Madeleine

Any Human Heart - William Boyd

Letter from America - The Proclaimers

Actually I thought choosing the quickstep for Danny was a but unfair, I thought it was a surprising choice, given it was one of his weaker dances (along with the foxtrot in halloween week, apart from that he was pretty much the best dancer every week) whereas they choose the Singin in the Rain dance for Ore, which was his best dance after that jive, so I can't help feeling it was slightly tipped in Ore's favour. But that jive was great, as was his show dance, but I can't help feeling it was slightly manipulated towards him, not that he wasn't a worthy winner.

Hope that you're feeling better in time for your break Talisman, I had that too and the cough lasted for nearly 2 weeks, it was so annoying!

This Ole House - Shakin' Stevens (or Rosemary Clooney)

Just started number 50!

Just got another book of Christmas crime short stories - Murder under the Christmas Tree, and another in the Crowner John series by Bernard Knight: "The Tinner's Corpse".

Add rain to cold and grey now, sigh.

Interesting as I found RotK the hardest one to read, even when I re-read the trilogy after the films came out. Oh and the endless discussions with the Ents in The Two Towers....zzz You could always skim-read the songs, battles and endless lists (which is what I do with Game of Thrones). But overall I'd probably give the whole LotR trilogy 8-9/10.

I agree with you about Mystery in White, Will, apparently it's one of the BL's most successful titles, but I also found it very dated and far-fetched, even for the time it was written. I must say I've since read a couple more of the BL books and they're much better - The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay is a typical country house mystery, but I found it much more enjoyable than MinW.

I'm a bit gutted about Danny not winning as well, overall he was the best and most consistent dancer, the two dances which Ore did were his best, and I think it might have been a different outcome if the judges had given him a different first dance to do, although his show dance was stunning (so was Danny's, typically dramatic choreography!). Louise's showdance was nice but nothing really special, generally the slower showdances don't go down that well, and although she's good she was really only making up the numbers, it was always going to be between Danny and Ore. I agree with Will about Will Young leaving - they should not have had anyone leave that week in his place. Still a great series though, probably the highest standard ever, and hugely entertaining.

I agree about Timeless, barmy but fun.

We had that fog on Saturday, it never really went, just got very murky. Yesterday and today are just dull.

In the Bleak Midwinter - Christmas carol (and poem)

Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory

Still quite mild, and green things are starting to come through in the garden - no you're too early, go back!

Just finished Crimson Snow, this year's collection of Golden Age crime stories from the British Library Crime Classics range, and much better than last year's Silent Nights, which was fun but a much stronger collection this year - a couple are almost ghost stories, and a couple of others are long enough to be novellas. Very entertaining 8/10

Just read that Danny will be doing the Samba again (swoon) and the show dance will be to Adele's Set Fire to the Rain (love that song).

Jane Eyre's a character, Jane Austen was a writer!

Planet Earth - Duran Duran

To the Lighthouse - Virginia Woolf

In

I think I did too, talk about a leap of faith!

The Force Awakens will be my next film after I finish Spectre.

Try reading Kafka in German Mr Kat! Even harder....we did Metamorphosis for German A Level.