France

Strange, I've just tried it and it works for me.

A French Bulldog is fine, my husband's great nephew is called Wilbur. (And his first cousin is called Wilfred, so my sister in laws grandsons are Wilb and Wilf.)

If you haven't found it yet, this is the link; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=391zUFeVLqg

If you love dolls houses there's a new competition on English TV called The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge which is designing room sets for dolls houses! The first episode, which is up on YouTube, was for a Regency dining room. It's worth watching just to see the ham one of the contestants made! Sunday's episode will be creating an Art Nouveau bathroom.

The Tale of Two Bad Mice. I loved that one too.

Just finished Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason, now relaxing with A necessary Evil by Abir Mukharjee.

Anything with ponies in it, Silver Snaffles by Primrose Cummings was a particular favourite, I kept my copy and all 3 daughters adored it too. I also repeatedly read A Tale of Two Horses by Tschieffley who rode the wole length of South America from south to north in 1925. He wrote one book for adults, this one told from the point of view of the two ponies he used was for children. My 33 year old read it recently and loved it.

Me too, which is why I'm not very good at writing reviews (either putting the words together or getting around to getting the words on paper). I'm happy to talk about book until the cows come home though.

Outbound Tain by Renée Winchester is a book I'd never have come across, let alone read, if it wasn't for a French member of one of my book groups. Well, thank you Danielle. I gather from her bio that Renée Winchester normally writes feel good-stories about little towns, in particular her home town of Bryson City in the Appalachians which has become a major tourist hub. For this book, as she says in the intro, she went back 50 years or so when parts of Bryson City were deperately poor and employment prospects for most people were limited to one clothing factory. If you were just poor you could rent a house off the factory, if you were really poor and couldn't even afford the rent you lived in a trailor park. Barbara's main ambition was to leave town but she became pregnant and how works her butt off trying to support her mother who has early dementia and her 17 year old daughter Carole Anne. Carole Anne wants to leave too but has already been classed as a "reject" by the teachers at school though she's really bright, there's no money for college and the underclass from Bryson City doesn't seem to manage away from the city, they always come back. The story is interesting, the charecters are not overdrawn, there is a feel-good ending but it's not sickly sweet and overall it's a very good picture of just how hard life was then. I enjoyed it though I don't think I'll be in a hurry to read another of her books. I ended up reading two fictionalised biographies at the same time, I started one, lost it, started another, found the first so kept one to read upstairs, the other downstairs. As you do. Course of Honour by Lindsay Davies is the story of Caenis, a freedwoman and secretary to Mark Antony's daughter and Vespasian, the minor aristocrat who rose to become Emperor. It's one of Davies' first books and is rather more serious in tone than the Falco stories she became so well known for, though she still writes with considerable lightness of touch. Though it is based on real events, Caenis was Vespasian's lover and much respected by his eldest son, because there aren't many details about her Lindsay Davies had a pretty free hand to weave her story. Who knows if it hadn't been ilegal for a senator to marry a freedwoman if Vespasian would have married her? If Caenis was as deliciously waspish as Davies makes her out to be? It was a thoroughly enjoyable book, as always Davies is brilliant in making you feel as if you're in Rome, tasting the food (some of it sounds horrible), warily making sure you don't annoy the Emperor (Nero for much of the story) and being immersed in a different time. The Magician by Colm Toibin, about Thomas Mann's life is an entirely differnt matter. Apparently Colm Toibin has been researching and writing this book for 15 years and it seems as if he was never quite sure whether he was writing a biography or a novel. The narrative seems to sink at times under the weight of everything Toibin knows as if he's not able to let his imagination have free rein, Mann's actions are descried, his emotions often aren't. The one element that is fictionalised is Mann's homoerotic feelings towards boys, and they become rather intrusive as his reaction to a tragedy is wirtten off in a few sentences whereas seeing a young man at the swimming pool merits a page or two. How strong his feelings about young men were is unknown, though Death in Venice would imply he took a keen interest in looking to say the very least. In fact he had a long lasting marriage and six children, Katia, his strong willed wife is one of the few charecters who really comes alive. There are parts of this book that are wonderful, and it definitely improves in the second half but compared to Brooklyn or The Blackwater Lighthouse this is a sad disappointment. I know an awful lot more about Thomas Mann now, was I made to care about him? The answer is no.

i have a first edition of The Silmarillion, bought on the day it came out. It's not worth anything because of the huge initial print run. It's in brilliant condition because (whisper) it's so boring I never got far into it.

