussie dressing room where there have been fights and spats over the last few years, Shane Watson, Mike Clarke, Ricky Ponting - Phil Hughes was liked by them all.....

Christmas - Random Recommendations (1)

I love looking at the book supplements and colour mags at this time of the year with all the recommendations for Chrissy pressies. The great and the good and the litterati come up with their list of tomes and I am sure they are chosen for effect and to show high frightfully intellectual they all are. OK I admit that Does a Penguin Fart and Tales for the Toilet stocking filler type books are pretty naff, but there is a middle line to be taken.

Now middle line is me to a T. Actually, I freely admit to being a bit lower than the middle line and love to read trashy romances and happy after ever books that have No Literary Merit Whatsoever.  So sue me....

Anyway, I have recieved so many gorgeous books in the last few weeks and catalogues and press releases and I simply have to tell you about them. Some I have read, some I have not but here we go:

I am starting this series of blogs with Slightly Foxed. I know that most of you who visit me here know all about this simply gorgeous publishing house. Started ten years ago with a quarterly full of delights and articles about books new and old, published and out of print, beautifully illustrated and written by excellent authors.   Since that small start they have gone from strength to strength and I was lucky enough to attend their birthday party in the summer where it was clear that they were going to be around for a long long time.

The next step after the success of the Quarterly was established was to reprint selected books that the Foxes loved and would like to see back in the public domain. These titles are limited, numbered editions, only 2,000 printed at a time and are bound in cloth, no dustjacket to get tatty and torn, red, grey, blue covers stamped with gold. They now number 28 and if you have missed any of the earlier ones, these are now being reprinted in a smaller paperback format, also wonderfully collectible.

The latest is My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell and I remember reading this for the first time about seven years ago, for some reason it had passed me by, and I ended up helpless with laughter and giggling weakly for hours after I had finished it. I am sure that many of you will know this book already, but this edition cries out to be bought.   I think I may treat myself to this.....

I own quite a few of these titles in the hardback and paperback editions and love them all. Apart from anything else, they are just the right size to slip into a handbag.

And then we come to the Fox Cubs and the Ronald Welch Carey novels, written between 1954 and 1972 telling the fortunes of the same family from the Crusades up to World War one. I have already mentioned these on Random and have no hesitation in mentioning them again and urging you to check them out. I read all of these as a teenager and am enjoying them all over again after a gap of fifty years. I have three and will be buying the others as they are issued.

And then of course, there are Slightly Foxed calendars, postcards, bags, notebooks - I have to apply incredible self control when I visit their website.

Here are a few links to previous posts on Slightly Foxed on Random Jottings.

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2014/03/birthday-treats-2-slightly-foxed-is-ten-years-old.html

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2013/08/slightly-foxed-and-the-carey-family.html

http://randomjottings.typepad.com/random_jottings_of_an_ope/2012/01/look-back-with-love-dodie-smith.html

I am delighted to see that a quote from my review of the Dodie Smith Look Back with Love edition has been used in their catalogue. Fame at last!!

Random in London again

Well here I am again and thought I would have time to sit quietly and write a review or two. WHY do I think this I ask myself. I also wonder why I bring a book with me as well as they never get opened. Writing this on my ipad which is not really conducive to fast typing. I have put keyboard for ipad on my Christmas list so fingers crossed. I did think I would wait for the sales and buy myself one but when I mentioned this in an Apple store I was told. Very loftily. That Apple "don't do sales". Exit humble and downtrodden customer. So to flag up that I will return on Monday and, as the grandps are looking after children again, will probably take to my bed. Until I return to review The Job by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg and Love Insurance by Earl Derr Biggers please note that these are two fun books that cheered up a grey rainy afternoon.

The Little White Horse - Elizabeth Goudge

About five years ago I posted about the Little White Horse by Ellizabeth Goudge and I am revisiting my musings at the time, updating them and seeing if anything I said then has changed.   Well, nothing has I am delighted to say. This is a book that I simply love and adore.  I discovered this book languishing in the corner of an old bookcase in my school library. I must have been about fourteen and it was a pretty crappy library as I never saw any new books added in my time there.  I think about that place now with nostalgia and a touch of regret as I am pretty sure there were some treasures there that I did not appreciate at the time.

