Janet

Thanks, Gaia

Thanks, Alex and Sari.

Thanks, Kylie. I'm all behind this year - I haven't read many of this year's blogs yet. I must remedy that at the weekend.

Thanks, Noll. 2016 is going to be a colourful year, I think! The Snow Sister was an entertaining tale, but not as satisfying as Frost Hollow Hall, which I loved. I must read her others this year though.

Okay, I think I'm done for now, so I officially declare this thread open! Have a cookie... and a cup of coffee/tea or a glass of wine

Spare post

Nook Book Wish List - titles available from the library Claire Tomalin Charles Dickens: A Life (LibrariesWest and Wiltshire Libraries) Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man (LibrariesWest)

For info: Charles Dickens 1. The Pickwick Papers (1837) 2. Oliver Twist (1839) finished 09.06.13 3. Nicholas Nickleby (1839) finished 21.12.14 4. The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) 5. Barnaby Rudge (1841) 6. A Christmas Carol (1843) first finished 29.12.07 7. Martin Chuzzlewit (1844) 8. Dombey and Son (1848) 9. David Copperfield (1850) 10. Bleak House (1853) 11. Hard Times (1854) finished 09.02.16 12. Little Dorrit (1857 13. A Tale of Two Cities (1859) finished 17.11.15 14. Great Expectations (1861) finished 05.11.16 15. Our Mutual Friend (1865) 16. The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870) 6/16 Thomas Hardy (From Wikipedia:) Hardy divided his novels and collected short stories into three classes: Novels of Character and Environment The Poor Man and the Lady (1867, unpublished and lost) Readable 1. Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School (1872) - finished 13.10.16 2. Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) finished 20.09.15 3. The Return of the Native (1878) 4. The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character (1886) finished 26.09.11 5. The Woodlanders (1887) 6. Wessex Tales (1888, a collection of short stories) 7. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented (1891) finished 07.0113 8. Life's Little Ironies (1894, a collection of short stories) 9. Jude the Obscure (1895) Romances and Fantasies 10. A Pair of Blue Eyes: A Novel (1873) 11. The Trumpet-Major (1880) 12. Two on a Tower: A Romance (1882) 13. A Group of Noble Dames (1891, a collection of short stories) 14. The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament (1897) (first published as a serial from 1892) finished 10.08.15 Novels of Ingenuity 15. Desperate Remedies: A Novel (1871) 16. The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters (1876) 17. A Laodicean: A Story of To-day (1881) 5/17 Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes' novels 1. A Study in Scarlet (1887) finished 03.03.16 2. The Sign of the Four (1890) finished 14.05.16 3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892) finished 13.02.16 'A Scandal in Bohemia' 'The Red-headed League' 'A Case of Identity' 'The Boscombe Valley Mystery' 'The Five Orange Pips' 'The Man with the Twisted Lip' 'The Blue Carbuncle' 'The Speckled Band' 'The Engineer’s Thumb' 'The Noble Bachelor' 'The Beryl Coronet' 'The Copper Beeches' 4. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) finished 14.07.16 'Silver Blaze' 'The Yellow Face' 'The Stock-broker’s Clerk' 'The ‘Gloria Scott' 'The Musgrave Ritual' 'The Reigate Squires' 'The Crooked Man' 'The Resident Patient' 'The Greek Interpreter' 'The Naval Treaty' 'The Final Problem' 5. The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) 6. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905) finished 19.09.16 'The Empty House' 'The Norwood Builder' 'The Dancing Men' 'The Solitary Cyclist' 'The Priory School' 'Black Peter' 'Charles Augustus Milverton' 'The Six Napoleons' 'The Three Students' 'The Golden Pince-Nez' 'The Missing Three-Quarter' 'The Abbey Grange' 'The Second Stain' 7. The Valley of Fear (1915) 8. His Last Bow (1917) 'Wisteria Lodge' 'The Cardboard Box' 'The Red Circle' 'The Bruce-Partington Plans' 'The Dying Detective' 'Lady Frances Carfax' 'The Devil’s Foot' 'His Last Bow' 9. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927) 'The Illustrious Client' 'The Blanched Soldier' 'The Mazarin Stone' 'The Three Gables' 'The Sussex Vampire' 'The Three Garridebs' 'Thor Bridge' 'The Creeping Man' 'The Lion’s Mane' 'The Veiled Lodger' 'Shoscombe Old Place' 'The Retired Colourman' 5/9

