poppyshake

Happy New Year Tunn Look forward to reading your reviews in 2011. You probably won't have any problem reading 40 books now you have your Kindle.

It's one of my favourite albums ever, I just love it. When I listen to 'Little Green' especially I always well up .. she wrote it about the little baby she gave up for adoption (I think they've since been re-united) but just the few lines 'He went to California. Hearing that everything's warmer there. So you write him a letter and say, "her eyes are blue". He sends you a poem and she's lost to you. Little Green, he's a non-conformer.' .. it's so simple but so affecting .. in fact the whole album is sublime. Before Christmas I bought Regina Spektor's 'Live in London' album and DVD but it hasn't been delivered yet (d*mn that Christmas snow.) I adore Regina, I think I have all of her albums now and I get especially excited whenever there's a DVD extra included because she's so creative and her video's are always a delight. She's another artist that brings me to tears regularly.

ahhh ... silly old bear I'm having a lovely book reading, lazy, stuffing chocolate time. I'm still reading 'The Book of Lost Thing's' by John Connolly which is amazing but also hubby and I are reading 'Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth' by Chris Priestley and 'The Small Hand' by Susan Hill to each other (a couple of chapters of each a night). We've read all of the tales of terror together, it's something we do a lot at Christmas especially (we read Beedle the Bard together a few years back.) I don't mean we stand at the fireplace reciting loudly or anything, we get ourselves a glass of wine, some nibbles and curl up on the sofa. It stops me from being utterly terrified by the tales because, though Chris's especially are for children, I am a bit of a custard normally.

OMG!!! Obviously my first read of 2011 will have to be all your lists .. they're awesome You've certainly set yourself a few targets. I bet you had a great time just sorting everything into categories etc. Happy 2011 Kylie .. let the reading commence

Lucky, lucky you, great presents. I'm reading 'The Book of Lost Things' at the moment .. and I'm getting a bit irritated because Christmas is getting in the way of a really enjoyable read. I'm looking forward to the holidays when I can just curl up with it and no distractions (except those of a chocolate kind.) Merry Christmas!

Well if there's any chance that Mr Darcy really did look like, sound like, and behave like Colin Firth then I'd like to be Elizabeth Bennet but if he was more like Laurence Olivier then I'd prefer to be Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next. She's probably the most ordinary, extraordinary person I know of in literature. I'd never ever have another dull day (though I would have quite a few terrifying one's) I'd get to jump into books as well and hob-nob with literary characters. I might even get to do a stand in stint for Elizabeth Bennet.

this is exactly how I feel and I'm so far behind it isn't funny, and my memory isn't that good either so I'm in danger of forgetting the plotlines. Merry Christmas Kylie and happy reading in 2011

The Summer Book - Tove Jansson Waterstones Synopsis: An elderly artist and her six-year-old grand-daughter are away on a summer together on a tiny island in the gulf of Finland. As the two learn to adjust to each other's fears, whims and yearnings, a fierce yet understated love emerges - one that encompasses not only the summer inhabitants but the very island itself. Written in a clear, unsentimental style, full of brusque humour, and wisdom, "The Summer Book" is a profoundly life-affirming story. Tove Jansson captured much of her own life and spirit in the book, which was her favourite of her adult novels. This new edition, with a Foreword by Esther Freud, sees the return of a European literary gem - fresh, authentic and deeply humane. Review: Not a particularly good time to read this book .. I do prefer to read books in season but one glance at the foreword and I was hooked. I've not really got into Tove's writing before .. never having liked the Moomins but this is something completely different and for adults. It's a collection of short interlinked stories about six year old Sophie and her grandmother who spend their summers, along with Sophie's father, on a remote island. Sophie is a smart little cookie and she definitely gets all her feistiness from her grandmother, they have a lovely relationship. Sophie's father is more of a shadowy figure, he's mentioned a lot but only in passing and is often off somewhere else doing necessary or exciting things. Sophie's grandmother is old, she's unsteady, she forgets things sometimes and has dizzy spells, this doesn't stop her from gadding about on her own or with Sophie exploring all the flora and fauna of the island, the skulls and bones and bogs and old roots. She's wise and unsentimental, very much talking to Sophie on equal terms and answering her interminable questions honestly and wisely. She understands that, despite Sophie's determination not to let it show, Sophie is still afraid of deep water, but she doesn't say anything about it, she just observes. She teaches Sophie about life and love and keeping imagination alive. There are no flowery descriptions, no frills, everything is written down quite sparsely but there's also something incredibly magical about it. Grandmother carves outlandish creatures out of the dead wood in the magic forest and she and Sophie build a tiny replica Ventian city in the marsh pool. Grandmother says thing's like 'wake me up if you do anything that's fun' and 'did I ever tell you about the dead pig I found?' and 'with the best will in the world I cannot start believing in the Devil at my age' .. Sophie says 'you know, sometimes when everything's fine, I think it's just a bloody bore' and 'I hate you. With warm personal wishes. Sophie' and (to the cat) 'how many murdered today?' I don't always like forewords in books and don't usually read them because quite often they give away too much of the plot but this one was a pleasure to read. Esther Freud, who is a huge fan of the book, goes out to the real island (that Tove spent her summers at) with Tove Jansson's niece Sophie (said to be the inspiration for the fictional Sophie) to spend a couple of days in the house that Tove built with her brother Lars back in 1947. A lot of what she finds there is instantly recognisable from the book, the woodpile, the steep stone steps, the faded blue paint etc. She decides to walk around the island and is shocked when she finds it only takes her four and a half minutes and feels a bit claustrophobic. However, after a few days of pottering about, swimming, foraging and generally enjoying the pace of island life she finds she feels more relaxed and the island seems larger somehow, she's sorry when her short visit comes to an end. A very special read and one to treasure. I understand there is also a 'Winter Book' which I would like to read but I don't think it's a continuation of the stories about Sophie and Grandmother. 9/10