I thoroughly enjoyed that one too. Funnily enough I don't like the St Mary's books much, they are just too ridiculous, but the Time Police ones are huge fun. Brilliant on audio too.

It's been just gorgeous, sunny and breezy. I was planning a long walk with the dogs, only Sybil (-the cat) decided to come too. Since she won't walk to heel or on a lead we weren't able to cross the road to get to where we usually go so walking was restricted to a cat-safe circuit in the vines near the house.

Definitely not chick lit! I read this many years ago so can't remember it well but do recall it's neither fluffy or feel good which are present in nearly all chick lit. It's middlebrow fiction imo and the sort of book that would have been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction if that had existed when it came out.

I've just bought The Magician by Colm Toibin (I looked up how to pronounce his name so won't embarrass myself now) to start after I've finished The Course of Honour by Lindsay Davies which is the story of the Emperor Vaspasian and his freedwoman lover.

I'm like that too except I got one of Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan's books as a Kobo cheapie during lockdown (no 4 in the series I think) and on finishing bought all the rest in the series and read them all in order. I was really sorry to get to the end too.

It's nearly a week since I finished Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo and I still can't settle down properly to reading another novel as whatever I pick up just seems flat. I was amazed by this book, by the energy, the playfullness in parts, the flow and the absolutely exquisite writing. It's a perfect example of how those who know to do something very, very well can break all the rules with impunity. The novel is four chapters, each broken into three sub sections following a different, usually black, character who is loosely linked to those who come before. Each subsection is (I think, I've lent the book so can't check) just one sentence with practically no punctuation and often with very short lines. In lesser hands it would be a mess, ths book is lyrical and compelling and it's very easy to get used to the layout (several reviews I read found it daunting, I didn't). I'm often wary of Booker prize winners, they seem to be selected sometimes because they tick boxes that are deemed important for that year which doesn't necessarily include being a good read, or readable at all, but this book deserves every one of the plaudits it's received. It is absolutely brilliant.

My older brother was frightened of Noddy! I seem to remember reading a collection of her stories but moved on to the Famous Five quickly though my preference was for pony books.

Frankly it depends on the author, some are absolutely delightful, others are a bit up themselves! Some like JoJo Moyes have Facebook profiles with large amounts of friends and she does reply to comments. Don't assume that just because an author hasn't replied to you that they are being grand, sometimes they simply won't have seen the message. It happened to me, I was contacted via my author page on Goodreads and I never received a notfication and didn't realise for two years that I'd been asked a question!

Currently reading Girl, Woman, Other and taking it very slowly because I'm enjoying it so much.

This forum definitely isn't nasty! I think people who read a lot of books, like people who work in bookshops, tend to be better tempered! The worst I've ever found was in a writing forum which I joined because I was challenging myself to do new things, the people on there weren't only vicious, they would tear someone's piece of writing apart and then add that they loathed the genre of whatever it had been written in! I had no idea The Bear and the Nightingale etc were aimed at children! Loved them though. I avidly read both though I prefered the Famous Five. The first book I ever bought for myself with a birthday book token was a hardback of Five on a Treasure Island. I still have it.