Anyway, it was a cold day and I was never one for joining in games of netball etc at lunchtime, would much rather be indoors reading (so nothing has changed) and I remember looking through the bookcases, finding this book and started to read and that was that.  I just fell in love with it on the spot and took it home with me that evening and read it right through, to the detriment of my homework I might add.  Here is the opening of the first chapter:

"The carriage gave another lurch and Maria Merryweather, Miss Heliotrope, and Wiggins once more fell into each other's arms, sighed, gasped, righted themselves and fixed their attention upon those objects which were for each of them, at this trying moment, the source of courage and strength.  Maria gazed at her boots.  Miss Heliotrope restored her spectacles to their proper position, picked up the worn brown volume of French essays from the floor popped a peppermint into her mouth and peered once more in the dim light at the wiggly black print on the yellowed page. Wiggins meanwhile pursued with his tongue the taste of the long since digested dinner that still lingered among his whiskers"

Who can resist such wonderful characters and names?  Maria Merryweather, Miss Heliotrope and Wiggins the dog. Magical and wonderful.  Maria is an orphan and on her way to live with her cousin Benjamin Merryweather of Moonacre Manor in the West Country.  The actual location is left very vague which is as it should be to preserve the feeling of fairydom.   After a long tiring journey they near the Manor and as they are driving through the park, Maria sees in the wood a shining bright white horse which vanishes very quickly so that at first she thinks she has imagined it.  Though we do not know this at this stage, the sighting of the Little White Horse, in reality a unicorn, is a sign that Maria has an important task to carry out at Moonacre Manor.

This story has the most delightfully named character throughout: as well as the aforementioned, we have Loveday Minette, Old Parson, Monsieur Cocq Noir, Marmaduke Scarlet, Robin and then the animals: Wrolf, very much as Aslan type figure, Serena the Hare and Zachariah the cat.  All of these animals take a full part in the unfolding of the story.

Maria is the catalyst to put right a wrong and to bring to an end the darkness that has affected this lovely valley.  Monsieur Cocq Nor and his men, all dressed in black, who steal the sheep and harass the villagers, have domain over the beach and the shore so that the Silverydew villagers cannot catch fresh fish and the children have never see the sea.  After many adventures Maria and Robin, a boy who used to come and play with her when she lived in London, but who was dismissed by Miss Heliotrope as an imaginary playmate, band together with the animals to give restitution to the Black Men and bring peace to the valley.

It is Elizabeth Goudge's descriptive powers that I found so beguiling and delightful, particularly when it comes to food.  Just listen to this:

"There is enough. There is sufficient plum cake, saffron cake, cherry cake, iced fairy cakes, eclairs, gingerbread, meringues, syllabub, almond fingers, rock cakes, chocolate cakes, parkin, cream horns,Devonshire splits, Cornish pasty, jam sandwiches, lemon curd sandwiches, lettuce sandwiches, cinnamon toast and honey toast to feed twenty or more.  Have no fear young Mistress; when Marmaduke Scarlet is cook there is always enough"

and

"The table was covered with a checked red and white tablecloth that matched the counterpane, and upon it was set a blue dish full of apples,  a yellow jug of milk, a purple plate upon which were piled buttered scones, two green plates and two mugs to match"

Several years ago when I read The Prisoner of Azkaban, the third Harry Potter book, I came across a passage in which JK Rolwing describes the contents of Honeydukes sweet shop:

""There were shelves of the most succulent looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice; fat honey coloured toffees; hundred of different kinds of chocolates in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans;.....Droobles Best Blowing Gum;splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps, peppermint creams shaped like toads, fragile sugar spun quills and exploding bonbons"

As I read this, I was forcibly reminded of the passage I have quoted from the Little White Horse, and the thought crossed my mind that JK Rowling may have read this story herself many years ago.  I dismissed this as fanciful and that I was being perhaps just a touch too clever, so you can imagine my stunned amazement when a year or so later JKR in an interview with Jeremy Paxman, said that the Little White Horse was one of her favourite books as  child. I felt inordinately pleased with myself.

