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Now and Forever - Richard Marx

14. The Painted Veil - Somerset Maugham - 4.5/5 -Same as what luna said about this book. 😀 I really, really enjoyed the writing.

for safe keeping into

Another suggestion is My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell or one of his other animal books.

Hold Me Now ~ Thompson Twins

Why not? I have a Tarka the Otter omnibus and a James Herriot omnibus that I have my eye on - and no, that’s not why I chose the category 🙂 I read James Herriot as a teenager. They will have to go some to beat The Wind in the Willows, though. I am also considering Watership Down.

I'm struggling to think of what to read for this one! I might go for The Mercies, which I believe is based on the true story of a terrible storm and its consequences.

It might not actually be a children's mass at the other church. I have to admit, I don't know much about the United Reformed Church, but the catholic church we go to is really friendly towards kids. On Sundays there's a children's liturgy, where they can go over to an attached room and do fun activities like colouring (the school-age ones, anyway). If you have a young child being really noisy, there's an area you can stand in that has speakers, so you can still hear what the priest is saying, but the baby noise isn't stopping other people from being able to hear. The mass is a normal one though, not an actual children's mass.

Hold back the River - James Bay

Moon River - Andy Williams

Heartstone by C J Sansom “Politics is like dice: the better the player, the worse the man.” This is the fifth in the series of Shardlake novels set in the reign of Henry VIII. This time we are in 1545 and England is on the brink of war with France. The action moves between London, Portsmouth and rural Hampshire. There are some recurring characters. Barak is still Shardlake’s sidekick. Sir Richard Rich is suitably villainous as ever and Guy the physician also continues to be a part of the story. The plot this time has a couple of focuses. The Court of Wards is one of them dealing with the wardship of orphaned children. The other is a continuation from a previous book and deals withy a resident of Bedlam. As ever there are plenty of twists and turns. There are always some predictabilities. Shardlake inevitably gets threatened and taken captive. He is always in the middle of whatever historical event is going on. During the build up I thought to myself, surely he’s not going to stick the poor chap on the Mary Rose when it sinks? Well, wait and see!! There is another interesting story line in the form of a transgender character and Sansom handles this pretty well without resorting to formulaic solutions. Ideal comfort reading (for me anyway). 7 and a half out of 10 Starting Death under a little Sky by Stig Abell

Harvest Moon - Neil Young

the police took her

now so widespread, that

It's Only A Paper Moon ~ Ella Fitzgerald

Only You - The Platters

The Fly (1965) Richard Chopping It took forever to find a copy of this book and I was intrigued to read it due to the many reviews (some of them are on the book itself) which suggested that the book was depraved, shocking, sick, diabolical, scatological, filthy etc. I was, therefore, very excited to read what, presumably, would be a very transgressive novel about "unspeakable people and the unmentionable things they do." Instead, what I actually got was a rather tame novel about a collection of office workers in the 1960s and their complex interpersonal relationships. Sure, the book begins with three urchin children (belonging to the office caretaker Mrs Macklin) playing with a used condom on the end of a stick (tied off at the end apparently and therefore reducing the possibility of a disgusting outcome) and showing it to the office workers as they arrived at work, but beyond this opening, there's very little in the book that I would actually describe as depraved or shocking. These children, a recurring group throughout the novel, seemingly spend all day just hanging around outside the office with little else to do (it was the '60s, children and dogs just wandered the streets). Meanwhile we have Mr Gender who is in love with Miss Jeacock who, in turn is in love with O'Flattery, an Irish man (apparently his only character trait), who is himself being pursued by the aforementioned Mrs Macklin. I have to say, the opening few chapters of this book were utterly sublime, wonderfully written, full of creative and intelligent prose, and highly accomplished. The gimmick of the book (and the reason for its title) is that each of these encounters (be they in the office or at the homes of the characters) are witnessed by a fly, a kind of observer who, unlike the humans with their selfish desires and unnatural behaviours, is positively quaint and noble by comparison. I think we're supposed to conclude that it's the same fly throughout the novel but given the distances involved in these various environments, it seems unlikely and so instead I think we must ultimately conclude that the species (Musca domestica) as a whole are observing our curious human ways. Anyway, as I said, I really enjoyed the opening chapters. They were very compelling, entertaining, and well-written. Alas, Chopping lingers a little too long on certain events (Mr Gender declares his unrequited love for Miss Jeacock leading to disaster) and he doesn't fully utilise his premise of the fly as an unseen and platonic witness. Truth be told, it was a nice way to start the book but it becomes increasingly redundant as it goes along. There are too many uneventful chapters and the exploration of the mundane never quite reaches the heights (neither in terms of writing nor story) that were present at the beginning. It's a novelty book, unique and worth reading, and with some genuine moments of excellent writing. But it is, ultimately, overwritten and fizzles out into a damp squib by the very end. Plus, if, like me, you were expecting some depravity and filth (all things promised), sadly you get very little of that. Instead, the worst you get is a young girl holding a used condom on the end of a stick. Which perhaps works as a nice analogy for the book itself. Interesting at first but then slightly tiresome. 6/10

the Only One - The Charlatans

I Only Have Eyes for You - The Flamingos

The man with the child in his eyes - Kate Bush

the above, ill feeling

Funny Man - Chat Pile

Mirror Man - The Human League

the embarrassing aftermath of