Something Special - Iris Murdoch Waterstones Synopsis: Yvonne believes there's more to life than marriage to Sam, the young man who's courting her. But when she tries to have fun, she gets caught up in a fracas in a bar. Sam's idea of "something special" meanwhile is to take her to St Stephen's Green later that night to show her a ghostly tree! Review: I borrowed this from the library because I was enjoying reading The Sea, The Sea so much and because it's so short I read it in about half an hour. To say that Yvonne is less than enthusiastic about marrying Sam would be an understatement, she wants to have some fun and excitement. Sam thinks he will take Yvonne for a romantic moonlit walk by the river Liffey and then to see a fallen tree but Yvonne wants none of it, her idea of a good night out is to go to Kimballs and explore the slightly seedy downstairs bar and she's determined to have her way. Yvonne's mum and uncle just want to see her married to a decent man. A funny little story, set in Dublin, beautifully illustrated throughout with Michael McCurdy's lovely woodcut engravings. 8/10

Bless you, thanks Happy Birthday Frankie .. c'mon spill

Sorry Frankie I read the Eyre Affair last year or the year before that and I did find it a bit of a struggle but now I must say I love them .. it's definitely better if you can read them fairly close together .. you just get into the mind set, you've got lots of fun ahead of you but take your time, start (Thursday) next year. Ooh, I'm really looking forward to it now Kylie

Yes, Dahl and Blake ... they go together like Holmes and Watson He's illustrating David Walliams's books now, my niece loves them although I haven't had a chance to pinch them off of her and see for myself yet.

