Raven

^ I know, but Amazon takes all the fun out of book buying, you don't get to fondle the books or roll your ey... Oh dear God, I appear to be channelling Kylie . . .

^ I should have quoted you, as I was commenting on your post there! There is a new Penguin Modern Classics version in print (I say new, I think it's been around for a year or more now!). That's the one I'm having trouble finding a decent copy of.

Oh, hello, I thought you might have posted! Ouch, not good, but we've got them three wickets down now. Bright spot of the day, Ponting going for 1!

Yeah, I'll bet she had to hold a gun to your head for that one . . .

Bit late to the party, but . . . I'm not sure how online documents work, but Word has a Paste Speical option that allows you to paste unformatted text so if you are copying from a spreadsheet it removes the text from the cells they are in.

The first thing I thought when I saw the title of this thread was London Belongs to Me (I've been trying to get a copy of that for a while but every time I see it there is something wrong with it - creased cover, rumpled pages etc - and at £9.99 I want an A1 perfect copy!). You might like to try Call for the Dead, by John le Carré. Yes, it is a spy thriller, but it's set in and around London in the early fifties and has the kind of feel I think you may be after. Also, both The Day of the Triffids and The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham have large segments set in and around London and although Triffids is slightly timeless in it’s setting, they both have a distinct 50s flavour to them. Lastly, although this doesn't have much set in London, it does do the drab wartime pitch down to a tee, I would recommend Enigma by Robert Harris. Another spy thriller, but brilliantly written and a very good story to boot!

If (and I say IF) we win this one, we retain the Ashes regardless of what happens in the last two tests. If that happens I will be happy because: 1) England will have retained the Ashes on Aussie soil and 2) My friend George will have lost our bet and will have to buy me a pint!

Good start by England, but it's still early days yet.

Four preview clips from the Christmas special are now online. Only watched the first two, don't want to spoil it too much, but the second one is simply excellent. Really looking forward to Christmas Day now!

Who needs chairs anyway?!

One word: Shelves.

^ This. Speaking of her pantry . . . The sheer scope and quantity of ingredients she has to hand is ridiculous! "Just add a handful of gold leaf painted wren's spleens and a tablespoon of mermaid spittle." ^ Do you roll your eyes into the top of your head whilst you do it, as if you are suffering from some advanced form of demonic possession? If "no", you probably aren't approaching Lawson levels of obsessiveness! If "yes" worry!

^ She annoys the hell out of me, far too smug and superior for my liking.

I nearly choked on my cup of tea then, I read the thread title as Any Bukaki Fans Here? (If you don't know what that is leave it be, and for the love of God don't Google it!)

Yeah, we used that excuse for a while as well. Got a bit tired after the best part of a decade . . .

But we beat you, so what does that say?

Like Ponting or not, if he doesn't turn this around he's gonna walk. Just watched the highlights on TV, some good dtuff by England. They are as good an England team as I have ever seen.

286-6! ETA: 286-7! Can Anderson get the hatrick?! ETA II: 286-8! ETA III: Ding! Ding! Time Gentlemen, please! Right, time for bed!