The Little White Horse is about good v evil which, essentially, is the theme of the Harry Potter stories.  A determined child, with his friends and an unshaken resolve, prevails and restores happiness and a new order.  So it is here in the village of Silverydew and Moonacre Manor.  It is an ageless theme and one which never grows stale.

I am delighted to see that some of Elizabeth Goudge's titles are being reissued and rediscovered. Capuchin Press republished Green Dolphin Country a few years ago and Hesperus have just reprinted The Runaways (first published under the title Linnets and Valerians - not sure why it has been changed) and I am hoping there are more in the pipeline.

I have an edition of The Little White Horse with illustrations by C Walter Hodges, one of my favourite children's illustrators and I will never part with it, but the reason I am writing about this title again is that Folio have published a new one with new illustratins and, as with all Folio books, it is a delight to hold with glorious paper and binding and a feeling of luxury.   It is easier to buy Folio products now, you do not have to join and sign up as before and can buy individual titles so there is no excuse for not purchasing this marvellous book. I am saving this up for my grandchildren when they are older and am hoping they will love it as much as I do.

Mark you, I have an entire shelf of books I am keeping for both Florence and Beatrice so let us hope they turn out to love reading.

They had better......

 

Random Ramble

Glad I did not have Paul Hollywood looking at my baking last night. I had put my Christmas cake in the oven, sat down and started to do other things and totally forgot about it. Shriek shriek. Got it out and clear to me that that Ole Blue eyes would take one look and say 'overbaked' and it was. So left it overnight to cool and took a look at it this morning.   Decided to slice top off which I did and got rid of the over cooked bit and the rest is rather delish as I tasted a sliver. So am making another one for family but keeping this one in my cake tin. It is not being chucked out as it is packed with glace fruits, a la Delia's light Christmas cake and those are expensive to buy.

So have just spent half an hour chopping up more crystallised ginger, oranges, lemons, cherries, angelica, pineapple and apricots and sloshed another glass of brandy over it. Will bake tonight and this time will make sure I keep an eye on it.   Mem: must get kitchen timer.....

A quiet week otherwise and restful after looking after grandchildren last week but have to say that I have come back feeling pretty energised and not tired at all. I think I must be getting used to it all and my body is adjusting. Thank heavens for that say I but still glad to have a few days to myself to catch up on correspondence, having a sort out etc and just chilling and catching up on TV I recorded while away.   I have discovered that if I have forgotten to set anything up I can do it remotely through Sky on my ipad. The wonders of science.

Nothing planned for today save to take my friend Rosemary for a hospital appointment. Then a cuppa in Waitrose while she does a bit of shopping and then home and sit down for Strictly which is now at an interesting stage. Judy Murray should really go tonight but she has proved to be so popular that she is garnering loads of votes each week. She has a terrific sense of humour and takes all the flack the judges throw at her with good nature and a laugh.  I shall be surprised if she gets through tonight though. This is the annual Strictly trek to Blackpool and I have to say the ballroom there is simply sumptuous and huge and seems to bring out the best in all the dancers.    The fact that we have to put up with donkey, ice cream and fish and chip jokes is just about bearable but they do it every year and it does get wearing.

Zoe Ball is still filling in for Claudia whose daughter is in hospital having been quite badly burned on Halloween. We all hope her daughter continues to get better and she will be back soon.   Zoe does a great job and, as with Claudia, eclipses Tess with her naturalness and wit both of which Tess lacks alarmingly.   The combo of Zoe and Claudia would be brilliant.

On the reading front I have been wallowing in crime, as per, and am working my way through Peter Lovesey at the moment. I will soon have read all the Diamond books and will then start on the others and there are plenty to keep me going. I am also trolling through my reads of this year and choosing my books of 2014.   I note the number I have read this year is down by about fifty on 2013, this coincides with extra time with grandchildren I think! I always take a book with me to London and I always return with it unopened and unread as reading time is not usually available when Florence and Beatrice are around.

That is it for now, will write more soon and will highlight some books I have received and will be reading over the next few weeks. I hope.

