Books!

{{ As a kid among the book series I read were the very British (well very English really) Just William books. Which follow a mischievous boy and his gang as they get into trouble and scrapes with catapults and cricket balls through windows and spend a lot of time imagining they are fighting 'red indians' (they were written in the 40's) or being soldiers or knights or some such and avoiding the attention of horrible 'girls' especially Violet Elizabeth and her catch phrase that she uses whenever the boys won't let her join in their games, that she will "scream and scream till I'm sick!" .
Anyhow today for no reason I could discern as I've never looked up anything Just William related, youtube presented me with a 1947 film called Just Williams Luck. Which rang a bell.
And I think it's probably unique as a film for one reason. You see its not an adaptation of any of the actual books, it just takes the characters and setting and makes up entirely its own story. It was one I read as a child with no idea there ever was a film version till today. But what's unique about is that the Just William author Richmal Crompton was so impressed with the film he wrote the book version a year later.
I can't think of any other film, taken from a book that so impressed the author of the books that he wrote the film into the book series.
It's such an odd thing. Anyhow here's the film if you fancy some gentle, nostalgia for a long gone era, and you can be sure at least it captures the spirit of the books well with the authors glowing seal of approval (though I could do without how the film is scored myself)- }}

Ive began reading LOTRs again. Ive got a lovely book that has illustrations by Alan Lee. The films are enticing to look at but, the thrill and excitement I felt from reading about Helms Deep, the anticipation of will anyone else come to help was so much more better than any film

azriel wrote:Ive began reading LOTRs again. Ive got a lovely book that has illustrations by Alan Lee. The films are enticing to look at but, the thrill and excitement I felt from reading about Helms Deep, the anticipation of will anyone else come to help was so much more better than any film

Excellent.

I was reading a little LotR the other night myself. My ex was spending the night (again, oops!) and she requested I pick up where she had left off, just when the hobbits arrive at Tom's house. It was absolutely delightful. I really must re-read the LotR now that I've finished my reread of the Silmarillion.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ As a kid among the book series I read were the very British (well very English really) Just William books. Which follow a mischievous boy and his gang as they get into trouble and scrapes with catapults and cricket balls through windows and spend a lot of time imagining they are fighting 'red indians' (they were written in the 40's) or being soldiers or knights or some such and avoiding the attention of horrible 'girls' especially Violet Elizabeth and her catch phrase that she uses whenever the boys won't let her join in their games, that she will "scream and scream till I'm sick!" .
Anyhow today for no reason I could discern as I've never looked up anything Just William related, youtube presented me with a 1947 film called Just Williams Luck. Which rang a bell.
And I think it's probably unique as a film for one reason. You see its not an adaptation of any of the actual books, it just takes the characters and setting and makes up entirely its own story. It was one I read as a child with no idea there ever was a film version till today. But what's unique about is that the Just William author Richmal Crompton was so impressed with the film he wrote the book version a year later.
I can't think of any other film, taken from a book that so impressed the author of the books that he wrote the film into the book series.
It's such an odd thing. Anyhow here's the film if you fancy some gentle, nostalgia for a long gone era, and you can be sure at least it captures the spirit of the books well with the authors glowing seal of approval (though I could do without how the film is scored myself)- }}

Mm... No that doesn't seem very good. Just read Harry Potter instead!

( )

After finishing The Silmarillion and a brief affair with Moorcock's (mediocre) Fortress of the Pearl, I thought to mysef, "Forest, you need a little treat after that Moorcock swill." And so I've just begun Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brien.

Ahhh, truly a delight, this series. The humour: so subtle, but outrageous. The pacing: so thoughtful, yet concise. The time-skips between books: just right, with the sojourn on shore elided elegantly, and Aubrey and Maturin ready for their next foray upon the open seas!

Perhaps these books are just the perfect match for me, and that is why I enjoy them so. But I think there must be general appeal in these pages too.

Looking forward to more. There has been mention of rescuing Captain Bligh of Bounty fame. Apparently he has suffered a second revolt against his command: this time upon shore, and he now lies imprisoned? captured? destitute? and in need of assistance. A new command for Aubrey (that is to say, a new ship), and soon I believe the story shall go towards New Holland!*

*do you know where this is? I did not, or I had forgotten that this place once possessed this name.

so here's a short set of interviews with science fiction writers: Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, Kurt Vonnegut.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/may/14/science-fiction-authors-interviews

My reread of the Lord of the Rings carries on, but I have been sampling a few morsels on the side as well.
I read H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines. It was pretty good. I enjoyed the main character's repeated admission that he was "a bit of a coward". I was rather annoyed with parts of it, especially the shooting of elephants, but it was okay overall.
Speaking of Africa, I thought that Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan of the Apes a story with some major blemishes. The annoying members of the marooned company that included the famous Jane Porter really brought down the quality of the book for me. I enjoyed the primal ape-man ways and the fierceness of Tarzan as he grew in his strength and boldness, but the repeated threat of lioness and native became stale, and I grew exasperated with the boring tropes that were the professor and his secretary, and the negro "mammy". A book with potential, but it is certainly no Conan. Too many kitschy elements!

