lunababymoonchild

I’ve always loved Bagpuss! I loved the others you mentioned too but, like you, don’t remember Noggin the Nog. Didn’t know that about Bagpuss

If it doesn’t breach copyright quoting here. For that matter, where did you get the quote in the first place ? Do yer own research, I say

Completed The Winter List, S G Maclean

Currently reading Windswept and Interesting, Billy Connolly

Hello Nicolas and welcome to the forum. Asking for help with research is against the rules - found here : Rules Perhaps if you bought/borrowed the book you could look it up yourself, otherwise I don’t see how anybody could help you. Unless the post is intended to incite argument (good luck with that) Your friendly moderator

Reading The Winter List, S G MacLean

The Painted Veil, W. Somerset Maugham. Starts with a quote: “Lift not the painted veil which those who live call life” From the sonnet Lift Not The Painted Veil Which Those Who Live by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Which is very beautiful and pretty much the story that Maugham wrote. Maugham states that his story was inspired by the lines that Dante wrote and then quotes and translates them but doesn’t say from which work. This, as I expected, is very well written. It’s also extremely compelling. It’s the life story of the central character, a woman, who makes three life changing mistakes early on in her life, while she’s still very young and how she copes with them, learning as she goes. The book does not end at the end of her life but the reader gets the impression that she will fare well as she goes forward. Maugham’s insights into her character and thought processes are stunning. It doesn’t give a time in history when it’s written but it does describe debutantes and the position of women (who are expected to make a ‘good marriage’ and have children and nothing more, amongst the wealthy). At the end, the main character realises what her parent’s marriage was like from their point of view and the constraints that they were under at the time, despite their wealth. This isn’t a long book - 107 pages, my copy - but Maugham makes his point eloquently without being too brief. His insights into all of the characters at the time period they occupy are acute and, seem to me, to be accurate. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommended it.

Would love that, if you have time.

Thank you @Brian. I appreciate that. I have Wolf Hall in paperback. When I read it at first, when it came out, I had no idea what was going on. The TV series is very good, no problem following that. As for Billy Connolly, I grew up listening to him and knew that he started out in folk music with Gerry Rafferty as The Humble-Bums. I just wondered what his book would be like. I’ll probably read this.

Hi and welcome to the forum

Currently reading History of Vampires by Future Publishing (they say it’s a book-a-zine)

Would like to know how you get on with both

Currently reading The Dark Wives, Ann Cleeves - Vera Stanhope 11

Just finished Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata

Just started Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. It’s weird but I like weird and it’s very short