Janet

I read Carrie's War by Nina Bawden in the bath today (two baths in one day - it must be Christmas! ) - it was excellent. Reading it made me realise just how good the most recent TV adaptation was!

Yes, congratulations, Pontalba. Great pic, Pickle.

Aww, lovely pic, Pontalba.

Noooooooooooooooo! Mmm - I can't help but agree!

Don't know how to edit on an iPhone but I'm being daft. I HAVE seen Willy Wonka as an adult! I will try to give it another go though.

Well, to be fair, I haven’t watched it for years and years, because when I did (I think I’ve only seen it once and I must have been reasonably young) I remember feeling quite creeped out by it. I will try to read the book this year, and then next time I see Willy Wonka is on, I will try it again and see if it’s better now I’m an adult! I like Johnny's Willy Wonka, but I can understand why his portrayal wouldn't suit everyone - and he does look a little like Michael Jackson I'll concede! I will look forward it it! I thought the article was great – it’s the paper I don’t like. I don’t actually buy a newspaper very often but when I do I only buy a weekend paper – and then only a broadsheet (Guardian, Times or Telegraph depending on my mood). The Mail is (in my opinion, and I don’t want to offend anyone who reads it) a rather bigoted paper . I have glanced through it at it at work in the staff canteen if there is no other paper available to read and it all seems to be about immigration, people on benefits and what gives you cancer, and whilst I don’t support people who are ‘layabouts’ and stay on benefits because they want to, I do realise that some people have to be on benefits – but to me the Mail seems to go for a “one size problem fits all” approach. As I said, it’s all personal preference and I don’t want to offend any Mail readers.

I'd forgotten that bit of dialogue, but yes, my head boggled at that too! Thanks for responding - I shall look forward to some more of your answers.

Thanks for confirming that. I must try another Christie this year.

My Dad had one at Barclay's when he was in business but I don't know anyone (apart from Harry Potter - and he's got an entire vault! ) who has one in read life!

Oh, I hadn't thought of that! You might have found this yourself, Kylie - but there is an article from one of our newspapers on what happened to all the main characters here. It's not a paper I'd touch with a 10 foot pole, personally, but it's very popular here and the article is quite interesting if you haven't already seen it.

Ugh, Willy Wonka. Creepy! (ETA: Okay, should have read your whole post properly. Now I've just insulted one of your favourite films ever! Sorry! It was on TV here at the weekend but I only saw the last 5 minutes. I want to read the book now, to see how both films compare - apparently Dahl hated Willy Wonka so much that he refused to have any other books adapted in his lifetime, so I feel a little vindicated - but I hope I haven't offended you. ) Is that the same as And The There Were None? I had an ancient copy of it somewhere but I'm not sure if I still have it - not sure I'd want to read it in public now with that title. I don't know where it came from as I haven't read it. Have you guys actually done a combined list of your lists? I've read a few off yours and have quite a few on my 'to read' pile - perhaps I would have more luck with 'Kylie and frankie's books you must read before you die' than I'm likely to with the '1000 books...'

That sounds right up my street (pun intended!) so I've added it to my library Wish List - thanks for the recommendation, Claire.

Ah! I did watch At Home with the Braithwaites when it was shown, but I hadn't associated the younger daughter with the girl in Carrie's War. Now you've said, it's blindingly obvious and I wonder how I missed it! Yes, I definitely want to read Going Solo now! Hehe - it might come down to your suggestion! I was going to try to do a couple today but I've just been too busy! Bless you.