The Bloomsbury Cook Book - Jans Ondaatje Rolls

The first thing I have to make clear is that the title The Bloomsbury Cookbook is a misnomer. It is NOT your normal cookbook with lists of recipes and ingredients. As its subtitle says 'Recipes for Life, Love and Art' and, to me, is more of a social history than anything else.

I also have to make clear that my knowledge of the Bloomsbury Group is limited. I lived in Bloomsbury for years as a child and then ignorant teenager and knew little of the collective authors gathered under this title. Since then of course I have learned much more about them and while writing this am drinking coffee out of my Room of One's Own mug. This does not make me a knowledgeable or erudite Bloomsbury reviewer but this particular book is so glorious and I love it so much I am going to do my very best to do it justice.

So many books have been written about the Bloomsbury Group that you would have thought there was nothing new to say about any of them, but it seems not. The author has written about them in their homes, at the table where they talked and talked and disagreed and argued while dining. 

I have to say that I warmed towards Strachey when I learned that his favourite dish was rice pudding. One of my childhood favourites as well but it seems he ate it every day....

A couple of delights I spotted this morning in my perusal.  There are many more which are simply divine and I have had difficulty in choosing which quotes to use but these are two of my favourites:

In 1928  Virginia and Vita Sackville-West went to Burgundy where they ate the 'vastest most delicious meal I have ever eaten'. It started with pate of duck and ended with 'pears ad lib' and there follows the recipe which features pears, burgundy, orange juice and cinnamon and cloves which makes my mouth water just reading it.

In 1932 Vanessa Bell and Virginia attended a reception in St James where 'young men in white jackets served blue and green cocktails with what looked like gold leaf floating on the surface'.  Try it yourself with the recipes that follow Green Dragon and Blue Devil Cocktail.

I could go on and on quoting and illustrating from this fascinating book  but instead I will urge you to purchase one for yourself so that you can see why I love it so much. The somewhat elevated figures of the Bloomsbury set are brought to life and the recipes can be used today with no difficulty at all.  Please note this is not a book to be read at a sitting, it should be dipped in and savoured. I have spent a happy hour ot two this morning doing just that and will continue to do so. More importantly, it has made me feel I want to explore and read more about this disparate collection of minds and personalities. I certainly will find no lack of books on the subject of that I am sure.

And, finally, who would not want a cook like this:

"Annie the cook has taken a turn for the good, and now makes us delicious bread, suet pudding and other inventions. Morally, she has taken a turn for the bad; lies and loafs about with young boys. But I've decided now to interest myself in her morals no more, only her cooking"                          Dora Carrington.

Very wise.....

PS -I am currently compiling my books of 2014 and this is going on it right now.

The Wandering Grandmother returns

Well I am back, in one piece, tired but happy. Five days, 24/7 is the longest I have spent at one stretch with Florence and Beatrice and though it was exhausting, I loved it and feel the bond between us is now sealed and that both girls trust and love me completely. Felicity and Hugh, the paternal grandparents, are marvellous and Felicity and I have a great friendship which we are both so grateful for as it makes life easier and more fun. We both seem to have exactly the same views on bringing up children so there are no difficulties whatsoever.

The children bounced back and forwards to nursery, school, home and other grandPs house with aplomb and it was all great fun but oh my goodness me, shatteringly tiring. There is a reason why older people should not have children, I mean those who decided to have them in the fifties and sixties, it is purely a physical matter. Children wear you out and you need the energy you have when you are young to look after them.

One example, I was walking the two girls round the corner to the Other Grandparents and suddenly Beatrice, who has a will of iron and a determination to do what she wants come hell or high water, suddenly took off and ran out into the middle of the road. My bellow of STOP not only brought her to a grinding halt, but half the windows in the road opened, and a bloke who was doing some painting up a ladder nearly fell off. I am surprised I did not shatter glass.  I really told Beatrice off and she stood and howled and all was mayhem. Luckily the road had no traffic at that time but if there had been one car coming she would not have stood a chance. I tucked her, still howling, under my arm and arrived breathless at my destination. Florence had already run on ahead and reported Beatrice's transgression, looking very smug I might add....

