Madeleine

Oh what a great cast, that sounds brilliant.

Yes it's sad that Aliona is leaving, she's had a very good run. She said she was planning on it being her last series anyway, however far she got this time. I'd rather have seen Jay's salsa or jive again, I think they were better dances than the paso, like chesilbeach I'll be watching them on Youtube!

We had a few theatre trips, we saw King Lear somewhere, although I can't remember who played Lear, it was a fairly small theatre so I don't think it was any of the high profile actors; however for German A Level we got taken to the National Theatre to see a production of Galileo with none other than Michael Gambon in the title role. We did get shown a few film/TV versions of some plays as well, including Hamlet despite the fact that we never studied it.

Yep, Saturdays won't be the same without Strictly (and The Bridge as well).

Welcome mh! Jane Eyre's my favourite too.

Same here, wind and rain keep waking me up during the night.

I think I'd have put Simon and Garfunkel at the top as well, I'm surprised Sonny and Cher weren't higher up.

It's a long time since I was at school and I'm not sure how things are now, but when I did English Literature it was a mixture of books (the usual classics plus some more recent ones such as To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm), poetry and plays - again as usual Shakespeare dominated but we did Pygmalion and a few other Bernard Shaw plays as well, and we did read them out in class, with us playing the various roles, which did help a little. We did go to see an occasional production too, which also helps bring the play alive. When I did advanced level French and German, we also studied some of their literature in the original language, such as Goethe, Kafka and Maupassant.

Yes I agree, he really did improve a lot and did some great dances every week - jive, salsa, paso doble, Charleston....plus I don't think he was ever in the dance-off.

Not generally, although like Ian I needed a bit of time after some of GRRM's books (I'm looking at you, A Storm of Swords!) but if I have read something heavy I'll usually follow it up with something completely different, maybe a cosy crime novel or similar easy read.

OMG indeed - I'm glad he won but a part of me thinks Kellie should have won - her show dance was fabulous and everything a show dance should be. I did think Jay might have blown it with his show dance - great beginning but after that it didn't go anywhere, there were bits of brilliance and then they went into something else; as the judges said, it was more like a trailer for all their best bits. I actually thought Katie's show dance was better - it was very dramatic, great sets and costumes although she did lose it towards the end a bit, which was always her problem - I still don't think she should have been in the final but never mind. Wasn't sure about Georgia's with the blindfold, it was certainly different. To be honest I wouldn't have minded who won out of those three, but the boy done good, as they say, and it was a great show (although I did shout at Claudia to shut up at one point when she was just babbling).

ooh I'm not sure about getting the public to vote, they have a tendency to keep the worst dancers in the contest for entertainment value - how many times have 2 good dancers been in the dance-off when much worse competitors have received more votes? I have a bad feeling that Katie might win, for the simple reason that people will vote for Anton (which is what one of my friends suspects has been happening) - she's not in the same league as Jay, Kelly and Georgia - I wouldn't have a problem with any of those 3 winning.

What a great idea (I loved Spike Milligan's interpretations of the Bible by the way, very funny). My top 5 winter/fireside reads are (in no particular order) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - moors, madness, old houses, bad weather , etc Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier - more moors and bad weather, plus it all comes to a head over Christmas Dark Matter by Michelle Paver - set in the Arctic Circle during winter, so no daylight for 2 months and very cold The American Boy by Andrew Taylor - set in a mixture of London and the countryside, mistaken identity, unrequited love Lord of the Rings - just a wallow, perfect for holiday reading and it has such a dark, wintry feel to it

Bumping this topic as I finished this book last night, overall I loved it, I agree with other posters that it's fascinating to see how both Margaret and John Thornton change, Margaret finally finding her feet although she was pretty outspoken when pushed. I loved how she helped protect Thornton during the riot, she seemed so put upon but when really needed she wasn't afraid to put herself in possible danger, I did think that her father, though he was a lovely man, did take advantage of her a bit, even given the constraints of the time. The book seemed surprisingly modern at times eg with the mill-workers protesting at cheaper foreign (from Ireland!) labour being brought in, and even the writing seemed more up to date than in some Victorian novels I've read, however I did struggle a bit with the local dialect, luckily my copy had a reference section to explain various words (such as "clemming" listed above). It did remind me a bit of Pride and Prejudice, a sort of grittier version I suppose, and Thornton is a bit like Darcy, although he's a self-made man and, I think, much more hands on in business than Darcy, but the initial relationship between the two main characters is quite similar to P & P. My other gripe, and I notice other reviewers have brought this up, is the ending, which is very abrupt and almost more of a business deal (as did often happen then of course). I saw the TV series (I have it on DVD as well) and think that the ending in that was much better, albeit more romantic! But a great book overall, and I loved the two main characters, who I think are very well-matched.