12. Did any of the dialogue stick out for you as being either very good… or very bad! Frankie has already highlighted my favourite bit of text – the bit where Captain is discussing what a good pet cook is! I learned from Google after typing in ‘significance of 365, 52 and 12 in large buildings’ (Malplaquet has "365 windows, 52 state bedrooms and 12 company rooms") that there is such a thing as a calendar house, where architectural features are built with those numbers in them to signify days in a year, weeks in a year and months in a year! 13. Were you engaged immediately with the story, or did it take you a while to get into it? I got into it quite quickly, but like someone else has already said, I enjoyed the bits at Malplaquet much more than the bits that took place on the island, so I ‘properly’ got into it once the action had moved away from the island again. 14. Did you find the ending of the book satisfactory? If not, what would you have changed about it? I did enjoy the ending. However, there is something that is puzzling me (and I’d love someone to fill me in as I don’t really want to re-read the book!). At the beginning, we’re told that Maria’s parents had died and that “there had been no money left. Not even enough to live respectably in a boarding house, somewhere else.” At the end, when Maria’s lawyers successfully sue for ‘mort d’ancestre’ “the result was that the whole of Maria’s great inheritance had been restored.” What inheritance – where did it come from? 15. If you enjoyed the book, would you have liked a sequel? How do you think the story could develop in the sequel? I don’t think there was enough story left for a sequel – although I think it would have been nice to have found out what happened to Maria – and to Malplaquet – perhaps 20 years on! 16. What did you think about the setting of the book? Does it come to life? Did you feel you were experiencing the time and place in which the book was set? As I said above, the action that took place at Malplaquet (and in fact, all the locations away from the island) were where the best parts of the story took place. I've already answered but yes, I felt it was taking place in the time it was set - but it also had a hint of 18th century about it, which is when Gulliver's Travels was published. 17. From the answers to questions 1 to 11 so far (6 Feb) it seems that the book hasn’t stood the test of time as it feels rather dated. Despite this, do you think the same basic story could be written today in a way which was convincing and enjoyable to today’s young people? I think the story of Maria’s lost inheritance, her loyal friends and the two ‘badies’ could be written for today’s audience and the story would still be enjoyable. I’m not convinced that the ‘Lilliputian’ side of the story would stand up though. I do wonder why this isn't as well known as other children's classics written around the same period. 18. If you were able to talk to T H White, is there anything you would you ask him about the book? I would love to know where he got his inspiration for the story from – and whether he knew a Mr Hater in real life! 19. If your book has an introduction did you read it? a) If yes, did you read it before or after you’d read the actual story? b) If you read it before the story, did it enhance your enjoyment in any way? I read it. In my edition it was just the author Anne Fine telling us how much she’d enjoyed the book as a child, and that as an author it would be her answer to the question often asked of authors “if you could have written any book, which would it be?” I read it before I started the story (as it was only one side long). It didn’t enhance my reading at all - but neither did it ruin anything! I wonder if anyone had different editions with different introductions. My book didn’t have any illustrations, but I’ve seen since that some older editions have line drawings in them – I’d have quite liked the illustrated version!

Yup, that's the one. A quincunx is an arrangement of five objects in the shape of a cross, being a square of four objects with one object in the middle. So as a good example, the number 5 on a dice is arranged quincunxially! In MMR, the Quincunx was actually the lake, so I don't think it's like the proper definition. One of the books illustrates the grounds thus (I suppose the island is the fifth, middle spot but it's not totally clear what the other four spots are!). I wish my book was illustrated! Your sandwich sounds lush!

I will come back to those questions later, but in the meantime I must share a coincidence with you! Whilst reading the book, the word Quincunx came up on a number of occasions, and I didn't know what it meant (apart from that it would be something to do with the number 5) so I looked it up in my dictionary that was in the lounge. As a separate event, I used the word tactile in a post in my reading blog, and frankie commented that she had not come across this word before - we had a little discussion about it in my blog the day after I finished Mistress Masham's Repose, and afterwards I popped onto dictionary.com just to reassure myself I'd used it in the correct context, even though I was fairly sure I had! They have a little word quiz on dictionary.com. Imagine my surprise when I saw what the word that came up when I looked up tactile... Spooky coincidence or what?!

