Madeleine

Happy New Year everyone I stayed in and was in bed with my book just after 11.00, turned in around 12 and waited for the barrage of fireworks but it was relatively quiet this year.

Colder today, bit of rain this afternoon but nothing much, although the cold wind is back. Manages a nice walk this morning though. I didn't know Ireland was having floods as well, that hasn't been reported at all here. Hope you stay dry Nollaig.

Probably North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, ooh John Thornton, swoon!

My top 5: The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart When Nights were Cold by Susanna Jones

Well done bobblybear, what a great bit of news to end the year with.

Alternating between sun and rain, still quite mild, yesterday morning was like spring, and at this rate my daffodils will be in flower before the snowdrops come up!

Hope it goes well Athena, glad the dentist was OK.

Just started to catch up with And then there were none, have seen the first part and thought it was a bit slow at first but it's picked up now. Also got the last episode of The Bridge to watch. have now watched both of the above series and enjoyed them - I did read And then there were none years ago and correctly remembered whodunit. Missing The Bridge already hope they make another series.

I'm not a big fan of Sherlock, but the Victorian theme does appeal, and it looks quite good.

Yes Nat looked stunning didn't she?! I enjoyed the Xmas special but thought Tom should have won.

Well done Kell. My total is 48, slightly down on last year which was 51, I think slogging through the 5th Game of Thrones books clogged my reading up a bit.

Windy and rainy here too, horrible.

Thanks chesil, superfan! The Xmas special does sound good, they've got some of the best dancers this year.

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.