I've managed to get my wishlist on Amazon down quite a bit, to 31, and I have a shorter one on Waterstone's - about 15, although most of them are on my Amazon list too. Considering last year it was over 95, that's not bad for me!

I haven't counted them for ages, but I have around 65 on my "mental" list, and goodness knows how many others dotted around, usually from book series which I need to catch up on. So yes way too many!

I love bookmarks and usually buy one from wherever I visit, eg stately homes, they're all in my bedside drawer and each time I start a book I take the next bookmark from the front of the row, and the one I've just used goes to the back to wait it's next turn!

I thought Georgia was a bit under-powered this week, due to her illness I expect, and neither waltz did much for me, to be honest I usually find the waltz a bit boring. Loved Jay's Charleston, thought the Doctor Who theme really worked although I'm not sure what happened at the end either, it was a bit clunky but apart from that it was my favourite dance of the night. I think the other couple should have gone in the dance-off, won't say anymore in case anyone hasn't seen it/read about it in the papers yet!

I've almost finished this and I'm really enjoying it, I agree it does get a bit "issue" heavy at times but it's certainly still very topical (eg the issue of "foreign" workers being brought in) and overall she handles the issues well. It does remind me of a grittier version of "Pride and Prejudice", although I think Margaret has led a bit more of a sheltered life than the Bennett girls, who all jostled for space within their family, whereas Margaret is an only child who hadn't seen much, if anything, of the outside world until they leave for the North. She's so put upon at times that I felt really sorry for her, and her father in particular seems a bit thick-skinned towards how she was feeling, although he was kind and was also suffering in his own way, but occasionally I wanted to shout at his attitude towards her, but I suppose those were the conventions of the time. For a classic I've actually found it surprisingly easy to read, occasionally a little bit wordy but overall I've found it quite fast-paced, with all the misunderstandings common to the course of true love not running smoothly!

Yes definitely the first 4 Vampire novels, after that they seriously go downhill, although I quite enjoyed Blackwood Farm - the 9th one I think, which can be read as a standalone book.

I loved Jay's dance, and Georgia's paso, I thought Kellie's was a bit hit and miss but I was still surprised she was in the dance-off, I'd have thought it might have been either Anita - whose rumba, I agreed with Len, wasn't sensuous enough - or Katie, who was great when she was being lifted, but once her feet hit the floor her legs seemed to belong to someone else ,it was like watching 2 different dancers to me. So I think either Katie or Anita will go next. It was inevitable that Peter would go this week.

My favourites so far this year is The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson, and The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark; my least favourites are the one I've just finished, A Place In the Hills by Michelle Paver, which I almost gave up on - hard to believe it was written by the same author who wrote Dark Matter, which was my favourite book a couple of years ago; let's just say she's improved a lot! Other no-no's were: Prince Lestat by Anne Rice - sheer boredom and I skipped quite a lot of it A Dance with Dragons by George R R Martin - book 5 of Game of Thrones, and after the first 4 books which I've loved, a huge disappointment, boring with lots of talk and not much happening, could easily have been edited into one book.

I do keep most of my books, apart from impulse buys and 3 for 2s where I had to get a 3rd book, or if I've read a book and didn't particularly like it, and they either go to a local charity shop (depending which one I can park nearest to, as a bag of books is pretty heavy...) or I donate them to a local charity which raises money to renovate an old house not far from where I live, although unfortunately I don't get to go there too often as they're not generally open to the public, and it's a bit difficult to get when it isn't open.

Yes in some routines they did seem a bit distracting. I think they worked on the paso as well, but could have done without them for some of the others. It did some more frenetic than usual for the Blackpool show, the opening sequence (I think someone else mentioned it too) was awful, totally manic.

Cold and rainy here too.