I read a non-fiction piece titled The Sea Shall Embrace Them by  David W. Shaw. I am a sucker for ship disasters at sea, having devoured the excellent Dead Wake about the sinking of the Lusitania, and this well-researched account of the disastrous foundering of the trans-Atlantic steamer the Arctic in 1854 was similarly entertaining. It was not quite as good, of course, missing the intrigue of the German U-boat and the mysterious cover-ups surrounding the sinking of the Lusitania. But that this earlier event happened so long ago (60 years before the Titanic!) and had relatively so little impact long-term on safety standards, and is now so forgotten was very interesting. It was the great ship disaster of its time, with over 300 passengers and crew going down with the ship.

The great scandal surrounding the event was the almost complete dereliction of the crew in their duties. Unlike the relatively faithful crew of the Titanic, most of the crew of the Arctic responded to the several-hour-long sinking of the ship through drunkenness, abandoning of their posts, stealing away with the lifeboats, and forceful capture of the remaining ones with weapons in hand. Of the passengers, only something like 20 were saved, and not a single woman or child: this despite the fact that the six lifeboats the ship did have had space for every single passenger aboard. The large crew simply did not care tuppence about fulfilling their legal obligations, and abandoned the passengers to their fate at nearly every turn.

It was the biggest and best passenger ship of its time, and its destruction (which was caused by a collision with a smaller steel-hulled vessel), ultimately spelled the end of the American Collins line. Once the Crimean War ended and the British vessels of the rival Cunard line were returned from being used as troop transports, they resumed their usual crossings of the Atlantic and America's brief period of supremacy in trans-Atlantic passenger transport--a period marked by new speed-records and great luxury-- came to an end.

Not until after the Titanic disaster was it mandated that ships carry enough lifeboats for all souls on-board, but one improvement that came about shortly after the Arctic's demise was the institution of designated shipping lanes to help avoid collisions: an especially relevant improvement in the heavily trafficked intersection of the Grand Banks. This helped, it did not stop such collisions, but there it is.

Anyway, on to Moorcock's The Weird of the White Wolf. I am in the mood for dark fantasy, so here we go!

If you largely enjoyed King Solomon's Mines (a flawed but enjoyable read) I think you'd be mesmorized by She. Tolkien mentioned it as an inspiration, and it's rather jaw dropping how many tropes you see carried over: Galadriel's mirror, embalming of the Numenorians, a Sam like servant, switches between high and low language...it's really a fascinating read.

I read 'She' last year when I was in the mood for old fashioned derring-do books like the 39 Steps. I much preferred 39 Steps, and Greenmantle was great too.

She is archaic, and it shows. I see it more as an interesting relic than great literature, though much of it is great. Sticks in the head.

Hmm okay, I shall give them both a try. Thanks for the recommendations!

She and 39 Steps would be burned at the stake these days. cos they are not exactly pc.

Though I think She Who Must be Obeyed was probably a titillating role reversal for Victorian sensibilities, the Queen notwithstanding.  The whole book sizzles with unspoken sexuality.  My guess is the thing was often hidden under a mattress though there's nothing specific the censors could point to.

Mrs Figg wrote:She and 39 Steps would be burned at the stake these days. cos they are not exactly pc.

Then they are in good company on my shelf

I noticed they were censoring new editions of James Bond books so I bought a load of old used ones from Amazon before the fascists cancelled them. i must say i am pleasantly surprised how good they are and how likeable Bond is. he is quite different from the films, but in a good way. he is a real person and can be thoughtful, considerate and well, ordinary, also in a good way. Like you see him going for lunch at the secret service canteen and getting a bit huffy because M is gassing on instead of letting him eat. Its quite amusing. Obviously you get all the fast cars, girls and gadgets too.

Read a couple James Bond. Like The Godfather book they are not great, but not bad; mainly distinguished by being a new genre. And the films highlighted the genre defining points.

I'd hazzard the character of film Bond is 1/3 Sean Connery, 1/3 Terrence Young, and 1/3 Ian Fleming.

{{ Im still making my way through Agatha's Christies work, I took a break after reading all the Poirot ones and dived into others at random, the next one being 'N or M'. What I didnt immediately realise is that this is the 2nd in a series of 5 stories centered around the characters of Tommy and Tuppence (her nickname) who are a married couple who sort of arehalf official, half unofficially attached to British Inteligence.
The one I am currently on, 'Partners in Crime' is actually the 2nd one in the set Ive just found out, so I am reading them all in the wrong order!

