Just William on CBBC

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I’ve been catching up with the new Just William adaptation on the iplayer. Although the programme is on Children’s BBC I think it probably has a large amount of middle-aged viewers. Set in the 1950s the whole thing has a very nostalgic attraction for people of a certain age, even without the entertaining and well acted stories.

The Brown family home has been so well kitted out. They even have the same antimacassars (chair back covers) still in the 1960s, but for some reason I really love the low tech 1950s kitchen. All of the characters have been well cast, including Jumble the dog.

Sadly Violet Elizabeth Bott doesn’t have red hair but otherwise I think she was very good and seemed to enjoy being covered in mud. At that time kids tended to be skinny due to rationing which continued well into the 1950s and the fact that they were allowed to run wild all over the place and use up their excess energy and burning off calories all the way. Unfortunately Daniel Roche who plays the part of William doesn’t quite fit the bill because his bones are quite well upholstered and he would definitely have had the nickname of Fatty or Podge or something similar and un-PC – in those days. But I can see why they wanted to have him playing William Brown after his success in Outnumbered. Douglas, another of The Outlaws, is even tubbier but I don’t suppose they could put them on a starvation diet just to make things look even more authentic.

They seem to have made just 4 episodes but I’m hopeful that they have more planned for the future. Martin Jarvis is the narrator, he seems to have cornered the market on Just William stories, amongst other things, but he does have a lovely voice.

Niranjana, I know that you won’t have much time to watch tv but I really hope that you’ll be able to see this new series of Just William on Canadian TV at some point in the future.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

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War and Peace has been eyeing me up and shouting READ ME from different bookcases in many different homes of ours over the past 30 odd years. At last I’ve got around to it and I feel really chuffed with myself for being able to tick it off my mental ‘must read ‘ list.

I really enjoyed War and Peace, I thought it would be really heavy going but it is actually quite a page turner. It might not be so smooth if you don’t have much of an interest in Napoleon and what was going on between 1805 and 1820 in Europe.

As you would expect from the title the storyline is split up between battles and the general chaos that ensued, and civilian life in the high society of Moscow and Petersburg and how they were all affected by the war.

There were only three parts of the book which I felt dragged a bit. I didn’t like the bits about Freemasonry in book V. It didn’t seem to add anything to the book but apart from that I’ve always disliked the Freemasons because to me it is just another word for corruption. It can’t be right that people get jobs and advancement because of a society that they’re a member of rather than the qualifications that they have. It was news to me too that the Freemasons originated in Scotland and Tolstoy sometimes called it the Scottish society. I’m mortified but according to the introduction in this edition Tolstoy saw it as a way of combating the corruption which already existed at court.

In book VII Nicholas Rostov has a wolf hunt on his estate and it seemed really out of place and distasteful to me but it made sense later on when Rostov compared his first experience of a battle with the hunt.

Almost at the end of the book, The Second Epilogue seemed never ending: The Forces That Move Nations – didn’t move me.

But that’s me nit-picking again and I would encourage any War and Peace dodgers (as I used to be) to have a go at reading it because I think most people will be pleasantly surprised.

As you can see the edition which I read is from 1943. It still has the original bookmark it was sold with and has very thin, smooth paper, the pages were very difficult to turn which was a bit annoying. I actually had to cut some of the pages so I must have been the first person to get to the end of it. This must have been a special wartime paper but it has aged really well, in fact it’s like new. We also have a paperback Pan edition from 1972 and the paper hasn’t aged at all well. Also it has no maps and no footnotes whatsoever, the 1943 book has very interesting comments.

I know that elsewhere in the blogosphere people are reading a new translation but I would be really surprised if anything could better this translation which was done by Louise and Aylmer Maude.

Some 2010 Book Thoughts

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If my scribbled list is correct, I managed to read 81 books in 2010. Well, that might be me cheating a wee bit because I’ve still got about 100 pages of War and Peace to read, but the vast bulk of it has been read in 2010 and I’m giving myself loads of ‘Brownie points’ for getting around to reading it at last. Yes, I ended up being the Sixer of the Kelpies (Sprites) – if that means anything to anyone!

Authors whom I’ve enjoyed reading and were new to me this year are:
Willa Cather, Paul Auster, Annie Proulx, Barabara Kingsolver, Rosamunde Pilcher, Rosy Thornton, Zola – in fact there are too many to mention, so it’s been a really enjoyable reading year.