Mission to Paris by Alan Furst was a book group choice and not one I was particularly looking forward to as I got tired of spy novels quite a long time ago. I was surprised at how good it was. It's 1938 Actor Frederic Stahl, originally Viennese now living in America, is making a film Paris where the Nazis are organising a sophisticated propaganda campaing to persuade the French that at all costs they must avoid another war. The background detail is fascinating and totally convincing, there are no wham bam heroics and it's reingited my taste for this sort of book. And according to the reviews this isn't one of his best either. Elizabeth of the German Garden by Jennifer Walker We're reading Elizabeth and her German Garden for my book group next month and as I'm presenting the book I got this for background detail. It's interesting up to a point, Mary von Arnim, "Elizabeth" 's real name was a fascinating charecter and wrote some very good books but as I've already said elsewhere this is far too long with far too much extraneous detail. For a really good example of a literary biography try The Adventures of Miss Barbara Pym by Paula Byrne, or give yourself a treat and read Elizabeth and her German Garden. it's short, pithy and very funny, and free both from the Gutenberg Project and on Audible Plus. Doomsday Book by Connie Willis I first read this when it came out nearly 30 years ago and was prompted to reread it by a blog post by Kate MacDonald. I enjoyed it just as much this time and in many ways it was far more aposite after two years of Covid. Kivrin, a young historian traveling in time from Oxford 2052 to observe England in 1320 - or that's where she's supposed to go. it gradually dawns on her that she isn't when she is supposed to be but by that time she is so involved in the lives of the family at the local manor who have taken her in she could not leave even if she knew how to find the place where she could travel back in time. Back in modern Oxford people are falling ill and the whole area is placed in quarantine, while her tutor realises that something has gone wrong and is desperately trying to retrieve her. The medieval sections of the book are terrific, you can feel the cold, smell the many smells, hear the curch bels and get drawn into the rhythym of daily life, the bits in Oxford aren't so good and border on farce sometime but it's still an excellent, if not cheery, read.

I seem to have read a fair amount about the 13th and 15th centuries but I don't know much about the 14th but her descriptions just feel right. I really like her time travel books too though I agree about the howlers, however she's such a good story teller that I'm able to tell my pedantic side to shut up.

For some reason I can't get into Golden Hill, it should be exactly the sort of book I love but though I've started it three times I always loose interest. Maybe fourth time lucky! I'm with you totally about Harold Fry though.

Emma is the only one of JA's novels that I haven't ever wanted to reread. ¨Persuasion is my favourite even though I want to shake Anne occasionally for being such a wet drip.

Lot's of catching up to do! Pachinko - Min Jin Lee is a multi generational saga about a Korean family in Japan from the 1930s onwards, after the Japanes e invasion of Korea, up to the 60s. I was put off reading it for ages because it kept on being praised by people who like Lucinda Riley and Kirsten Hannah (most definitely not my cups of tea) but once I started I was completely enthralled. It's moving and cast a completely believable light on a period I knew very little about. Recommended. Everyone Brave is Forgiven - Chris Cleave DNF I have no idea how this got in my bookcase and oh goodness it was a load of tosh! I should have given up at page 2 when a girl at finishing school in Switzerland managed to ski to a telephone the day war was declared, ring the war office and sign up (on the phone!). She is then assigned as a teacher, not a teaching assistant mind you, to a whole class.However I wasted more hours of my life by struggling on to about page 75 before consigning it to the charity pile. . A Comedy of Terrors - Lindsay Davis The latest in her Roman detective series about Flavia Albia, the adopted daughter of the inimitable Falco, who is also a private informer. Albia isn't as funny or cynical as her adopted pa but these books are still hugely enjoyable, and this was no disappointment. The Falco audiobooks read by Christian Rodska are sheer delight to listen to, the ones read by Gordon Griffen less so as he has an annoying whine. Birdcage Walk - Helen Dunmore This was the last novel Helen Dunmore wrote. It's set in the early 1790's in Bristol and Lizzie Fawkes, daughter of a radical feminist, is newly married to the possesive Diner, a speculative builder who is trying to make his fortune with a elegant row of houses in Clifton overlooking the gorge. Parts of it are brilliant, she was a wonderful writer and there's a looming sense of tension that grows and grows and the correlation of Lizzie's increasingly fraught home life with events happening in Revolutionary Paris are terrific.The beginning left me puzzled as it doesn't seem to have a lot of relevance but all in all I enjoyed it a lot.