Sorting through my heaps the other day and looking at what had arrived and those I wanted to read, those I am not sure about and those I would not touch with the proverbial (they shall remain anonymous) and came up with this little pile.
The Romanovs - Simon Sebag Montefiore. Not often I fail with a publisher but I did with this one. I begged and pleaded but to no avail, review copies seemed to be rarer than hen's teeth and if a blogger tells me they got one I shall spit.....
So in the end I gave up bothering them with my increasingly hysterical demands which probably prompted an immediate click of the Delete button, and when I was in London the other week for my birthday, found myself at the entrance to the simply stunning new Foyles on Charing Cross Road. So I nipped in and bought myself a copy as a pressie from Me to Me. And I am glad I did actually as it is going to take me a while to get through this hefty tome and the thought of reviewing it would have weighed heavy on my shoulders, now I can relax and enjoy.
The Button Box by Lynn Knight caught my eye - its sub title is Lifting the lid on Women's Lives and the opening of the introduction beguiled me straight away: "I used to love the rattle and whoosh of my grandma’s buttons as they scattered from their Quality Street tin". Instant nostalgia. My button box which belonged to my mum is a really battered old tin with a pic of King George VI on the front and Queen Elizabeth and I will never get rid of it. My children had better not chuck it when I am no longer here or else I shall come back and haunt them. This sounds the kind of book that Margaret Forster would write and you all know how much I love her family history books, so looking forward to getting stuck into this one.
Two John le Carre. Currently watching the Night Manager on the Beeb at the mo and really enjoying it, swish and very James Bondish with stunning locations, Tom Huddleston sleek and smooth and gorgeous and Hugh Laurie as the extremely attractive villain with a Gregory House look of mischief in his eye. I understand this adaptation deviates from the book somewhat but no matter. Le Carre is a class act and I took the opportunity of getting hold of and early one of his, call for the dead.
Doctor Thorne - by lovely Anthony Trollope. Not my most favourite of the Barchester Chronicles but very lovable and a new dramatisation by Julian 'Downton' Fellowes so should be fun. It is on ITV and will be recording so I do not have to suffer the tedious ad breaks. Dr Thorne is played by the excellent Tom Hollander who will be the other channel at the same time in the aforementioned Night Manager, where he is playing a slimy horrid villain. He certainly gets about.....he was in Gosford Park as well if I remember rightly (Fellowes again). New edition from OUP in their classics series marketed with TV link on front which I hope will encourage lots of people to pick it up and try AT.
The Creasey and Wheatley books I will write about separately as I have quite a bit to say re them.
Man of Genius - Janet Todd. Several people have raved about this to me and have started it, but but but, sorry to say it has yet to grab me. I shall persevere.
Margaret Asquith's Great War Diary 1914-1916. Another lovely book from those lovely people at OUP who never ignore my pleas and grovelling, and this just arrived the other day. This is looking seriously fascinating.
So I think I have enough to keep me occupied for a while.