ENGLISH COUNTIES CHALLENGE - (TITLES READ IN RED) PROGRESS = 30/48 01. My Uncle Silas by H. E. Bates (Bedfordshire) – 5/5 02. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Berkshire) – 4/5 03. The Misses Mallett by E. H. Young (Bristol) 04. The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (Buckinghamshire) - 5/5 05. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers (Cambridgeshire) - 4½/5 06. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell (Cheshire) - 5/5 07. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (City of London) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (City of London) - 5/5 - (I might read an alternative for this as I’ve read it on numerous occasions already) - 5/5 08. Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier (Cornwall) - 5/5 09. Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome / The Maid of Buttermere by Melvyn Bragg (Cumbria) - 3½/5 10. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks (Derbyshire) – 5/5 - I have already read this so may look for an alternative 11. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (Devon) - 5/5 12. Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (Dorset) 13. The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (Durham) – 5/5 14. South Riding by Winifred Holtby (East Riding of Yorkshire) - 5/5 15. Winnie-The-Pooh by A. A. Milne (East Sussex) – 5/5 16. Flambards by K M Peyton [alt.Essex] – 4/5 17. Cider With Rosie by Laurie Lee (Gloucestershire) – 5/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative 18. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Greater London) - 4/5 19. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Greater Manchester) - 5/5 20. Watership Down by Richard Adams (Hampshire) – 4/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative 21. On The Black Hill by Bruce Chatwin (Herefordshire) – 4/5 22. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (Hertfordshire) – 5/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative 23. England, England by Julian Barnes (Isle of Wight) 24. The Darling Buds of May by HE Bates (Kent) – 5/5 25. Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson – /5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative (alt) Mist Over Pendle by Robert Neill (Lancashire) - suggested alternative from Willoyd 26. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend (Leicestershire) – 5/5 27. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (Lincolnshire) 28. An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge (Merseyside) – 3/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative 29. The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley (Norfolk) 30. All Creatures Great and Small by James Heriott (North Yorkshire) - 5/5 31. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen (Northamptonshire) 32. The Stars Look Down by A. J. Cronin (Northumberland) - 4/5 33. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (Nottinghamshire) - 2/5 34. The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford (Oxfordshire) - 5/5 35. Set In Stone by Robert Goddard (Rutland) – 4/5 36. Summer Lightning by P. G. Wodehouse (Shropshire) – 3/5 37. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore (Somerset) 38. A Kestrel For A Knave by Barry Hines (South Yorkshire) – 4/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative 39. The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett (Staffordshire) 40. The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald (Suffolk) 41. Emma by Jane Austen (Surrey) – 5/5 - have read this before so may look for an alternative 42. Another World by Pat Barker (Tyne and Wear) - 3/5 43. Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes (Warwickshire) 44. Middlemarch by George Eliot (West Midlands) - 4/5 45. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (West Sussex) – 4/5 46. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (West Yorkshire) 47. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope (Wiltshire) 48. The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (Worcestershire) - 3/5

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens The ‘blurb’ Since it was first published in 1843 A Christmas Carol has had an enduring influence on the way we think about the traditions of Christmas. Dickens's story of solitary miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who is taught the true meaning of Christmas by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, has been adapted into countless film and stage versions since it was first published. For the sake of continuity I am putting this in my blog, but as I read it every December and it’s possibly my favourite book ever there isn’t anything new I can add! I love it – I love everything about it. I love Scrooge’s redemption which shows that no matter how grumpy, miserly, disillusioned with life you are, change is possible if you really want to change. If you haven’t read it then I urge you to do so – seriously – it rocks! The paperback edition is 160 pages long and is published by Puffin. It was first published in 1843. The ISBN is 9780141324524. 5/5 (I LOVE it!) (Finished 6 December 2015)

Very sad news indeed. My new DVD of Sense and Sensibility arrived in the post this morning and I believe he's in it as Colonel Brandon. I will watch it at the weekend. RIP

Review 61 of 2015 was for Essex in the English Counties Challenge - Flambards by K M Peyton. Review here.