The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald Waterstones Synopsis: Penelope Fitzgerald's final masterpiece. Set in Germany at the very end of the eighteenth century, The Blue Flower is the story of the brilliant Fritz von Hardenberg, a graduate of the Universities of Jena, Leipzig and Wittenberg, learned in Dialectics and Mathematics, who later became the great romantic poet and philosopher Novalis. The passionate and idealistic Fritz needs his father's permission to announce his engagement to his 'heart's heart', his 'true Philosophy', twelve-year-old Sophie von Kuhn. It is a betrothal which amuses, astounds and disturbs his family and friends. How can it be so? One of the most admired of all Penelope Fitzgerald's books, The Blue Flower was chosen as Book of the Year more than any other in 1995. Her final book, it confirmed her reputation as one of the finest novelists of the century. Review: This is a book that came highly recommended by Susan Hill (in her words 'it's a novel of genius') in her book Howards End is on the Landing, I'd never heard of it before. When I next went to the library, there it was winking at me from the shelf and so, of course, I grabbed it gratefully. It's a fictionalised account of the life of Friedrich von Hardenburg born in 1772, otherwise known as the German author, poet and philosopher Novalis, and known in this narrative as Fritz. In particular the book focuses on the relationship between Fritz and his true love Sophie von Kuhn. It's a pretty tall task for the reader to quite grasp the intensity of his love given that Sophie is only twelve when Fritz meets and proposes marriage to her. And indeed she doesn't seem to be particularly beautiful or intelligent (which is what Fritz's brother tries to tell him .. until he falls in love with her himself after five minutes in her company,) she's a bit silly and fanciful like most twelve year olds but then, love is often irrational and inappropriate. Fritz himself is a very accomplished student and aspires to be a poet but is ultimately destined, as the eldest son, to follow in his fathers footsteps as the Salt Mine Directorate. His father sends him to study business with Coelestin Just and here he furthers his acquaintance with Karoline Just who is niece and housekeeper to her Uncle Coelestin. Karoline is pretty, kind, intelligent and (rather like Agnes Wickfield in David Copperfield) far more suitable as a match for Fritz but he see's her only as a dear friend, his heart is not moved by her. It's Coelestin that first introduces Fritz to the Rockenthiel family and ultimately Sophie, and within a quarter or an hour of being in her company, Fritz's heart is irrecoverably lost. Before long he has proposed to her and sets out to find out as much as he can about her. He asks Sophie about her favourite food, how her studies are going, whether she likes music and in an effort to philosophise with her talks about transmigration and asks if she would like to be born again 'yes' says Sophie 'if I could have fair hair.' Fritz can only spend a limited time with Sophie but obtains permission to write, but when he receives a letter back from her she says that, although she loves to receive his letters, she herself can write no more. When Fritz enquires of her stepfather why this is so, he answers 'My dear Hardenburg, she must write no more because she scarcely knows how. Send for her schoolmaster and enquire of him!' however Sophie does continue to write him little epistles and he has to content himself with the flimsy information they contain and his occasional visits to the Rockenthiels. However he is smitten, she is his 'wisdom' his 'true philosophy,' 'spirit guide' and 'heart's heart', and he sets about convincing his father to agree to the match. Again, it has to be said that his father is less than happy about it but he reluctantly consents. Sophie is now fourteen and ailing, she has tuberculosis. Still she makes the journey to Weissenfels to meet with Fritz and his family at their formal engagement party. She has to be carried in, she is pale but still eager and as high pitched as ever, she cannot dance or walk about and so Fritz brings each of his friends and relations forward to meet and congratulate her. But Sophie's health is deteriorating, she has to undergo several painful operations without anaesthetic and sinks further and further every day. Poor Fritz who, for the most part, is unable to be with his love, and doesn't know how to help her when he is, frets and his father is so affected by his visit to the ailing Sophie that he sobbingly declares that he will give her the ancestral home. It's at this point of the story that the reader is able to see more into Sophie's heart and mind and although she never really becomes any different, you do begin to love her yourself .. perhaps because of her desperate plight. Written very much as a novel would have been written in the eighteenth century and very witty and warm despite it's tragic outcome. The book is full of interesting characters, both Fritz's and Sophie's family are all so well depicted especially Sophie's incredibly kind and caring older sister Friederike (or 'the Mandelsloh' as she's called,) who is also her close companion and nurse, and Fritz's lovely sister Sidonie and brother Erasmus. Susan Hill is still fretting about the fact that this did not win a major prize when it was published, she says 'I was a judge for a major prize the year The Blue Flower was entered and I have never tried so hard to convince others of anything as I did that this one was a rare, a great, novel whose like we might none of us see again.' 10/10

Frankie. The very best of luck with your reading in 2011 .. can't wait to see your list. You bought an absolute truckload of books recently so I can't see you needing to buy any books for at least ... two weeks

Thanks Kylie I haven't got many illustrated versions apart from this one and the one's with the original illustrations in by John Leech so this one is my favourite so far. He also does beautiful illustrated versions of 'the Snow Queen' and 'Oscar Wilde's Stories for Children' as well as lots of others. He has a website where you can see images of his illustrations .. I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link to it but anyway it's easy enough to find. Others that I've got my eye on are the Quentin Blake illustrated version and the Robert Ingpen one but I haven't seen them in the shops yet and you do need to have a good flick through to be sure. Thanks Paula I'm glad you're going to give it a go, you won't regret it. It's the perfect Christmas story.

