JeanW

I haven't but I'm glad you drew my attention to it. I'm a bit obsessed with Virginia and Vanessa and the while Bloomsbury thing and recently finished Angelica Bell's biography Deceived with Kindness after watching the TV series Living in Squares so I will look for this one. We come to the UK every year from Oz and always stay at the Tavistock in London and Virginia's house is just round the corner and there is a bust of her in the square across from the hotel. I find that era endlessly fascinating.

As an oldie on here my taste is probably rather different from many of you but for any other oldies, we went to see 45 Years, with Tom Courteney and Charlotte Rampling (who received an Oscar nomination for her role). Not a film for those who like action and fast moving plot but beautifully acted and very moving.

We watched A Walk in the Woods recently and after I adjusted to the fact that Robert Redford is much older than Bryson was when he did the walk, I quite enjoyed it. And Emma Thompson was as good as she always is.

I've heard a couple of people I know say the third one wasn't as good as the first. I've only read Cuckoo Calling and I enjoyed it so not sure whether to continue or not.

None of the detective series I read do that. I'm thinking of Wallander, Inspector Banks, Inspector Linley, P d James, John Harvey, Peter James and many others. In most of them, it probably helps to see how the characters and their relationships develop over time although it's not absolutely essential. But they certainly haven't given away the endings of their other books. In The Linley detective series Elizabeth George does sometimes refer to incidents in her previous novels such as the fact that Inspector Linley's wife was shot dead by an unknown murderer but it doesn't affect the plot.

The Killing - the original Danish version not the US adaptation - brilliant. I hate most of the American versions of UK and European TV.

You're very lucky in the UK being able to buy books from charity shops so easily. I know because we come to England every year now from Australia and one of the first things we do is find an Oxfam bookshop. Tasmania is a tiny island of half a million, widely dispersed, and our charity shops only carry a small number of books and usually fairly old ones. There are 2nd hand book shops but they tend to charge up to half the new price. So i buy most of my books 2nd hand from amzon.uk as even with the postage, it's cheaper than here. Also, the sort of books I read are often not available here at all so you have to order things in anyway.

No, sakura, it's not water under the bridge in this one. She's been told to smarten up her act...or else. I've read about 100 pages and am enjoying it. I agree totally that George went off at one stage but this seems more like her old form.

Having been born in West Yorkshire, and still having family there, that's nice to hear.

Hi. I'm an online friend of Sylvia and here for the same reason and should have introduced myself when I joined a couple of weeks ago. I'm a retired teacher and live in Tasmania although born and bred in Yorkshire. I like good crime novels, biographies of interesting people in the past and social history.

As George S Patton once said: If everyone is thinking alike, then someone is not thinking.

While the northern hemisphere has been battling floods and ice, here in Australia we've had more bushfires in several states and three people currently missing in WA and lots of property destroyed.

I read this quite a few years ago and a couple of years later we visited the village. It's a very moving experience and well worth the visit. I noticed she has just published a new novel called The Secret Chord, about King David set in 1000 BC. She won the Pulitzer prize for 'March' which is about John March, the father who has gone to fight in the Civil War in Little Women.

War and Peace starts here in Oz in a week or so and I will watch it but was interested to read that the scriptwriter added the sex scenes and the reference to incest from his own imagination. Why do they feel this is necessary - it's insulting to intelligent viewers who you would think would be the main audience for this. There is so little good stuff ( ie - programs that appeal to us) on free to air that we mainly watch either pay TV or old programs and movies via YouTube on our big TV.

I've read: Bill Bryson's The Road to Little Dribbling The Paying Guest Gone Girl Fifty Shades of Grey and have the Peter James on the shelf waiting to be read. Most of these authors are just not my cup of tea regardless of whether they are best sellers. Gone Girl and Fifty Shades of Grey have to be the two worst books I've ever not finished.