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Archive Entries for April 2014

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Wednesday April 30, 2014

Books in April

  • Bryant and May and the White Corridor by Christopher Fowler BOM-B&MWhiteCorridor.jpg
    Now working my way back through the series.
    The plotting (and writing of course) seemed to really work here. Nice descriptions of the team development back at base, as well as the noble efforts of the elderly gents trying - and succeeding - to survive, having been stranded in their car (van) on an A road in the snow.
    I felt a real sense of danger from the inevitable murderer, as well as the weather - and a warning against trying to manipulate others through bogus occult dabblings, even with the best of intentions. [Clearly, real occult dabblings are fine... unless you are a fan of Dennis Wheatley].

  • Harbour Street by Anne Cleeves BOM-HarbourStreet.jpg
    Very keen to read the latest Vera novel and it lived up to all my expectations. Great plot and great characters.
    The new TV series started soon after and opened with this story. I was a bit surprised they changed the murderer (although it still made good sense of the story) and could not see why - however subsequent episodes were "made for TV" and one of those had a rather similar villain so I could understand the decision.
    It is a bit of a shame that Vera is not really played as she is in the book, even though Brenda Blethyn has really made her her own woman. TV Vera has fewer layers of complexity - more police drama. I think they had the same problem with Inspector Frost, in that although the TV character was pretty awful, neither he nor the city backdrop were quite as gritty as on the page. Or as I understand it, the author had a problem with it - I was less critical and thought they did real justice to the books by making a single book into multiple episodes, while still managing to make it a series rather than a serial.

  • Crosssfire by Dick Francis and Felix Francis BOM-Crossfire.jpg
    This was an exciting enough thriller which I read really quickly - so one might say "un-put-downable" - if you were not Pedanticus writing in the Guardian. This may sound grudging praise from me but it is not. There is some debate about the worthiness of Felix taking on his Father's mantle, but I think if there is anything to be said about it - or if there is no longer quite the massive readership there once was - it's probably because the taste for the Francis brand of novel has gone off the boil, rather than due to any change of authorship.
    Anyway - quite as good as any stock Francis thriller in my opinion.

  • BOM-Bonecrack.jpg Bonecrack BBC Radio Play
    This is a BBC radio full-cast dramatisation of the Dick Francis novel, starring Francis Matthews, Caroline Blakison and Mark Colleano.
    Fresh with the Dick Francis bug, I was attracted to this play as it stars Francis Matthews - and of course the excellent Caroline Blakiston. I have not read the book but the plot seemed a bit thin and the result pretty predictable ("spoilt brat finds Father Figure"). However, there was a real sense of menace, which was so strong that it was hard to see how our hero would manage to extricate himself. [Plot spoiler alert: "But he did"].

Posted on April 30, 2014 at 11:01 PM. Category: Books of the Month.

Thursday April 17, 2014

Cat Bricks

CatBrick.jpg

Peter is rebuilding our kitchen extension. He seems to have purchased cat themed breeze blocks.

Posted on April 17, 2014 at 12:36 PM. Category: France.

Sunday April 13, 2014

Vide Grenier Arm Chairs

ArmChairs.jpg

So we braved the showery weather and went to the Vide Grenier.
And I found these beautiful chairs (two of them).
They were a bargain.
Need I say more?

I spent the afternoon removing the balding crushed velveteen covering. And George spent the afternoon working out somewhere he could put them where he "would not have to sit on them".

Posted on April 13, 2014 at 12:36 PM. Category: France.

Friday April 11, 2014

Chair seats

ChairSeats.jpg

I finally got round to renewing the seat pads for the ""dining chairs" in France. Someone had ripped one of the covers with a jeans stud I suspect.
The new covers are from a rather pleasing sage green textured fabric which is a remnant from another re-covering job in France - and will do well enough until I get round to the work of lifetime making cross stitch seat covers. [A nice idea but will I live that long?]

The fabric I removed was of great interest to me. It was a "leatherette" type - I would guess original with the chairs - branded LIONIDE. It seems you can still obtain this (so I could have gone for a proper restoration... Spanish Brown I think...) - looks to me like a faux leather fabric used (today) as a specialist vintage car seat covering.

Posted on April 11, 2014 at 12:35 PM. Category: France.