Flambards by K M Peyton The ‘blurb’ When Christina is sent to live in the grand country house, Flambards, she doesn't know what to expect. Once there, she meets two young men, Mark and Will, trying to cope with their bad-tempered father. She also discovers a passion for horse-riding and a love for life in the country. As time goes by Christina begins to embrace her new life and all the social engagements that it involves, but with both brothers vying for her attention Christina knows it's just a matter of time before she has to choose . . . The choice for Essex was The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and as I’ve already read it I selected this as an alternative. I didn’t really want another children’s book but there didn’t seem many to choose from (I could have chosen Curtain by Agatha Christie, but as I’ve listened to lots of those and plan to listen to more, I didn’t want to select another by her). I loved the TV series Flambards which was broadcast when I was 13 (and I’m sure anyone who remembers it has instantly got the haunting music in their head now – I know I did whilst I was reading it!) but I didn’t remember much about it really part from the aeroplane element! Christina has lived with various relatives since the death of her parents when she was five years old. In her early teens she is sent to live with her bad-tempered Uncle Russell and his two sons, Mark and William at their run-down country estate. Although she is sad at leaving her Aunt behind she determines to make the most of things. On arrival at Flambards she is initially scared of her Uncle who is disabled following a riding accident. He is passionate about horses and hunting – a passion he shares with his oldest son, Mark and is determined that Christina will learn to ride. William, on the other hand, despises horses – his love lies in a different area altogether –flying machine. It is understood (if not by Christina herself!) that Christina will eventually marry one of her cousins, thus ensuring that her inheritance can be used for the maintenance of Flambards. Both boys compete for Christina’s attention but which one, if either, will win her affection? This was a quick read. I’m not a fan of horses (they scare me after being bitten by one when I was about nine) but this book is more than just a story about horses so there was enough to keep me interested and I think this would have been the case even if I wasn’t so fond of the TV adaptation. Due to the hunting element it definitely has a country feel about it, but I’m not sure it really gives a feel for the county of Essex, but nevertheless it was enjoyable and it made me wish I’d read it as a child, I’m sure I’d have loved it then.

Thanks both of you. I was worried about posting our story but I'm very reassured by the responses. If it was just Peter and I then we wouldn't have parted from him. Apart from the initial business with Peter he was never growly with us, just Abi. It was a steep learning curve at the time.

Thanks, Gaia. Thanks for being understanding.

Thanks, Noll. I wish, with hindsight, that we'd got a puppy - but then that probably wouldn't have happened because we would have tried to rehome a dog from the dogs' home - Peter's family always had rescue dogs. I suppose they do get puppies from time to time. I do wonder whether Peter might want to try again when we retire. We're out of the house too much these days to have a dog - it wouldn't be fair on it. But maybe when we retire. I guess never say never. I still don't consider myself a dog person in that I don't feel the urge to have a dog like Peter does. I love other people's dogs - it's really not that I don't like them. Thanks for being understanding. As I said, we did all love him tremendously and missed him so much at first that it physically hurt. He used to sit on my feet - although Peter was the one who walked him and took him to training classes and Charlie obviously loved him, he really was a bit of a mummy's boy in the evenings. I'm just so pleased he found his forever home - it's just a shame it couldn't be with us.

