Bel-ami

velocipede, I like your suggestion of Somerset Maugham - who appears to be an unfashionable and under-read author now?

Published in 1874 - perhaps a little early for a modern classic?

British/European for me too......and I'd never heard of Jacquot, so I'm going to try him out next - thanks Sue!

I'd second Bill Bryson - particularly Notes From a Big Country. Tom Sharpe - Porterhouse Blue etc. H.E. Bates - Darling Buds of May (maybe not laugh out loud, but should put a smile on your face )

Thanks, quite a few more on there for me. J.G. Ballard - Wind from Nowhere is also 1961 if you like Sci-Fi.

I agree, a great story and well written! I read Silas Marner last year and it was my first introduction to George Eliot too. I'm certainly going to read more of her works.

One a month, or maybe two if I'm lucky. Several per week can't leave much room for other things in life can it?

2 mentions of christmas/festive reads......is there a forum thread for this I wonder? There's a good festive chapter in The Pickwick Papers......

The Killers The Pretenders Thin Lizzy Abba Tim Finn a fair old mix...

No-one else seems to be owning up to sitting through it! I was 17 or 18 at the time

When I'm feeling a bit low, I read the one of H.E. Bates' Larkins novels - perfick!

I'm not ashamed, just wondered if I should be That's a lot to cut out! Janet - Shame about Dorian, I think I;ll give it a miss.

and the prize goes to catwoman! Yes it was Caligula. I remember there was a campaign to get it withdrawn - locally at least. Should I be ashamed?

Good guesses, especially Life of Brian by honestfi, but nobody has it yet. Helen Mirren is in it

mmm... I'm not sure A Clockwork Orange ever showed in the UK did it? I think the depravity that the Church and the WI were protesting about at the time was more about than violence.

Good guess, but I'm not that brave think more 'depravity'.......maybe I shouldn't be owning up to this? (but it was on mainstream release, not a dodgy back-street cinema!)

I've never walked out of a film, but I do remember to being one of the few people in the whole cinema who did stay to the end of one notorious film.....late 70s........any guesses?

Great, let us know how it goes.

Hi Sue - Swallows and Amazons and all the other Arthur Ransome childrens' books in that series were set in the Lake District (apart from Coot Club which was set in the Norfolk Broads). Don't know of any adult fiction set there though. Have a lovely holiday!

Of course we're only as old as we feel Sue!

I was on the What's Your Age thread elsewhere and it led me to think that it might be interesting to read a selection of books published in one's year of birth. Wikipedia obligingly have a series of "19xx in literature" pages, so turning up a few titles isn't too much like hard work. This challenge will of course vary from BCF member to BCF member. To fine-tune it a little, I thought it would more enlightening to choose books which have some relevance to the social 'mores' of the world at that date - ie. rejecting historical novels (there seem to be plenty of WW2 novels in my birth year) and sci-fi/fantasy novels. Thus I've rejected James and The Giant Peach and Thunderball........and I've already read Catch-22. With this criteria, I've selected a list of 5 from my birth year: A Severed Head - Iris Murdoch The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark Marnie - Winston Graham The Primal Urge - Brian Aldiss The Day of the Tortoise - H.E. Bates (Yes, I really am that old )

Hi peacefield - it does look like a Sargent portrait the way the subject is just staring out of the canvas against a dark background doesn't it? I have to confess I don't know the painting, it's on the latest Penguin Classics version of Bel-ami - a copy which I don't own. When I next pass a bookshop I'll try and find out! ......and thanks everyone.......it's great here!

Yes that's amazing - I think I would read a 'classic' at roughly 30 to 40 pages an hour. Vanwa reads at at least 10x that speed