It’s all thanks to the recommendations of bloggers and commentators. I wouldn’t have got around to reading half of the new authors otherwise. I can hardly believe that I’ve actually read a book by Thomas Carlyle – Sartor Resartus, definitely different but surprisingly fairly readable.

This year I’m trying to read a lot of the books which I’ve had in the house waiting to be read for years. Then I can either pass them on or pack them away when I’ve finished with them with a view to clearing some book clutter prior to downsizing. I am actually tripping over books!

Happy New Year

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We’ll probably be having a quiet Hogmanay this year. We’re not going out ‘first footing’. But if anyone comes to our door after ‘the bells’ – this is the sort of welcome that they’ll be given. Whisky, Irn Bru, cherry cake and shortbread. Maybe not the kilt, that’s just for ceilidhs and weddings. Note the seasonal snowman on the Irn Bru bottle.

Women of my mother’s generation used to cook a huge meal and serve it up about an hour before midnight. Steak pie was the traditional fare, the idea was that if people (men) ate a good meal then they wouldn’t get so drunk and hungover. Women of course didn’t drink anything, well perhaps a very wee sherry at midnight!

I’m hoping that 2011 is going to be a good and peaceful year and things aren’t going to be as horrendous as all the politicians are promising us they will be.

Happy New Year to anyone visiting ‘Pining’ and big hugs and kisses to the lovely people who take the time to leave comments.

If you missed the Irn Bru advert which I posted a few weeks ago you might like to have a look at it now. I shouldn’t need any Irn Bru for hangover purposes as I’ll just be having one wee drinkie, I’m not mad keen on alcohol but I am quite partial to our other national drink.
The advert contains well known Scottish landmarks.

Sláinthe – as they say in the Highlands. It’s pronounced like “flange” only with an “s” instead of “f” at the beginning.

Billy Connolly – I Wish I was in Glasgow

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I’ve been busy reading War and Peace, amongst other things and although there are loads of things that I want to do on ‘Pining’ – I just haven’t got the time at the moment.

So I thought I would have a quick look on You Tube to see what there was of Billy Connolly on it. I didn’t find what I was looking for but as I come from Glasgow, and it’s that very maudlin time of the year – for Scots anyway, I couldn’t resist this wee song.

If you’re homesick for Glasgow try not to greet into your porridge!

Post Christmas Pause

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We had a very restful Boxing Day with all of us just lolling around at home. Why do people rush out to the shops/sales? I’m sure it’s a form of madness. It was bad enough that we had to go to IKEA again yesterday. We had a horrible feeling of deja vu but at least this time it was only raining and most of the roads were clear of snow.

I’m not a big fan of going to the shops, in fact I really only do it when there’s no alternative, it isn’t a pleasurable pastime for me as it seems to be with so many folks.

But as IKEA closed an hour after we got there the last time due to the snow we just had to hire a van a second time to go back and get what Duncan hadn’t had the time to buy before. We were in IKEA for four hours, and after the first one I had just about lost the will to live. He got another bed, a sofa, more bookcases, chests of drawers and odds and sods.

Then there was the horrible long journey from Edinburgh to Dundee and all the unloading and lugging everything up two flights of stairs. By which time we were saying, “Why didn’t he buy a ground floor flat?” Anyway it’s all done now and he has been warned that when he wants to move out he will have to get professional removal men to do it!

Our ’empty nest’ was only empty for about a week – and then everyone came here for Christmas. They left us today again and will be back here in a few days for Hogmanay, which is really the most important day of the year in Scotland, when it all begins again. Christmas became a holiday in Scotland fairly recently, I think about 50 years ago most people had to work on Christmas.

Because of all the shenanigans I’m way off my reading schedule. I had been planning on reading at least 100 pages of War and Peace every day but I just haven’t had the time. I had been hoping to get it finished by the end of the year but I’m only half way through it. So unless I take to my bed, (I have the best light for reading there) and read over 200 pages a day – I’m stuffed. Or should I say my 2011 reading list schedule is stuffed before it begins.