Thanks, Gaia. I hope you enjoy The Radleys when you get round to it. I do get the pun! Okay, but it's a fairly long story - and I hope nobody hates me after posting this. We did try! Please do read the whole story. I'm sure there would be no reason to, but please don't mention this on Facebook. I didn't grow up around animals (apart from a budgie and various goldfish) as neither of my parents did so it just wasn't something that figured big in my life. Peter's family always had dogs (they had a beagle called Anna (known as Fang!) and it used to chase me and scare the living daylights out of me when I was a child! Anyway, roll forward to 2007 and our children are now 10 and 13 and have always wanted a dog - as has Peter. I had resisted for a long time - because Peter used to work away from M-F an awful lot, and I know what a commitment a dog is and it would have fallen to me to walk the dog and look after one the majority of the time. Having never had a dog I was worried about letting one off a lead - would it come back? Would it run off? But then Peter got made redundant and so started his own business working from home (in 2006) and they started talking again about having a dog now Dad was around more and could walk it etc. Anyway, I still resisted. In autumn 2006 the father of a friend of ours had a cocker spaniel called Rosie who was his baby! Sadly Rosie died, so this friend, after an absence of a couple of months, got a new one as a surprise for her Dad. He was a working cocker spaniel called Charlie who was estimated to be about 2 years old. At the time we believed he'd come from a dogs' home but he actually came from the Trade-It paper. But the friend's father a] didn't bond with Charlie because he wasn't Rosie, and b] he couldn't cope with Charlie because he was rather boisterous. The dog went back to my friend... and she put him in the Trade-it for £50 (which is what she had paid for him). We had met Charlie by then and Peter and the kids had fallen in love with him and I really liked him, so we said we'd have him. I know at this point all you seasoned dog-owners are tutting... And maybe alarm bells should have rung at this point. We were told that his previous owner had been forced to give him up and that she hadn't wanted to, but her personal circumstances had changed and she'd had to move into a flat where dogs weren't allowed. We didn't want him to be sold on again - we wanted to give him a forever home. Anyway, he came to us in February 2007. That first day when he arrived I was the only one here and I was pretty terrified at the responsibility of having a dog! I was scared - not of him, but of being an owner. To my surprise, within a few days I'd fallen head-over-heels in love with him. We all had - and the feeling was mutual. He was lovely. He'd been used be being allowed up on the furniture and he'd obviously had free-range of his former home. We had made the decision not to let him up on the furniture or upstairs (again, some of you are probably shaking your heads at this, but there you go) so we put a stairgate at the bottom of the stairs and Charlie slept in the kitchen. We took the stairgate away after a few weeks and by that time he'd learned to stay downstairs. He used to sit at the bottom with his head on the first stair and wait for us. I don't believe this is cruel - some people like their dogs to share their beds - we don't. About two months after we'd got him the children were in the garden with Peter and Abi dropped a chocolate bar. Charlie quickly picked it up, and knowing that chocolate is poisonous to dogs, Peter took it from him... and Charlie bit him. It was a bad bite - not bad enough for stitches, but it has left a large scar on Peter's wrist. We were rather shocked to say the least. Peter rang the dogs' home in Bath and they recommended a dog behaviourist. Peter took him and the man assessed him and said that in his opinion Charlie was okay and that it was a one-off. About three months after that even he snapped at Abi. He didn't bite her, but he growled at her and snapped his teeth. She hadn't touched him but had bent down to do her shoes up so we told her and Luke to just be careful in future and maybe not bend over near him in case he felt threatened. From that point onwards he started growling at Abi and we started keeping a closer eye on him. He didn't growl at Luke or at us - just her. There were a few other minor similar incidents but Peter and Abi were taking him to weekly dog training lessons and all seemed okay. He wasn't good with other dogs if they ran up to him (he would hide behind us rather than go for them) and I never let him off his lead when I walked him, but Peter did - off lead he was fine with other dogs. It all came to a head in the November though. I was in the kitchen washing up and the children were with me. Abi was standing beside me at the sink leaning against the worktop and looking out into the kitchen when Charlie, who had been in his bed, suddenly jumped up at her and bit her. I was there and I saw it happen (in slow-motion - it was horrible) she did nothing to provoke him. She didn't move, shout, bend down - or even look at him. She screamed. There was blood everywhere. I shut him in the garden and took her straight to hospital. The cut was just above her eye and the doctor said that if it was just a few millimetres lower she might have lost the sight in her eye. Because of the other incidents and after this we decided we couldn't keep him. We felt awful because we all loved him so much, and most of the time he was okay, but we had lots of children (my kids' friends) coming in and out of the garden and how terrible it would have been if he'd bitten one of them. We rang the dogs' home the next day but they refused to take him. They said there was a waiting list and that we'd have to get the vet to destroy him. In desperation we rang Nick (the dog-trainer) and he took Charlie for us. He rehomed him with a man in his early 20s with no children. it was horrible. We did it the next day whilst the children weren't at home. Luke, although upset, understood, but Abi blamed herself and was distraught. It was an awful situation. We have since discovered that whilst he was at the friend's house after he came back from her dad he bit one of her children. She didn't tell us of this before we took him on - I found out from a mutual friend. I think that's pretty shocking of her not to tell us that. There is a happy ending for Charlie. About two years ago (so Charlie would have been about nine - this was seven years after he was rehomed - I was at home when the telephone rang and it was the dog warden who rang to say she'd "found our dog and taken him to a local boarding kennel". I rang them to explain that he'd been rehomed years before and they said that he'd just been collected. He was still living with the same person who had rehomed him but had never changed the microchip details into his own name, and the new owner was on holiday. Some friends were walking Charlie when they dropped his lead and Charlie had run off! So he'd been with the same owner for the last seven years. The people at the kennel said that he was well looked after. It was nice to know. So there it is. I hope you don't judge us too harshly - we did try - and we did love him lots.

