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Friday August 31, 2012
Books in August
- The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L. Sayers
This is a BBC radio play which stars Ian
Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey, in a charmingly implausible plot
involving luggin' bodies around a gentlemans club, (don't 'ya know?).
It has to be said that this particular ruse is quickly uncovered, and
the main murder story is pretty well plotted.
When I was a child, Ian Carmichael was the personification of two characters:
Bertie Wooster initially, and Wimsey later in the1970s. I always mentally
dismissed him - but that was very arrogant and he seems pretty perfect
to me now as Lord Peter; (this, despite the fact that in my eyes Edward
Petherbridge protrayed the definitive version in three
adaptations in the 1980s alongside Harriet Walter playing Harriet
Vane).
I have never warmed to Carmichael playing Wooster with Dennis Price.
I think Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry breathed new life into those characters
with the delightfully lavish 1980s version very much in the spirit in
which the books were written, (with the two men being both young and
of a similar age).
- Ripley Radio Mysteries by Patricia Highsmith
I always wanted to see the Talented Mr Ripley film - but never did -
so was keen when I saw this audio version of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley
novel, not quite realising the were the BBC Radio 4 dramatisations starring
Ian Hart.
Not being familiar with the character I did not realise there were 5
novels. I previously thought Ripley
was simply a mad bad hat, rather than a weird anti-hero.
The Ripliad includes:
- The Talented Mr Ripley
- Ripley Under Ground
- Ripley's Game
- The Boy Who Followed Ripley
- Ripley Under Water
- Bury Her Deep Catriona McPherson [read by Hilary Neville]
As mentioned when I read the previous books, I am really in love with
this character. She presents herself candidly in the first person and
I immediately warmed to her humour and good sense (despite or maybe
because of peripheral touches of the mad flapper). I love the contemporaneous
turns of phrase woven so naturally into the text, and the simple presentation
of what could be complex relationships with her husband Hugh and friend
Alec.
Having read the author's biography
page, I suppose you could say she was lucky in her success as an author.
But her writing is really so skillful and witty, I think much more than
luck came into it.
- Child's Play by Reginald Hill [read by Colin Buchanan]
I have read this novel before, as well as seeing the TV adaptation.
However, that did not spoil the enjoyment in any way - the writing and
the narrator are excellent.
Read this
review by Michael Walters (a proper writer!) to tell you why Reginald
Hill is so extraordinary. [Though he does say that Underworld
"is also the book in which the stone-faced Sergeant Wield, always
one of Hill’s best characters, first emerges from the closet"
whereas I actually think to all intents and purposes that it happens
in this book - the previous one in the series.]
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Posted by Christina at 8:16 AM. Category: Books of the Month