But a lot of fun was had, particularly at bath time when I ended up wetter than them and had to chase them round the bedroom to get them into their pjs. This morning Florence was curled up next to me, Beatrice came in like an Exocet at 6am and got into bed with me as well and they both cuddled down and Bea gave me lots of little kisses all over my face and snuggled up. I tell you I lay there and thought Elaine you are one lucky woman.

Kathryn home in a month and all together for Christmas. It doesn't get any better.

So today, easy drive home, cup of tea, soak in bath, doze on sofa, and that is is for the day. Tomorrow I start trying to get on with some of the books awaiting my attention.   I did take a book or two with me thinking I would have time to read.

HAH!

Grandma duties

I am in London for a few days so posts will be absent until I get back.  My clever Helen is giving a paper at a conference for Historians in Minneapolis and is in the air on the way there as I write. She has promised faithfully to text me as soon as she lands as I shall worry.

She will not be back until Monday and James has work in Chambers so the grandparents are swinging into action to look after Florence and Beatrice.   We have a timetable that is quite daunting but Grandpa Hugh has checked that the wine cellar (AKA corner of the kitchen) is well stocked and Grandma Felicity has assured me that there is a goodly stock of gin and vodka......

So the next few days will be exhausting but it will be wonderful also to spend time with the family. I shall return next week and will take a look at the pile of books awaiting my attention. I even take a book or two with me when I go to London but I never have time to look at them. When I do I usually keel over but I can never risk not having a book to hand.

Thank goodness I feel better now. Else I would probably end up on a stretcher....

Au Reservoir.

Mills and Boon - gotta love 'em

As I have already mentioned I have been feeling a tad under the weather the last week (today is the first day I can say I have woken up feeling back to normal, well as near normal as I ever get) and spent a great deal of my time lounging around and reading my way through a bagful of Mills & Boon. I have written about them before but decided I would revisit my earlier posts, update and add.

Oh how I love them. The joy of these books is their inevitability.  Boy meets girl, they fall in love, misunderstanding occurs, boy and girl separate, misunderstanding cleared up after period of heartbreak and all ends happily.  The story is timeless, think Jane Eyre, think Pride and Prejudice, surely THE original Mills & Boon with its alpha male hero and feisty heroine.

Now you must remember when reading these that you never trust a man with red hair. Now I don't mean  'burnished red hair tipped with bronze' but plain old red hair.   He is usually deceitful. Fair haired men who are charming but with a weak chin also should be avoided. If his hair is 'burnished (yes that word again) gold' then you are OK but fair. No.

Names are important.   Keith, Kevin, Derek are usually signs that this is not the hero. His name is usually Jed, Adam, Dan or similar. Short and to the point.

The hero is always tall and dark.  Perhaps not conventionally handsome, but fascinating and sexy with a hawk like nose and high cheekbones.  He is slim hipped and wears his clothes with a rangy grace and is particularly attractive in chinos and a linen jacket.    He is successful in what he does, be it something in the City or a property developer but he always has a soft side and nurses his girlfriend when she is sick.

Modern heroines in M&B are much feistier than they use to be and more successful. No more little women who abandon their careers in serving in a shop or typing at home to melt into the alpha male's arms at the end.   But thought the type has changed the end is never in doubt

Nowadays, sex plays a very graphic part in the novels, some of which could quite easily win the Bad Sex Award every year for some of the more lurid purple passages.  When I first started reading these in my teens, Women’s Lib was still in its early stages and women knew their place and were virgins until they married.  If there was any sex at all, it was hinted at and the old fashioned row of *********** was employed at the end of a paragraph so you were left to guess at what was going on. Now nothing is barred and out of the bag of books I read last week found one, author shall be nameless, that was nothing more than soft port and VERY badly written.   I know from author friends that M&B publishers are tough masters and lay down certain criteria for submitting a book to them, but bad writing seems to slip by quite easily.

This is not to denigrate their authors, some of whom write well and are good. People scoff  yet how many writers could produce a book every few months regular as clockwork?  Most published authors will publish a book a year so imagine the pressure to produce four a year? One of their writers, Betty Neels, was producing a book every two months up to her death a few years years ago at the age of 90+!   Formulaic they most definitely are, but there are some pretty good writers lurking in there who will probably never be taken seriously and remain categorised as Writers of Romance for the rest of their days.