I have added some more questions. I know a few of you have answered some of these already but it might prompt some more discussion. Please answer as many as you wish - and ignore any you don't like! 12. Did any of the dialogue stick out for you as being either very good… or very bad! 13. Were you engaged immediately with the story, or did it take you a while to get into it? 14. Did you find the ending of the book satisfactory? If not, what would you have changed about it? 15. If you enjoyed the book, would you have liked a sequel? How do you think the story could develop in the sequel? 16. What did you think about the setting of the book? Does it come to life? Did you feel you were experiencing the time and place in which the book was set? 17. From the answers to questions 1 to 11 so far (6 Feb) it seems that the book hasn’t stood the test of time as it feels rather dated. Despite this, do you think the same basic story could be written today in a way which was convincing and enjoyable to today’s young people? 18. If you were able to talk to T H White, is there anything you would you ask him about the book? 19. If your book has an introduction did you read it? a) If yes, did you read it before or after you’d read the actual story? b) If you read it before the story, did it enhance your enjoyment in any way?

I finished book #9* last night - Boy by Roald Dahl. What a cracking book - I really enjoyed it. *This means I am now behind with 9 reviews. So much for being better organised in 2012

Thank you! Initially I was going to colour co-ordinate it so that I set a standard throughout my posts , so for example, this colour for fiction, this colour for non-fiction, this colour for children's/YA books, this colour for plays etc, but it never quite happened and instead each post is different, although usually this colour! There was a serial version of Carrie's War on the BBC when I was about 9 or 10, I seem to remember, and I also saw the remake a few years back with Alun Armstrong (I love him as an actor) and Pauline Quirke (I like her too!) which was very good, although it's been so long since I read it that I don't know how accurate it was - so it will be interesting to find out.

The above quote came from the Reading Circle post about Mistress Masham's Repose. Today I went to the hospital in Bath - they had a book sale in aid of Friends of the RUH and I found Carrie's War for 10p! I gave 20p - would have given more but that was all the change I had in my purse!) - I haven't read this for years!

Oh boy! I'm reading The Cruise of the Snark by Jack London on my Kindle and Boy by Roald Dahl when in the bath!

She's the daughter of Bloomsbury Group writer David Garnett, with whom White was friends. I didn't know until I read his entry that he wrote Aspects of Love, which Andrew Lloyd Webber turned into a musical! ETA: Apparently she drowned aged 29. I found an article in The Guardian which says... Amaryllis died in 1973, and her sad story may feature in a further volume of autobiography: "She was discovered in the Thames, drowned, but nobody knew why she'd fallen in, or whether she'd fallen in, or whether she'd done it herself, or what had ­happened. She didn't leave any note or anything behind her."

Scatterbrained is the perfect word to describe the professor! I loved these parts too! I’d forgotten about Captain, but he was cute! A bloater is a type of herring – popular in the UK years ago, but I don’t recall ever seeing them in recent years. I know they used to make bloater paste. Do you get fish paste? It’s pretty vile stuff (in my opinion) sold in jars – when I was a kid we used to have salmon paste sandwiches for tea on a Sunday! If I’m recalling correctly, bearing in mind I haven’t eaten it for 30+ years, it’s like a mixture of fish and sawdust! Wink wink indeed! I’m not sure, really! I did enjoy the Disney film of the Sword in the Stone very much (I’m not sure how true to the book it is), but Arthurian legend isn’t something that really appeals to me. I’m not sure why! I live fairly near to Glastonbury which is, I believe, thought to be associated with Arthur somehow. I can’t quite put my finger on why but they just aren’t me – although maybe I’m missing out by not reading them! I would give Mistress Masham’s Repose about 3/5, I think. It wasn’t bad… just not as good as I’d anticipated. There are other books that I would consider children’s classics that I enjoyed much more than this. Things like Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden, Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce (one of my favourites), Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier, Gobbolino the Witch's Cat by Ursula Williams (another favourite!) – and this just didn’t live up to them. I did enjoy Gulliver’s Travels – some bits more than others, but overall it was an enjoyable experience. I read it purely because of the ‘blurb’ on the back of Mistress Masham.

I thought that was Robbie Williams and Tom Jones!

Thanks, June. I know it's going to take several years, but I'm feeling quite inspired at the moment. It definitely helps that others are doing it too.