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens Waterstones Synopsis: Ebenezer Scrooge is unimpressed by Christmas. He has no time for festivities or goodwill toward his fellow men and is only interested in money. Then, on the night of Christmas Eve, his life is changed by a series of ghostly visitations that show him some bitter truths about his choices. "A Christmas Carol" is Dickens' most influential book and a funny, clever and hugely enjoyable story. Review: Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Scrooge, I annually dose myself up with a good dollop of Dickens starting with the book and meandering through several film versions. I love them all but especially the Albert Finney musical (particularly a pleasure because my Dad worked on it .. albeit as a humble scene painter), Alistair Simms version (again, probably because Dad thinks it is the definitive Scrooge) and the Muppet Christmas Carol (who would have thought that would work so well?) I also saw the new 3D Jim Carey version at the cinema last December and loved it. I've always thought that to do justice to the book, the ghost scenes are going to have to be CGI, and though I think there's still room for improvement (and am always hoping that either Tim Burton or Peter Jackson will have a go sooner or later) I thought they managed to get the atmosphere of the books over really well. I was disappointed to see that the film is only showing this year in 2D and then only on specific days .. bah humbug! I have several different book versions and this year I thought I'd read the beautiful edition illustrated by P.J. Lynch, it's gorgeous and it just adds that extra something to the tale. There's probably nobody out there that doesn't know the story of old skinflint Scrooge .. 'a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner' .. who is visited one night by his former partner Jacob Marley in ghostly form and then by three ghosts, all sent to show him the error of his ways. The part that I love the most is probably the Cratchit family Christmas which seems, despite all their poverty and worry, idyllic. They are just truly happy at being together for the day and I love the description of their dinner with it's hissing gravy, gushing sage and onion and steaming pudding. In fact I'd love to re-create the dinner by having a goose instead of a turkey but I'm too worried there won't be enough leftovers and I'm far too fond of a turkey, ripe tomato and black pepper sandwich to give it up. Not to mention the worrying tales, I've heard from friends, with regards to the amount of fat that comes out of it, apparently you end up being thoroughly basted yourself. The story is beautifully written, Dickens was said to have single handedly reinvented Christmas with this tale and Thackeray called it 'a national benefit' ... it's him at his absolute best. And despite constantly failing to do this (with resentments creeping in regarding the expense, queues, wrapping duties, long car drives on icy roads and the inevitable ensuing indigestion) I hope I can keep striving to 'keep Christmas well' in the true spirit of the story. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year .. God bless us, every one!

I'm totally with you there, I like all my books to have earned their shelf space and you just don't know if they're worthy of it until you've read them. If I read a book, and I don't particularly like it, or even one that's just a bit then it's straight to the charity shop .. unless .. I like the cover. I can hardly bear to part with a book that has a great cover and it's ridiculous because you can't see the cover when it's on the bookshelf. I need to break myself of the habit, maybe it'll be a New Years resolution (but no, I always break them so that's pointless.) Look forward to reading your review of 'To the Lighthouse' Pixie, I'm sure you'll read it before I do.

Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde Waterstones Synopsis: Thursday Next, Head of JurisFiction and ex-SpecOps agent, returns to her native Swindon accompanied by a child of two, a pair of dodos and Hamlet, who is on a fact-finding mission in the real world. Thursday has been despatched to capture escaped Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine but even so, now seems as good a time as any to retrieve her husband Landen from his state of eradication at the hands of the Chronoguard. It's not going to be easy. Thursday's former colleagues at the department of Literary Detectives want her to investigate a spate of cloned Shakespeares, the Goliath Corporation are planning to switch to a new Faith based corporate management system and the Neanderthals feel she might be the Chosen One who will lead them to genetic self-determination. With help from Hamlet, her uncle and time-travelling father, Thursday faces the toughest adventure of her career. Where is the missing President-for-life George Formby? Why is it imperative for the Swindon Mallets to win the World Croquet League final? And why is it so difficult to find reliable childcare? Review: It's that time again when I have to try and do justice to Jasper Fforde's writing .. always a difficult, nigh impossible task. The last time I was with Thursday she was pregnant, without husband Landen who had been eradicated, and dwelling in the Well of Lost Plots as head of Jurisfiction with a minotaur on the loose. The minotaur is still rampaging through fiction and because Thursday, and the other Jurisfiction agents, are keen to keep him alive, he has been darted with a dose of Slapstick with the hope that he will give away his whereabouts with outbreaks in fiction of custard-pie-in-the-face routines and walking-into-lamppost gags but so far no luck (though they cite the ludicrous four wheeled chaise sequence in The Pickwick Papers as being possible proof that he's passed through.) They have an inkling that he is currently residing in the Western genre (apparently he finds cattle drives relaxing) and decide to stake him out at the top of page seventy three of a book called Death at Double-X Ranch, but unfortunately things don't go to plan when Jurisfiction agent Emperor Zhark disastrously intervenes. Thursday is at the end of her tether and feels she needs a rest from Jurisfiction. So she heads back to Swindon, this time with her two year old son Friday in tow (another reason for returning to the Outland is that Friday can only speak in Lorem Ipsum - the dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry - something he picked up in the Well) as well as her pet Dodo Pickwick and his totally unruly offspring Alan. She is accompanied there by Hamlet who himself has requested leave to the Outland to see if the rumours about Outlanders perceiving him to be a bit of a ditherer are true (he is one .. he can't even order a simple cup of coffee .. 'To Espresso or Latte that is the question. Whether tis tastier on the palate to choose white mocha over plain, or to take a cup to go. Or a mug to stay, or extra cream, or have nothing, and opposing the endless choice, end one's heartache' ... mind you I do sympathise with him there.) Hamlet is having a particular hard time of it, not known for his sunny nature he is particularly downcast now after losing his 'Most Troubled Romantic Lead' crown to Heathcliff ... again. Thursday heads off to her Mum's house which is already quite crowded with Lady Emma Hamilton in the spare room and Otto Bismarck in the attic but this is nothing new she once had Alexander the Great staying there (shocking table manners apparently.) Problems come thick and fast for Thursday and within no time at all she learns that the local croquet team .. the Swindon Mallets .. must win the Superhoop or the world will be destroyed, the evil Goliath Corporation have decided to become a religion and Thursdays old adversary the fictional (but totally undeterred by that) Yorrick Kaine has become chancellor and is scheming to become an elected dictator. On top of this Thursday is told by her ChronoGuard Dad (in one of his time freezing appearances) that there will be three unsuccessful attempts on her life. Not so bad when you know that they will fail but pretty dire when you find out that the would be assassin is your best friends wife (known, thanks to a mess up at the printers, as the 'Windowmaker') Add to that some babysitting problems (Thursday can only get Melanie Bradshaw to sit, which is fine because she's a lovely lady but then, she is also a gorilla.), some romantic entanglements (namely Emma Hamiltons increasing fondness for both Hamlet and the living room drinks cabinet) a terrible haircut due to Thursdays stand in job for Joan of Arc and the discovery of her own officially sanctioned stalker and you begin to see what she's up against. She finds herself back at SpecOps where her job now entails, thanks to Yorrick Kaine's anti Danish sentiment, the hunting and burning of Danish books (though of course no-one at LiteraTec agrees with this, they have plans to smuggle them into Wales) It's even more important now for Hamlet to keep a low profile and when news comes through, via Mrs Tiggywinkle, that there are problems back in the Bookworld with an unauthorised merger between Hamlet and The Merry Wives of Windsor, it's clear he can't go home yet either. Good news comes in the form of thirteenth century Saint Zvlkx who has proclaimed in his Book of Revealments that the Swindon Mallets will win the Superhoop though quite how is a mystery as most of the team have been bribed, nobbled or pilfered. Unfortunately he has also proclaimed that the president-for-life (the eternally cheery 'turned out nice again' George Formby) will die two days after the Superhoop final which as it stands now would leave the way clear for Kaine. There is a chance that Landen can be un-eradicated after Thursday visits the Goliath Corporation who are now, thanks to their new religious zeal, seeking forgiveness for past wrongs. She's at first inclined to think that it's just another of their schemes but then Landen begins to flicker back to life (literally, he is sometimes there and sometimes not, leading to some very embarrassing not to say heartbreaking encounters for poor Thursday.) One of the reasons that I liked this one a little more than it's predecessors was the twist towards the end involving Granny Next, firstly I had no idea it was coming (but you wouldn't have needed Saint Zvlkx's Book of Revealments to tell you that .. I think it's becoming clear that unless it's writ in six foot high letters I haven't a hope of foreseeing any plot twists) and secondly it made me feel very emotional which I hadn't before .. unless you count choking over your tea and toast as emotion. It's not all gloom and doom though, the puns come thick and fast and the pace of the books is, as always, hectic and exhilarating. I've only covered a zillionth of it as usual, there's so much more (cloned Shakespeare's, the M4 motorway service station for the semi-dead, a chimera loose in Swindon's Brunel Centre, the hilarious and recently resurrected St Zvlkx, and the croquet match from hell.) Reading these books is such a pleasure, you do have to work that little bit harder than normal but it's well worth it. I can't recommend them highly enough but, a word of warning, don't try and read them out of sequence. 10/10

