Tag Archives: Books

The Barchester Chronicles

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I was lucky enough to be given the DVD’s of The Barchester Chronicles as a Christmas present and I’ve just finished viewing it all. I think this was one of the few classic book adaptations which I saw on television before I had read the books, so I had no idea if the BBC had done a good job or not.

I just knew that I really enjoyed the series, well you can’t go far wrong with such a brilliant cast I suppose. It was the first time that I remember seeing Alan Rickman in anything and he made a wonderful job of portraying the ghastly Obadiah Slope. Barbara Flynn looks so young too, it was made in 1988, which I can hardly believe.

Donald Pleasence, Nigel Hawthorne, Geraldine McEwan,Susan Hampshire and Clive Swift are the main players.

The series is based on the novels The Warden and Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope. A newspaper sets out to rid the Church of England of nepotism, using a young local doctor to spearhead the campaign. The reverend Harding, who is well-loved in the local community is targeted by the newspaper and his name is dragged through the press. At times of great stress, Mr Harding (who is in charge of the church music) plays the air cello whilst he is in mid verbal flow. I thought this was a great way of showing how emotional he became and I was pleased to discover that it is in the books.

When the old bishop dies, he is replaced by Bishop Proudie (Clive Swift) and his wife (Geraldine McEwan), with Mrs. Proudie very much the one wearing the bishop’s hat. I think that this might be quite a common occurrence as at the time the series was first aired they were exactly like a certain bishop and wife couple of our acquaintance with a diocese in the west of Scotland.

Throw in Alan Rickman as Obadiah Slope, Mrs. Proudie’s sleazy side-kick and you have a very entertaining series. Don’t be put off by the ecclesiastical ambience of the whole thing.

Trollope seems to have had as much fun with names as Dickens did. One character is called Sir Omicron Pie and there is a Sir Lamda Mewnew, both doctors to the bishop.

It’s a good long while since I read the books but viewing the series again has whetted my appetite so I’m hoping that I enjoy them as much as I did after watching the series the first time.

Flashback Challenge

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I’ve been reading about all these book challenges that are going on and thought that it was about time that I signed up for one myself. The Flashback Challenge seems like a great excuse to re-read ‘old friends’ and I’m really enthusiastic about it, so I’m planning to read 12 books again, one for each month of the year – and here they are.

Flashback Challenge books

As I’ve never participated in a book challenge before, I’m just presuming that the idea is you write a review in your blog. Anyway, that’s what I’ll be doing with these books, although not particularly in this order.

1. The Enchanted April – by Elizabeth von Arnim.
2. Lark Rise – Flora Thompson.
3. And Quiet Flows the Don- Mikhail Sholokhov.
4. The Fortunes of War – Olivia Manning.
5. Strong Poison – Dorothy L. Sayers.
6. The Railway Children – E. Nesbit.
7. The Golden Age – Gore Vidal
8. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee.
9. Scenes of Clerical Life – George Eliot
10. Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie.
11. Kidnapped – R.L. Stevenson.
12. Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier.

I’m looking forward to it.

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer

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If the Armistice Day commemorations and the documentaries about The Great War have given you an appetite for more, then you might be interested in this book.

It is a fictionalised autobiography of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon’s experiences in the trenches during 1916 and 1917. The main character George Sherston is Sassoon himself and the action starts at the Army School and goes on to describe the characters and actions along the way.

Sassoon became disillussioned with the war and he ended up being sent to Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh, mainly because the poet Robert Graves (David Cromlach in the book) had managed to convince the authorities that Sassoon had shell shock.

It’s a great read if you are into the First World War. However, I was always aware that if Sassoon hadn’t been born into a very wealthy family with influential connections, he would have been put up against a post and shot.

For more information go to the online Sassoon manuscripts which I reached via this Guardian article.

Bronte by Glyn Hughes

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Bronte

I bought this book as my recent visit to Haworth Parsonage had left me feeling the need to immerse myself in Brontedom. This book managed to feed my appetite and although it is a work of fiction, I feel that it was well researched and well written.

There are a few clunky parts in it, which isn’t bad for a book of 506 pages. Quite early on Hughes writes that Patrick Bronte had liked to feel his wife’s foetuses kicking. It may seem like nit-picking but I can’t imagine anyone feeling anything other than a baby kicking and that word foetus is too medical and just jars the ear.