I started reading War and Peace because I’ve been putting it off for years and there seem to be a lot of people reading the new translation at the moment, so I thought I would join in as it would mean that I would have a deadline. I think the deadline is January 23rd but I’d rather finish it before then so that I can read something from my list. I’m not good at reading two books at a time, I prefer to concentrate on one and I must say that War and Peace has been a nice surprise. My copy is an old translation from 1943. I’m finding it to be much easier going than I had anticipated, so I’m able to read it at bedtime, even when I’m tired, and remember what I read when I wake up in the morning. Which isn’t always the case, believe me!

Anyway, I’m off to bed and hoping to get a good three hours of reading done before I put the light out because it was after 2 o’clock when I put the book down last night.

Christmas Day

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I hope everybody had a great time at Christmas. Here we are in our very congested dining-room, we were lucky enough to have the family with us. A goose was cooked but it isn’t on show.

I’m on the left and by that time I was shattered and far too hot, in fact we all look quite miserable I think but a good time was had by all. Both ‘boys’ weren’t feeling all that great, there are so many bugs going about at the moment.

We will probably be moving from this house in a year or two so the photographs are really a sort of family posterity thing because we don’t have many digital photos of the house.

This is the sitting-room which we used to decorate with a massive real christmas tree but this year as it’s so cold we decided not to bother because we probably wouldn’t be in that room much. The fire in the living-room is much warmer.

I just decorated the mantelpiece. This photograph was taken with the flash.

And this quite scary looking photograph was taken without the flash.

So now that Christmas is over we just have Hogmanay to look forward to – and more hours spent in the kitchen!

Busy, busy.

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I’ve been up to my ears in it for the past few days. My husband decided to pop into the world on the 24th of December, quite a lot of moons (decades) ago.

So I’ve been cooking a special birthday meal today, after all it’s still his birthday even if it is the day before Christmas. We have both of our ‘boys’ and Laura here for the next few days, which is great because we couldn’t wish for anything more at this time of the year.

We’re lucky that they live fairly close to us. I wish it could be the same for all families.

Tomorrow I’ll probably have some photographs of our Christmas dinner. Any vegans and vegetarians – please avert your eyes. We’ve gone for a traditional Dickensian meal – goose. I did feel a bit guilty about it though as two lovely geese flew low above us on the way to the shop. How did they know?

New to me – Paul Auster

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The great thing about the bookish blogosphere is all the recommendations that you get from other bloggers and Paul Auster is one of the writers that I’ve really enjoyed reading this year. Most of the books that I read have been written years ago, I think my theory is that if they are still in print after a long time then it’s a fair bet that they’re going to be worthwhile reading.

I’ve read three books by Auster and they’ve all been quite different but what I really like is that you never know where he’s going to go next. Reading him is like having my favourite sort of conversation, the kind that starts off with something mundane like a comment on the weather but within 10 minutes I and a friend have covered topics such as Lord Byron, English architecture, Balmoral, the racing driver Juan Fangio and then end up by setting the world to rights!

With Paul Auster he mentions in passing people like Hedy Lamarr and Edward G. Robinson – and I just thought – “How did he know?” Because as a youngster I watched a lot of old American movies, my dad was a big fan, we watched them on tv but he had seen them all in the cinema when they were first released decades before.

So at the age of about 10 if someone asked me who my favourite film stars were – my answer was always Hedy Lamarr and Edward G. Robinson! I can understand the Hedy bit now because she was so glamorous and I wanted to look like her when I grew up. Tragic really because it was never going to happen. She had gorgeous dark hair and mine is red or strawberry blonde as my mum always said. When I got my waist length hair cut for the first time I told the hairdresser that I wanted it cut like Hedy Lamarr’s. She didn’t know who I was talking about. Everybody else wanted a Purdy cut or Farrah Fawcett-Major!

Don’t ask me why I was into Edward G. Robinson, I look at him now and think that I must have been a very strange 10 year old. Happily by the time I hit 12 I was a fan of Cary Grant, Gregory Peck and of course Humphrey Bogart. If I’m honest I still have a wee soft spot for Edward G. though.

Anyway, back to Paul Auster’s writing: For some reason the fact that he mentioned those two almost forgotten movie stars really made me feel quite chuffed. It’s nice to feel that you have a sort of connection with a writer. And all that came about because one night when I was wandering around some book blogs I came across a comment from Judith (Reader in the Wilderness) which led me to visit her blog.

It’s serendipity.