You're welcome Frankie hope you get as much enjoyment from reading it as I did.

Ha, good try but can you keep to it?, I know I never can, but then I have the willpower of a chocaholic let loose in Thornton's In any case I can't make that resolution until after I've spent my Christmas money. Practically all of which .. with the slightest of detours to 'White Stuff' because I've fallen in love with their winter collection ... will go on books. My local Waterstones is ten mins walk away so as soon as it opens I'll be there with a sack and I've already saved books in my Amazon basket so probably I'll be finalising the transaction before the brussell sprouts have had a chance to go down. I hope you do stick to it though Pixie, it's something I need to do because I have shelves full of unread books that I must have wanted badly at some point (honestly new books are like sirens calling out to poor booklusters .. 'pick me, pick me .. look, I'm new and shiny .. and I'm part of a three for two') The very best of luck with your 2011 reading Pixie, one of the books I'm planning to get with my chrissy money is Virginia Woolf's 'To the Lighthouse'. I'm intrigued by it, but it has got a difficult reputation.

I've seen this on a number of booksites lately, and it looks like fun. You have to answer the following questions using titles of books you've read this year. Some questions were easier to answer than others .. and obviously the more books you've read the easier it is but then the less books you've read the funnier it gets. ok here goes .... Describe yourself: Lost in a Good Book (Jasper Fforde) How do you feel: Wicked (Gregory Maguire) Describe where you currently live: We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson) If you could go anywhere, where would you go: The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch) Your favorite form of transportation: Stardust (Neil Gaiman) Your best friend is: Something Special (Iris Murdoch) You and your friends are: The Wild Things (Dave Eggers) What's the weather like: Neither Here nor There (Bill Bryson) You fear: The Gargoyle (Andrew Davidson) What is the best advice you have to give: Howards End is on the Landing (Susan Hill) Thought for the day: Everything is Illuminated (Jonathan Safran Foer) .. this is true thanks to Christmas How I would like to die: One Day (David Nicholls) My soul's present condition: Fine Just the Way It Is (Annie Proulx)

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D and I liked it .. wasn't as good as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe but was better than Prince Caspian. Actor who plays Eustace is very good, steals every scene he's in.

Yes the list is in the back of Howards End is on the Landing ... she agonises over which 40 to choose, which Dickens/Shakespeare for instance .. I'm sure you'll love it Frankie, how can you not ... it's all about books I do hope you enjoy Little Hands Clapping .. it's weird but in a good way. I've just finished reading Tove Jansson's The Summer Book and loved it. Funny, I could never get into her Moomin books but this one I really liked. It's fictional but I think she based it on her grandmother and niece, very unusual in style, about life on a tiny island in the Gulf of Finland. Enjoy all your books Frankie

I'm on the last 100 pages and enjoying it immensely .. it's so well written and quite unusual. I've already done that thing you do when you're enjoying an authors work, look up all of their other books and buy, beg, borrow or steal them ... I haven't stolen any ... but I have borrowed some from the library and put a few in my Amazon basket knowing that I'll be getting Christmas money soon. I've actually managed to read one of her short stories too in between picking up 'The Sea, The Sea' .. in fact I think it was her only short story .. anyway, it was good.