About half way through the book, it becomes very religious with the sisters worrying about sinful thoughts and ending up in Hell, about Universalism, Calvinism and Wesleyans. I could have done without this part altogether.

Perhaps they did have such worries but I think it more likely that they had a less questioning attitude to their faith. Given the fact that they had already lost their mother and two sisters, I think they would have been clinging on to the thought of them as having gone to a ‘better place’ as a source of comfort, rather than anything else.

I’ve known a lot of clergyman’s daughters, wives, mothers, grandmothers, sisters and aunts, (my husband comes from a long line of Episcopalian clergymen – or ‘penguins’ as he puts it) so I know from experience that religion and faith are not high on the agenda of things to worry about.

Despite that, I think that Hughes has made a good job of filling in the gaps between the known facts and has written an entertaining novel, which should be enjoyable to anyone with an interest in the Brontes beyond reading their novels.

For me, it was definitely enhanced by the fact that I had recently visited Haworth Parsonage and I could easily imagine all the action taking place there.

I think the book could easily be adapted for television and it would be more interesting than yet another version of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. The actress Shirley Henderson would make a good Charlotte.

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim

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I first came across Elizabeth von Arnim when I was rooting around in a second-hand bookshop years ago. I saw a beautiful, small, slim volume bound in calf skin with lovely gold edges. I had to buy it whatever the contents were.

However I had struck gold as the book was called Elizabeth and Her German Garden and it turned out to be a book based on the author’s life as a wife, mother and gardener. As a keen gardener the whole thing appealed to me and I really loved it.

The book was first published in 1898 but my edition was printed in 1914, that fateful year. I was intrigued as there was no clue as to who the author was and as I bought the book before the existence of the internet I had to do a bit of detective work and I eventually discovered that it was written by Elizabeth von Arnim.

I managed to track down her other books and a few years after that (the BBC) made an adaptation of her most famous book, The Enchanted April.

It’s a story about four very different women who are unhappy with the lives which they are leading and are desperate for a change of scene. After seeing an advert in The Times for a medieval castle in Italy, available to rent for the month of April, they end up sharing it to make it more affordable.

San Salvatore turns out to be a magical place for them.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and went on to read everything else which von Arnim had written which I could find.

I later discovered that Elizabeth was the cousin of Katherine Mansfield, who was quite a famous short story writer. Katherine’s other claim to fame was that she ‘bolted’ from her husband after only one week of marriage. I’d love to know why she gave up so quickly. Must have been quite a scandal at the time.

Edinburgh (Capital Punishment)

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We had a lovely day out in Edinburgh yesterday, keeping well away from Princes Street. I’m from Glasgow and we laughingly call such a trip capital punishment.

First we visited the National Gallery of Modern Art, it has free plentiful parking and free entry so no worries there.

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

We used to take our boys to the gallery quite often when they were wee, you can’t start them off too young. I can’t tell you how impressed an art teacher was when one of them recognised a Henry Moore from a photograph.

Reclining Figure

Unfortunately there is a Damien Hirst exhibition on at the moment and it just left me completely cold. Fish, a dead sheep and a medicine cabinet. I just don’t get it at all and to me his whole career has come about because the so called experts weren’t brave enough to stand up and say what garbage his ‘art’ really is. The diamond encrusted skull was so unoriginal and boring.

I watched Newsnight Review last night and Kirsty Wark and company seemed to be surprised by how bad his attempts at more traditional art were. Actually, they wondered if he had deliberately made poor attempts as they didn’t seem to think it was possible for the great Damien Hirst to be so evidently talentless.

Well, I’ve never seen any evidence that he has ever had any talent. It’s just The Emperor’s New Clothes all over again.

Anyway. To shake off the Hirst mind numbingly boring experience, we decided to take a walk along the Water of Leith path which is just at the back of the Gallery.

Water Of Leith 1

We hadn’t been that way before and decided to turn left and took the path to Stockbridge rather than Balerno as we haven’t the foggiest notion of what there is to see at Balerno.

Water Of Leith 2

It was a really lovely day and it was quite busy down there what with joggers, walkers and cyclists. The water was really picturesque with great reflections of the autumnal trees.

Water Of Leith 3

I was surprised that there is so much housing along the way and some really great buildings, both modern, old and sort of repro. It must be a popular place to live as it is so rural but close to the city.

