All

First of all, the sketches for Year One are all now collected together, and the link is in the left-hand column. Phew, job done!

I thought I’d try a meme I saw at Tara’s blog Books and Cooks, which originated on Heather’s site Errant Thoughts. I added the ‘u’s myself…

1. Who’s your all-time favourite author, and why?Too hard. My all-time top five are Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, AA Milne, Richmal Crompton and EM Delafield. There are quite a few other authors who are responsible for my favourite books, but these five prove consistent – they’ve written lots of book each which I consider amongst my favourites.
2. Who was your first favourite author, and why? Do you still consider him or her among your favourites? Good question! There are a few authors – like Stephen Leacock and, to an extent, AA Milne – who were amongst my favourite authors when I started reading non-children’s books, and I haven’t tested the water for some years. My favourite author as a child was Enid Blyton – because I read little else for years and years, I missed out on quite a few children’s classics. It did teach me the joys of author-obsession, though…
3. Who’s the most recent addition to your list of favourite authors, and why?Barbara Comyns catapaulted herself from ‘like’ to ‘love’ with Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead. Tove Jansson is quite a new love, relatively anyway, but the top five I mentioned earlier have been steady favourites for some time.
4. If someone asked you who your favourite authors were right now, which authors would first pop out of your mouth? Are there any you’d add on a moment of further reflection?Someone did, and the answer was question one! With further reflection… that’s when I’d probably start talking about those who’ve written my favourite books (Frank Baker deserves a mention somewhere for Miss Hargreaves, even if Before I Go Hence wasn’t a favourite novel) – and to wonder which of a modern crowd will merit the title. Angela Young? Janni Visman? Neil Grimmett? The list can only keep growing.

I’ll tag some people – so many to choose from! – no pressure, but join in if you fancy it (and anyone else who wants to do it, of course):
Oxford-reader
Our Vicar’s Wife
Random Jottings
Angela Young
Crafty Person

Of late I’ve been having what can only be called a Pride and Prejudice fest. In the past few weeks I’ve re-read the book, watched the BBC 1995 version, and watched the 2005 film. My love of the novel – and it is rare enough to admire and adore something equally! – is well known. I don’t think I’ve spoken much of the adaptations on this blog, though I daresay they’ve been mentioned on occasion.

1995 BBC… well, this is the production which should be the benchmark for all literary adaptation. True, I saw it before I read the novel (I was 9 when it was released) but, even after discovering Jane Austen’s work to be superior to Andrew Davies’ working of it, I whole-heartedly love this version. Davies took the all-too-rare approach of using the novel’s dialogue in his adaptation for the majority. Since Jane Austen is the finest writer of dialogue I have ever come across, not to mention the wittiest, it always seems vainglorious for a scriptwriter to inject their own pearls. Just don’t. Stoppit.
And the acting! Every actor is perfect for their character, and Jennifer Ehle presents the definitive Elizabeth Bennet. Oh, and Colin Firth of course… (incidentally, did you know that collenferth is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning stout hearted?) One of my few reservations about this Pride and Prejudice is that we can’t see the development of Lizzie’s thoughts and affections as subtly and emotionally as they’re presented in the novel, but of course this must be true for any adaptation; and Jennifer Ehle’s wonderfully expressive eyes say more than most actresses could with pages of script. Every member of the cast was wonderful, and the series is one I could re-watch once a week for the rest of my life without reluctance.

2005 film… was there any point? Having made more or less the finest adaptation possible, could cramming the story into two hours be a worthwhile endeavour? There was never any chance for equally Davies’ adaptation with so little time – the pace of Pride and Prejudice is frenetic; whoever said nothing happens in Jane Austen must, like most of her opponents, never have read her. And the casting and directing… Darcy is sulky rather than proud; Bingley daft rather than amiable. Keira Knightley does a creditable job, and would be worthy of applause, had not Jennifer Ehle set such a high standard. Blenda Blethyn’s portrayal of Mrs. Bennet’s is admirable – Alison Steadman was criticised for going over the top in the 1995 version, but on re-reading the novel I remember just how over the top Mrs. Bennet is. Even Dame Judi Dench isn’t as good as her counterpart, Barbara Leigh-Hunt, in the role of Lady Catherine.
The chief culprits for this adaptation, though, are the scriptwriters. Ok, you can’t fit in everything that’s in the novel – but why change things? Why add things? Why take dialogue from the mouth of one character and place it another’s? The Oprah-moment from Charlotte Lucas…
And the directing. The near-kiss once Elizabeth has rejected Darcy? Throwing in Wuthering Heights when things get dull, so that the hero must wander around the moors in the rain….
My reaction upon watching it today was not as severe as when I saw it in the cinema, but it has confirmed in my mind the brilliance of the 1995 version, and I shall clutch the DVD of it to my chest with glee. Or, indeed, I might put it in the DVD player.

Well, some more sketches are now up and linked in yesterday’s post, but there is still some way to go! Takes quite a while, though, and I’m not feeling 100%, so shall finish the job another day. Hope it proves an interesting, if slightly baffling, reference!

Finished Pride and Prejudice this evening (a re-read) and delighted in every page. I read it in 2001, and not since, so it has been a pleasure only heightened by anticipation. Of course, having re-read Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility this year, the danger is that Emma is just around the corner… and I really must give Persuasion another go. Though I’ve been told I’m probably not old enough yet to appreciate it… well, I’m only going to get older!