Old Filth - Jane Gardam Waterstones Synopsis: FILTH, in his heyday, was an international lawyer with a practice in the Far East. Now, only the oldest QCs and Silks can remember that his nickname stood for Failed In London Try Hong Kong. Long ago, Old Filth was a Raj orphan - one of the many young children sent 'Home' from the East to be fostered and educated in England. Jane Gardam's new novel tells his story, from his birth in what was then Malaya to the extremities of his old age. Brilliantly constructed - going backwards and forwards in time, yet constantly working towards the secret at its core - OLD FILTH is funny and heart-breaking, witty and peopled with characters who astonish, dismay and delight the reader. Jane Gardam is as sensitive to the 'jungle' within children as she is to the eccentricities of the old. A touch of magic combines with compassion, humour and delicacy to make OLD FILTH a genuine masterpiece. Review: An enjoyable read. Sir Edward Feathers or 'Old Filth' (failed in London try Hong Kong) is a retired barrister and a Raj orphan, despite the nickname Filth is scrupulously clean and has all the elegance of the 1920's, he always wears yellow silk socks from Harrods and a Victorian silk handkerchief in his breast pocket. He has a great reputation amongst his colleagues and is remembered fondly and still much discussed, even by the younger members at the Bar. As we join the story Filth is eighty and living back in the UK in Dorset. His wife Betty is now dead and Filth is at a bit of a loss without her, she seemed to be able to run things so efficiently .. she was good with the servants for instance, Filth hasn't a clue what the name of his cleaning lady is, he calls her Mrs-er. Both he and Betty had been born in the Far East but had been shipped back to Britain during childhood. Later, after trying unsuccessfully at the London Bar, Filth had fled to Hong Kong where his success was described as phenomenal. But it wasn't really a place Filth felt he could retire in, not any more, English was spoken less and less there, most of their friends had returned to England and the end of the Empire was drawing near. Betty and Filth decided to settle in Dorset and it had worked, Betty made it work, for she was the sort of woman who was determined not to fail at anything. Life after Betty was always going to be difficult, but things take a turn for the worse when Filth's old enemy, another ex Hong Kong lawyer and in fact the only person that Filth has ever detested (and the feeling was mutual) Terry Veneering, has moved into the cottage next door (which seems, at first, to be an extraordinary coincidence.) Filth is horrified and determines not to have anything to do with him, which he successfully manages for two years. But then, one disastrous Christmas Day, when waiting for a taxi to take him to lunch, Filth manages to lock himself out of the cottage. The snow is fairly heavy, the taxi never arrives and Filth is forced to seek refuge with his next door neighbour. He finds Veneering however, very much altered. The story jumps about quite a lot, alternating frequently between present and past. We read how Filth's mother died shortly after giving birth to him and how his father always remained a distant preoccupied figure seemingly disinterested in the young Edward. This seems to be one of the main themes of the book, how Filth is always to be left and forgotten (in a sense this seems worse than being reviled - to feel you've made no impact at all.) In order for him to learn English and to keep him free from illness he is sent back to Britain to lodge in Wales with Ma Dibbs with two of his cousins. We know something unspeakable happened there, something Filth cannot bring himself to reveal to anybody although it is often darkly hinted at. Of course, we don't get to read what it is until much later. Eventually the children are liberated and Edward is taken away to boarding school where he meets the boy who is to become his best friend, Pat Ingoldby. Pat's family welcome Edward .. or Teddy as they call him .. and he experiences what it's like to be part of a large loving family at last, or so it seems, but nothing lasts for long. At one point he is sent to his two maiden Aunt's to lodge, but they are so wrapped up in their own lives that they hardly even notice he's there. His life is a series of lonely journeys. Filth is troubled by the secrets and mysteries of his past and his mind seems to be wandering too .. it's 'too full of litter'. He chats away to Betty still and listens carefully to her advice from beyond the grave. He embarks on a journey to visit his two cousins (not Betty's advice .. she would be horrified), taking with him some keepsakes of Betty's but it only seems to make matters worse. Eventually, believing himself to be dying, he confesses all to a priest and this is where we learn what actually happened in Wales. The one thing that becomes obvious is how difficult it is for children who have been uprooted and deprived of familial love to go on to have loving relationships themselves. Although his life with Betty was ordered and companionable, it's clear that Filth was unable to provide her with the emotional love she needed and, unbeknown to him, Betty sought this love elsewhere (Jane has written a follow up book 'The Man with the Hat' which is Betty's story.) Finally, having gone full circle, Old Filth embarks on one last journey, back to the only place he has ever thought of as home. Despite the serious themes this is a book that's full of humour and great characters. Gardam says she owes a great debt to Rudyard Kipling's autobiography for the insight and inspiration for the story. 8/10