I mentioned the latest trend in having Billionaire of Tycoon or Millionaire in most of the titles we see now.  I find these very off putting but apparently they sell in  droves and are hugely popular so what do I know?  They have also jumped onto the Twilight bandwagon and now have Vampire romances as well, to sit alongside their Medical section (handsome doctors marry pretty nurses), their Regency romances and many other genres that they now produce.  

Because of this trend for Billionaires and Millionaires and Legendary Greeks and Italian Counts I tend to search out the earlier vintage M&Bs.  These are almost required reading if you want to see how attitudes towards women have changed.

Not Wanted on Voyage by Kay Thorpe is a prime example of the kind of writing which was published by this company back in the 1970s.

We start off with a young woman doctor who has left her last job (she has fallen in love with a married man and is fleeing temptation) and takes the post of a ship's doctor on board a cruise ship.   Please bear in mind that this doctor has presumably studied in medicine for several years, is not a teenager and one assumes is intelligent.  So what does she do?  She turns up late at night to take up her post, it is dark and foggy when she arrives at the docks and can only catch a glimpse of part of the name of the ship and on board she goes.  It appears a doctor is expected but the crew are surprised to see a woman as the captain is a woman hater.  Ok I can see you sniggering already and saying I know what is going to happen and you would be right. BUT there is a twist.   No surprise to find out next morning that she has boarded the wrong ship and this is not discovered until she is out at sea. And here is the twist - she is not aboard a cruise ship, she is on board a WHALING ship. Yep that's right - a whaling ship.   OK, now you would have thought when boarding such a vessel that the lack of amenities, the lack of lights, bars, dancing and merriment, let alone sailors in uniform would have made her stop and think.  I don't suppose a whaling ship has much in the way of ship board entertainment and, last but not least, surely the SMELL would have given it away?

This book is quite quite wonderful but also so politically incorrect is is hard to believe.  We are given a pretty detailed account of actually catching a whale which I cannot imagine would pass muster in 2014 and everyone, including our heroine, seem to light up a fag at the drop of a, well, match.  In the end of course she is clasped to the captain's manly chest after she has demonstrated how wonderful and courageous she is by being swung across to another ship to aid an injured member of the crew and all the time a storm is raging and the seas are churning away beneath her.

The whole thing is simply GLORIOUS and I have to thank a fellow M&B lover for making sure that this wonderful book came my way. She knew I would love it and I did. If you are reading this you know who you are!

I would like to emphasise once again that I am not making mock of the genre (how can I when I love it so much), or having a crack at the authors who write for Mills & Boon. How they manage to continue writing and producing a novel every few months is amazing and I know how hard they all work.   I just wish that the really bad writers, ok only my opinion I know, were teased out and the good writers, of which there were many, were left to shine on their own.

Christmas coming up now so I shall be on the look out for their Christmas Specials always set in a lovely cottage somewhere in the country, snow falling, all harmony within, log fires, warmth, happiness and all right with the world.

When most of us are trying to cook the festive dinner or have forgotten to take the turkey out the freezer and are trying to feed the masses, this kind of reading is sheer delight and provides us with a vision of what we would love to aspire to if we could manage it. We all know it is fantasy and we are not going to be transported off to an Italian/Greek island by a leonine/ruggedly handsome bilionaire/millionaire but oh wouldn't it be lovely if we were.....

And that is why they sell in trillions.

Dreary week - and a report on Strictly

Not a good week really. I drove back from London on Thursday morning after saying goodbye to kinder and by the time I left the North Circular and reached the Redbridge Roundabout, I was feeling slightly peculiar, shivery and cold. Decided to put my foot down and get home as quickly as possible as I had the feeling that if I stopped I might not get going again. Made it and went straight to bed and spent the next 24 hours with a rocketing temperature which then plunged so I was cold, felt hungry but if I ate anything felt sick, and generally all was yuk.

Emerged feeling shaky and wiped out and still feel that way now it is Sunday but the sore throat seems to be receding and the temperature has gone so whatever it was I hope that is the back of it. I have, therefore, spent the last five days reading my way through a bagful of old Mills & Boon that I got hold of some time ago and have been saving up for such a purpose. All I could cope with. I read one after the other and they all ran into one and they are all back in the bag and will be off to the charity shop some time next week.