These are the sketches from my first year of blogging – most of ’em only make sense in context, so click on them for a link to the relevant post. They’re intended to be fun rather than demonstrating great artistic ability, I must confess, so in that light – enjoy!

What a fun and surreal day I’ve just had… thankfully no small part of it has spent reading, so perhaps The Block has disappeared. Nearly finished an excellent book I was sent to review by Flame Books, who published Neil Grimmett’s The Bestowing Sun, about which I raved a while ago, and which I heard recently will become part of a trilogy. The other book which has brought me back to readerdom is Pride and Prejudice – I forget how wonderful Jane Austen is until I read her. For a hopeful author, it is almost discouraging to see how brilliant a writer can be (especially with dialogue) that it’s almost not worth putting pen to paper anymore. I don’t think I quite trust anyone who’s read Austen and doesn’t admire her.

The most fun and unusual activity I took part in today was… actually, both activities qualify for those adjectives, so I’ll just list them in chronological order. My friend Charley celebrated her 24th birthday, and as she is known as Bear (not sure why) she had a Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Bring food and teddy bear. So, I made some coconut rock cakes (since Our Vicar and The Carbon Copy hate coconut, I put it in everything I make that they’re unlikely to eat) – tip: sprinkle muscovado sugar on top before baking – and took David with me to the picnic. We went on the bus, but he snuck into my bag, and didn’t pay for a seat. He even brought his own marmalade with him – seen in the picture – and made some new friends. Patch and Fido had their own Teddy Dogs’ Picnic at home…

Later on, I attended a Eurovision Song Contest party… perhaps that means nothing to my non-European visitors, but everyone else will have smiled and rolled their eyes. An annual competition, European countries submit a song as daft and tuneless as possible, and then vote based entirely on which countries share borders with them, eventually crowning someone the winner. Costume changes are encouraged, as are cross-dressing and pirate outfits. Bizarre rock, cheesy pop and overly-ambitious operatics are all welcomed. The UK – especially since the invasion of Afghanistan – perform spectacularly badly. This year we triumphed with joint-last place, and Russia took the crown – with an admittedly acceptable entry. Terry Wogan provides hilarious commentary, especially during the announcement of the votes, wherein he gets increasingly indignant/inebriated. A fun evening with some friends, all wielding scorecards with the categories ‘Song, Performance, Dance Routine, Outfits’ – we declared Armenia the winners, and they managed a respectable second or fourth or similar. Spain were unquestionably the worst, but did quite well nonetheless. Roll on next year; I can’t wait.

I think I just made a Duran Duran reference in my post title, but I’m not wholly sure…

Thursday, and time for me to kick back from creative thought, and just copy the good people of Booking Through Thursday – and, of course, invite you to do likewise.

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

I think we’ve talked about that here in the past, though not certain – it is one of those questions which comes up perenially. Quite a while ago, I picked out all the DVDs I owned which were adaptations of literature or connected to literature in some way – quite a few, was the answer.

I resolutely believe that books are simply better than films, if the book came first – even if I enjoy the film more, or think it has better creative artists behind it, it remains a derivative and thus subordinate. True, you can point at Shakespeare and disprove me, as he had barely an original plot line, but still…

What do I like for in a book and what in a film? I’m happy if a film shows me one level; one story. Beauty is a nice bonus, but it is rather too easy – even the worst director can film a meadow and it will look beautiful. It takes a great writer to make that same meadow appear for the reader, in all its beauty, and not simply a word. So, from a book, I look for an interesting plot – but, more importantly, a individual and captivating style. Some depth of thought, some longevity. I probably won’t read it in one go (as I would watch a film in one go) and so I want something I can live alongside, rather than compartmentalise into an evening…

Demanding, aren’t I? Howsabout you?

Thanks everyone! You’ve really encouraged me, and showed me the right thing to do when in the midst of readers’ block. First of all, I’m ignoring all the books I should be reading (sorry people who’ve sent books for review, they will be read, but this is a medical emergency) and… out comes the Provincial Lady. I wanted to turn to this a few days ago, but thought I couldn’t sidetrack myself from the review books – and then realised how silly it was that reading had become a chore. So, a couple of days are going to be taken out, and EM Delafield is coming with me.

I wrote about this collection of four books quite a while ago, and it is still a worthy contender for my favourite book. Funny on every page, warm, witty, touching and a book into which I can really sink my toes (as opposed to my teeth). Like a long bath, and Step One on defeating The Block.

Bear with me…
And, by the by, yesterday’s inspiring post was no.300!

…won’t be the soul of wit today, I’m afraid. My evening is being spent practising for my ECDL (European Computer Driving Licence) and by ‘practicing’ I mean ‘learning’. Most of it has been fairly simple, but now I’m trying to learn about Access, which I’ve never used, and have no clear idea what it is.

Not much reading happening at the moment, either. Have four books on the go, none of them making much headway… it’s very rare that I get ‘readers’ block’, but that is what it feels like at the moment… Anyone else get this? Reading doesn’t get anywhere, and you become amazed that you ever managed to read so many thousands of words on hundreds of pages… Very un-Stuck-in-a-Book, and not something I get often, but right now I’m not feeling at all bookish. Oh dear!

Remedies, please….