It has been a couple of days now since we go the news that P.D. James had died at the age of 94. The Guardian has lots of articles on her which you can read here, the most recent being the My Hero column which today is written by Val McDermid about Phyllis Dora James. I think her decision to only use her initials was a good career move as apparently men prefer to read books by men and a lot of people assumed that P.D. was a man. I don’t think women are so bothered about the gender of authors.
In fact Goodreads has come up with the fact that readers in general prefer to read books which have been written by their own gender. I think I read more books by men than women though, what about you? I’ll have to have a count of this year’s authors. You can read the Guardian article here.
It’s the time of the year when people look back and decide which books were their favourites of the year. You can read what a lot of authors have plumped for here.
The BBC are making a new version of E.F. Benson’s Mapp and Lucia books, I just can’t imagine that they will be able to improve on the Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales line up and who could replace Nigel Hawthorne as Georgie? Well Anna Chancellor is playing Lucia apparently. Miranda Richardson is Mapp, Mark Gatiss is Major Benji Flint and Steve Pemberton will be playing Georgie Pillson. I’m sure I’ll be watching but I don’t think it’ll be as good somehow.
You can read more about some of the shows which are going to be shown around Christmas here.
I loved the Paddington Bear books although I was quite old when I got around to reading them, in fact it was only when I was reading them to my own kids that I discovered what fun they are. You can read an article about Paddington and the new film version which has just been released here. I think they should have special late night viewings of this film as I want to see it – but not with a whole load of kids who will probably cry and generally be a distraction. Or maybe I should just wait until it comes on TV.
If you’re into doing quizzes and Paddington Bear then you might want to have a bash at this one.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve perfected a very good hard stare of my own over the years. It’s one of the necessities of life!
I love the “Mapp & Lucia” books and was thrilled to see Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales etc portray the characters exactly as I’d imagined them. It’ll be interesting to see a new production.
Valerie in NZ,
Me too and I think that’s why I’m a bit wary of a new version, but I have them on DVD so I can always enjoy the originals anytime, they always cheer me up.
Katrina,
I’m going to be mining your links for the next day or two. I was stunned when I learned, just a few hours ago, that P.D. James had died. I’m so glad that there are a number of her mysteries that I still haven’t read. I have loved each and every one that she’s written that I’ve read, and I can’t pick a favorite because they’ve all been stellar, to my mind.
A funny thing–what a surprise to find out that she was 94. I do believe her publisher, in the U.S. at least, said she was 85 or so, upon the publication of Death Comes to Pemberly. Hmmm…
Best to you!
Judith
Judith,
When I saw her on TV being interviewed recently it was hard to believe that she was 94 as she was so still so sharp and seemed so hale and hearty, she looked like she could easily go on till 100 but obviously not.
I think when I’ve tallied up my reads in previous years, I was about 50/50 as far as male/female authors I’ve read. That’s interesting about the Goodreads came up with that fact, though I wonder if the sample was just from the users of their site, which skews it a bit, I think.
Christy,
I think there have been various different bits of research done which came up with similar results. I did a tally last night and to my surprise this year I’ve read 37 males out of 90 or so books. I thought my vintage crime reads would have bumped the male tally up but it seems I haven’t read so many this year so far.