Saturday night found me sitting in the armchair with woolly sox on, blanket round my knees, hot water bottle, hot drink and the remote to watch Strictly as per. Hopping mad that last week we lost Thom. OK he did not exactly strike me as Einstein and his personality was not sparkling but to go out when a sleb whose highlight of this series is his routine dressed as a lobster and who was voted through was a bit much to take.

Claudia absent last night so Zoe Ball took over. Reason given was that one of Claudia's children was ill. A friend of mine commented that would a male presenter have gone home and given up his slot to somebody else?  Pretty sure the answer to that would be no but I am prepared to be shot down for thinking this.   Zoe did really well and, as with Claudia, showed up just how wooden, banal and awful is Our Tess.

OK here are my thoughts:

Judy and Anton - dire dire dire.  Judy was meant to be Cruella da Vil and Anton made his entrance with two dalmatians who took one look at the dance floor and decided this was not for them. Sensible pair.

Scott and Joanne - he was Fenster from the Adams Family and the role suited him beautifully as all he did was lurch around the floor with his arms hanging.   He is worse than dire.

Sunetra and Brendon - weird jive involving a lot of furniture moving and not a great deal of content. It was OK.

Alison and Aliajz were apparently doing a Wuthering Heights theme dance.  Cannot recall Cathy arriving on the Yorkshire moors flying in but there you go. Great fun and lots of wafting. Big woman big personality and she is great but her dancing not so much. Another week or so before she goes I think.

Ola and Steve - incredibly difficult lifts which worried him so much he forgot to dance.

Pixie and Trent. Simply cannot take to this pair. They both look so pleased with their blonde selves all the time and look like escapees from the Village of the Damned. Trent also looks like he should be piloting a spaceship in Thunderbirds are go. 

 

Frankie and Kevin - great pairing and he is popular with the audience and his lovely personality is endearing which always helps who his partner happens to be. This year Frankie is proving to be a great dancer and they got a 10 last night for their tango.

Mark and Karen - simply cannot take to this woman but he is a sweetie. Permanent grin on his face, having 'the best time of my life' and turning into a great dancer. His jive was brill.

Simon and Kristine. She is a great dancer and I am beginning to feel sorry for her as she has been cast as the Strictly Femme Fatale and the breaker up of marriages, relationships etc. If a male dancer was doing this nothing would be said but as she is a woman and a blonde the tabloids really go to town on her. And do not tell me this sort of thing does not happen in 2014 because it does.   Remember Ulrika Johnsson - the weather girl who is well known for having four children by four differet men? boy was she given the treatment and she did make the point that nobody was having a go at the likes of Rod Stewart or Mick Jagger for having multiple children by different partners.

Anyway she and Simon have a good partnership and are dancing well together. He is coming along nicely.

Scott and partner (forgotten her name) - paso and not bad but because he is so good more is expected of him and he was not that impressive tonight.

Caroline and Pasha continue to improve. I like this pairing very much.

As it was Halloween we had the usual dressing up and white faces and black teeth and ghouls rampant and it all gets tedious. It is the same every year when SCD goes for a theme week.

Tess continues to call everyone luv and my darling and I would clock her if she did that to me. She is so patronising as well though this, of course, may be just her natural manner. She just tries too hard and fails every single time. I still blench when I look back to the BBC's coverage of the Jubilee on the river in 2012 and Tess prancing about in the park in a fake coronation.......

Zoe repeated a joke she gave on ITT introducing her pet Crow called Russell. Russell Crowe - geddit? Well it made me laugh.

Not saying any more as I know who goes out tonight and the so called results show can now be taken or left by moi. I just watch as the names are called as I love seeing the various reactions and though Len's Lens is cringemaking they do pick up some funny things that pass us all by. They usually have a half dead singer on well past their best or a new singer/group who will never have a best as they are uniformly awful so I mute it when they are 'singing' and make a cup of tea.

the VTs remain utterley utterley cringemakingly awful as ever.   

Keeeeeeeeeeeep dancing