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Madeleine

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Everything posted by Madeleine

  1. Oh that sounds very worrying, wishing you all the best and hope you have better news soon.
  2. Rained quite a bit yesterday morning, but we haven't had anything like in other parts of the country, thankfully. Meant to be quite nice today, sunny at the moment, but more rain coming next week, hopefully not as much as this week though.
  3. So far it's been pretty mild here (SE England), a bit cooler but apparently mild for the time of year, but more in keeping with the season, very windy and wet too. Lots of rain overnight with more on the way. Not too cold at night yet either. The leaves are only just beginning to turn now.
  4. Talking Loud and Clear - Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark
  5. Funnily enough I could almost hear him reading it.
  6. Murder before Evensong by the Rev Richard Coles - this is the first novel by this author, who is best known in the UK as keyboard player with the band The Communards, and more recently as a broadcaster (and briefly a contestant on Strictly Come Dancing!), he has now retired from the priesthood and having written several non-fiction books has now turned his hand to fiction, and this is the first in a series set in the village of Champton, and centred around it's church and rector Daniel, who lives in the rectory with his widowed mother Audrey, and two dachshunds, plus his actor brother Theo who drops in occasionally. Apart from an argument as to whether pews should be removed from the church to make way for bathroom facilities, life is fairly calm, until one day a local historian, and cousin of the local Lord, is found, by Daniel, brutally murdered in the church. Another murder soon follows, the village is rocked and Daniel finds himself helping the police with their inquiries, both officially and unofficially, and it looks like Daniel and the Detective Sergeant, Neil, will be forming a team for future books; the next is already out in hardback with a 3rd book to follow next year. After a slow start, once the book got going I really enjoyed it, it's generally well written although at times it's slightly over-written and a little flowery in places, plus some references went over my head, but overall this was a perfect cosy(ish) crime story fairly well told, with appealing characters and a well-thought out plot (can't say anymore for fear of spoilers) and I would read more in this series. My slight quibble is that it took a while to establish just when the book was set, initially I assumed it was in the present, but a few cultural references eventually pointed it towards the mid to late 80s, which of course means that technology as we now know it was only just starting to make it's presence felt - he refers to expensive machines with keyboards and a screen at one point. But some more author notes would have been useful, other than that, a promising debut. 7/10
  7. Yes I'm not sure about Lesley either, maybe she's been brainwashed? Haven't read the latest book yet, will be interesting to see how the Bev storyline plays out.
  8. Yes I do too, I have tried to grow them before and have also had leaves but no flowers, or they grow a tiny bit and then either get eaten or give up. These are very tall and a bit straggly, but loads of flowers so I'll take that. Still growing strong too.
  9. I did try to grow some more flowers from seed this year, due to our erratic weather ie lovely warm June, then generally wet and not very warm July and August, not much grew, about 1/2 a dozen cosmos, and a few sunflowers and cornflowers, 2 zinnias, and one very slow tomato plant, which has produced around 20 tomatoes so far. Ah well, I don't have a proper greenhouse which probably would have helped a bit. The soil here is very claggy so not very good for growing things.
  10. Lovely sunny autumn day today, did a nice walk over a local country park which was packed, as it should be on such a nice day.
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