It wasn’t long before we were mounting the steps leading to Stockbridge which always seems to be quite villagey to me. It even has a traditional butcher shop and I can tell you that they are really thin on the ground in Scotland now – and I never thought I would find myself saying that. That’s Tesco for you.

There are nice independent shops like a cheesemonger as well. It’s just a pity that there are so many charity shops, although I shouldn’t really complain about that as we did buy quite a few books. Now we just have to find space for them, usual problem. It was nice to see that Scotmid has taken over the old Woolworths shop as I know that the local residents had a bit of a battle to stop one of the big supermarkets from taking it over. That would have killed off the whole area shop-wise.

So if you ever feel tempted towards capital punishment do yourself a favour and shun Princes Street for a nice slice of real Edinburgh life.

The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst

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Book cover

Book cover

If you are at all interested in lighthouses then you should certainly read this book.I always quite fancied myself as a lighthouse keeper, it seemed such a quiet way of life, apart from the howling gales.

However, I had never really given much thought to the logistics and difficulties of building them in such remote and inhospitable locations, as they inevitably are.

The Stevenson family is indeed that of the famous Robert Louis, who was an engineer himself before becoming a successful author. The Northern Lighthouse Trust was established in 1786 and this book tells of the difficulties encounterd in the construction of lighthouses and the techniques employed to overcome them.

With plenty of Scottish history thrown in to the mix it all makes for a very interesting read.

Earlier in the summer we took ourselves over to the west coast of Scotland for a desperately needed change of atmosphere, (it’s very different from the east coast) and for once we went over to the opposite side of the Clyde to Greenock, Gourock and then on to Largs.

Greenock was a huge surprise to me as everyone is always ‘bad-mouthing’ the place but the bits that I saw looked really great. The esplanade is fantastic compared to what I have been used to in the way of esplanades.There are really lovely houses with just the most beautiful scenery to look out at.

View from Greenock across the Clyde to Helensburgh

View from Greenock across the Clyde to Helensburgh

This was the first flashing buoy to be put on the river Clyde to aid navigation – by the Northern Lighthouse Trust. It now sits on the esplanade at Greenock.

buoy

Plaque below buoy

Plaque below buoy

The Forsyte Saga

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I’ve been watching the re-runs of The Forsyte Saga recently and I can’t help thinking that nobody involved in the making of it seems to have thought of actually reading the book. I can’t see how they could have chosen Gina McKee to play the part of Irene otherwise.

I have really enjoyed the adaptation although for me it has been marred by the choice of an actress who is the complete opposite of the descriptions of Irene. As the whole book (trilogy) rests on Irene having a wonderful figure, a swaying walk (bum waggling in todayspeak) and yellow golden hair, it seems very strange to me that we are expected to believe that any woman with such an emaciated figure as McKee has could possibly be desired by every man that she came into contact with, which is just about what happens in the book. Irene’s figure was described as being ‘well covered’. They would suspect her of having T.B. Come to think of it, she would be perfect as a tragic heroine dying of consumption, or in something about the Irish potato famine.

I think it is really lazy casting and I feel sorry for any young unknown actresses who are overlooked in favour of well known people, even when they are completely unsuitable for the part. How is anyone supposed to get on in the profession when the same people pop up all the time just because they are a known face.

Soames was supposed to have dark hair, so Damien Lewis seems to be an odd choice for that part, given that he is a redhead but in every other aspect he is perfect as Soames, who I always had a bit of a soft spot for.
I hope he wasn’t chosen because he has red hair. Victorian novelists always gave their bad guys red hair so that people knew where they were with them straightaway. As I have red hair, I can’t help noticing things like that.

Anyway, I am just old enough to remember the original BBC version of The Forsyte Saga. I think I was about 10 years old when it was shown, and I recall the lovely Nyree Dawn Porter being very good as Irene. Although sadly I think it did her career no good as she was forever tainted by the character. The whole thing caused quite a scandal in the late 1960s, I’m quite amazed that I was allowed up to watch it.

Gina McKee would have made a better Fleur, as she has the perfect figure for a flapper.

Well, it encouraged me to re-read the books, which I hadn’t done for about 20 years and as I enjoyed that so much I’ve dug out some more Galsworthy books which I have never got around to reading. So tonight I’m starting Fraternity which I have just noticed was dedicated to J.M. Barrie – someone else that I have a soft spot for, so I’m taking that as a good omen.