The Humans by Matt Haig The ‘blurb’ THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME. OR IS THERE? After an 'incident' one wet Friday night where Professor Andrew Martin is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, he is not feeling quite himself. Food sickens him. Clothes confound him. Even his loving wife and teenage son are repulsive to him. He feels lost amongst a crazy alien species and hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton, and he's a dog. What could possibly make someone change their mind about the human race. . . ? Professor Andrew Martin is a very intelligent man and he’s on the brink of a discovery that will change humankind for ever. But not everyone is happy about this discovery and it is decided that Andrew must be prevented from ever revealing what he has found out. He wakes one day in Cambridge with no clothes on. This causes something of a stir – shock to his wife (and why is she so distant when she’s meant to be his loving partner, Andrew wonders?) and utter and mortifying embarrassment to his teenage son. Neither of them likes him much. Andrew doesn’t really care – he has a job to do and nothing and nobody is going to stop him. But slowly Andrew changes, and as he does so, his relationship with his family changes too. Suddenly things aren’t so black and white, and the actions that Andrew has been instructed to take to save the humans from themselves no longer feel right… I loved The Radleys by the same author, which I picked up in ‘error’ (that is, I picked it up on a whim in the library and if I’d known what the subject matter was I wouldn’t’ have – and what a mistake that would have been!) – it was such a great story! Despite that, I still had reservations about this book. From the ‘blurb’ it didn’t sound my sort of thing at all! However, I thoroughly enjoyed it - what a quirky tale! I loved the characters and the way they evolved – and although I’m not really a dog person, (Don’t hate me! I don’t mean I don’t like dogs – I love them, but our one experience of owning a dog didn’t work out and has left me scared of ever trying again), if I could have a dog like Newton then that would be just perfect! He was probably my favourite character in the book! I listened to an Audio Book of this, narrated by a man called Mark Meadows (he also narrated The Radleys) and he had the perfect voice for this book. What fun this was! The paperback edition is 304 pages long and is published by Cannongate. It was first published in 2014. The ISBN is 9780857868787. 4/5 (I enjoyed it) (Finished 28 November 2015)

Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute The ‘blurb’ Some years after the war has ended Alan Duncan decides to return to the family farm in Australia. But his homecoming is upset by the shocking suicide of his parents’ much-loved maid. Disturbed and puzzled, Alan finds that a long night’s vigil at the fireside unleashes his memories of wartime Britain – the breathless weeks before D-Day, the tragic death of his brother Bill, and above all, the unknown fate of Janet Prentice, the brave but sensitive Wren who had been Bill’s fiancé. This tells the story of a young man who returns to Australia after serving in the Air Force in England during World War Two. His parents are ageing and his older brother Bill, who would have taken over the running of the family farm, was killed in action, so Alan goes back to Australia in order to take up the task of managing the estate. This is a challenge he is definitely up to despite losing both feet during the war. Alan is picked up from the airport by the farm foreman who informs Alan that his parents’ maid has killed herself. What’s more, she arrived at the estate with just a couple of suitcases which have gone missing and there is nothing to identify the young woman to enable the family to contact any next of kin. Alan eventually discovers the woman’s secret and then by flashback the events leading up to the woman’s tragic suicide unfold... Shute surely drew on his own military background when he wrote this fascinating story. Although it is largely set during the Second World War, it is not a war story but more a tale of relationships, of love and of loss. Although I guessed a fairly pivotal part of the story long before the protagonist did, it did not spoil my enjoyment of this book – and in fact I think it was necessary for the reader to have such knowledge. There is such a feeling of melancholy throughout the book and yet there is also positivity and hope. I knew that the Women's Royal Naval Service (known as Wrens) carried out important roles in the armed forces but I didn’t realise just how important some of those jobs were, so this aspect of the story was very interesting to me. This is the third book of Shute’s that I’ve read. Whilst it wasn’t quite up there with the other two (I think I scored both of those as a 5/5) it was still a very enjoyable read. I love his writing style and will definitely read more of his books. The paperback edition is 286 pages long and is published by Vintage. It was first published in 1955. The ISBN is 9780099530237. 3½/5 (I enjoyed it) (Finished 25 November 2015)

I really enjoyed it too. I'm aiming to read another Dickens this year.

I didn't know he did an intro to The Snowman until Alan told me when we met you guys just before Christmas. I said I was going to buy the film and he said I must be sure to buy the one featuring Bowie... which I did - only there was no introduction on the DVD - I think it might be one of the extras? The word legend is used far too often these days - but I think Bowie definitely falls into that category. People from 7 to 77 (and other ages too) knew and loved him. When they played Space Oddity on the radio this morning just after I heard the news it made me cry. I'm gutted.

No, not keeping count. Just seriously gutted that someone so influential has died. I loved his music Edit: I didn't realise the title said #4. That's because another large forum I admin closes threads when they reach 50 pages and that's the fourth thread of celebrity deaths since the forum started. My phone obviously remembered it from that forum because it autofilled when I started this topic and I was making my lunch before leaving for work so I didn't notice.

They just played Space Oddity on the radio and it made me cry.

It's been announced that David Bowie has died of cancer aged 69. Loved his music and adored him in Labyrinth. RIP