N or M is exactly what you'd expect from Christie, and not at the same time. It has everything you'd expect, there is a large posh boarding house on the south coast of England full of the usual Christies types- a retired British Colonel, a dashing young man, a large overbearing mature women, a suspcious house keeper, the usual cast for a Christie murder/mystery. Only there is no murder, its not a whodunit,or even a why did they do it, rather its a war time spy story. With the duo tasked with uncovering if there is a German plot to prepare the area for a German invasion, and if so whose involved.
It has the mystery element, the cast of characters all with secrets or seemingly suspicious motives, but all recast into a spy thriller. I rather enjoyed it, its quite light, breezy and it has a 'Boys Own Adventure' quality to it.

Partners in Crime is so far, well odd. Its not so much a novel as a collection of short stories. Tommy and Tuppence are tasked with taking over a Detective Agency for British Intelligence who suspect coded messages are being sent via the Agency. But thats just sort of an excuse for an overarching through thread, the bulk of the cases are in fact completely individual and nothing to do with the reason they are there, rather its one new mystery for each chapter.

And in my view, so far at least, many of the mysteries are, well a bit poor, or even not mysteries at all in the proper sense. The first two are great examples, in the first one the case brought to them happens to be one Tuppence through sheer luck already has the solution to. So whilst her husband is doing the mystery solving she disappears for a few pages then just turns up with the solution.
The very next story, the case of a mising pearl from a posh house its more or less the same but opposite, Tuppence is doing the sluething and building up the characters in the house whilst Tommy buggers off for a few pages then turns up having solved it already, but didint want to tell Tuppence in order to 'pay her back' for the previous case. As mysteries and solutions go its all very flat for me. And worse all the bits with Tuppence are mor eor less just padding, as none ofit is going anywhere.

Its saving grace so far is the relationship between the two, which is one of loving couple but constant teasing of each other and trying to one up each other. But so far at least I cant say I'd recommend Partners in Crime, especially not if you want a good mystery story or a good murder investigation (so far there are no murders, its all been missing persons cases, stolen jewellery and the like) Im hoping it picks up pace somewhere and deepens a bit but Im not sure it will.

Apparently ITV did a tv series based on Partners in Crime in the 80's with each of the chapters being an episode, but my goodness they must have had to spin at least the first two out a hell of a lot to make an episode, or even a mystery, out of them.

edit add- forgot to say this is also the only rime in a Christie book Ive read she references her own work as something that exists in the world of the fiction. When they first get the detective agency Tommy gets a whole load of books of famous fictional detectives, Holmes and a few others get direct mentions, but cheekily Christie references her own Poirot books by having Tommy during the conversation about the fictional detectives say to Tuppence "Mon ami. Use the little grey cells".
She also pokes fun by having Tuppence comment that she doesnt think any of the fictional detectives could actuallty solve a real case.}}

I agree with you about the Tommy and Tuppence books, they weren't my favourite either. They seem more like Christie was experimenting with a new format and then got bored with them after 3 books. Sometimes her one off books are my favourites more than Poirot and Marple. for example, The Man in the Brown Suit and They came from Baghdad, I just wish she had continued more of this type.

{{ They Came From Baghdad is probably my favourite one so far, good story, good characters and my favourite lead (absolutely tragic she is a one off character), fantastic sense of place and time and tons of atmosphere. }}

Christie seems to have a particular penchant for young spunky females. You also get one in Death on the Nile, though she takes a bad turn. I don't know why she didn't make a young detective. I guess the shine would fade once she became worldly a few crimes in.

I think Marple was more interesting and radical in a way because nobody took an old woman with grey hair from a little village seriously and she was continually outsmarting the police. Its interesting because most detectives in literature were men and displayed their sophisticated superior mental capacities with pride, like Sherlock, and Lord Peter Wimsey. She wasn't a dashing derring-do female or adventurous, she just sat in her comfy chair thinking, that's pretty unusual.

It's a shame we didn't get more of her teenagers. But like kittens they grow up, so a series about one of them wouldn't be so believable.

I have started on some Jackie Collins, Hollywood Wives. I never read her in the 80s because I was too young and thought it was for icky middle aged women. now I am an icky middle aged woman I thought I would give it a whirl. Its definitely rude and crude, but its a page turner and I might read the other books too. Its funny how attitudes towards age have changed since the 80s, when the actors in the book in their 40s and 50s are seen as over the hill, whereas now people in their 40s and 50s are seen as big box office, like Tom Cruise, Clooney and Julia Roberts.

Now that you point it out, you're right! Ageism is beginning to fade in Hollywood.

Don't know if its true but I read that the Golden Girls were the same ages as the cast of Sex and the City when they started filming. Just shows how age perception has changed since the 80s.

https://people.com/tv/main-characters-in-satc-revival-and-just-like-that-are-same-age-as-the-golden-girls/#:~:text=(Based%20on%20evidence%20presented%20by,said%20was%20%22so%20crazy.%22