Weekend Miscellany

After a lovely time away – cue obligatory photo of Sherpa:

– where was I?  After a lovely time away, I am back in Oxford, and will be spending my weekend baking and reading.  Perfection!  But I shall leave you with some top-notch miscellaneous things today.

1.) The link – is a hilariously brilliant video from The Flight of the Conchords.  They’ve written a charity song, with the help of some children in choosing the lyrics… don’t forget to click through to Youtube and donate to the cause.  Or you can donate here. (The beginning might not make sense if you’ve not familiar with the excellent TV series, but give it a minute and you’ll be fine.)

2.) The blog post – was an easy choice this week.  Darlene and I had a ‘reading smack down’ (her words) – a race for Darlene to read something by my beloved Ivy Compton-Burnett, and me to read my second Elizabeth Bowen novel (having not loved my first) since Darlene adores Bowen.  Well, before I’d even pulled The House in Paris off the shelf, Darlene had read Manservant and Maidservant – and liked it!  Read her great review here, and congratulate her on her smack down victory.  It smarts.

3.) The book – I spotted that Erica Brown’s book on Elizabeth von Arnim and Elizabeth Taylor, Comedy and the Feminine Middlebrow Novel, is out in December.  At £60 it’s probably not on for many private libraries, but if you hold any sway at your local academic library, then get a word in now!  More here.

Happy Weekend!  I’m off home for a week and a bit – next Saturday is a party for Mum and Dad’s anniversary, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to enjoy a week at home with Sherpa.  Mum promises me that Sherpa is looking forward to me coming… I’m going to fool myself into believing it.

I’ll try to keep posting while I’m at home, but it might be a bit more sporadic.

1.) The blog post – is Alice’s lovely post about the prospect of reading Ivy Compton-Burnett – including a quotation from Virginia Woolf on ICB which somehow I had never read before.

2.) The link – I know some people don’t have the high tolerance for cute pictures of cats that I have (it’s why the internet was invented!) but I doubt even the hardest heart could resist ALL of the 50 cute pictures found here.  My favourite is actually the one above, entirely cat-less.  (You might have to click to enlarge it.)

3.) The book – John Murray/Hodder & Stoughton recently sent me George Bernard Shaw’s Love Among the Artists.  You know how I love a reprint series, especially if the reprints in question are slightly unusual choices.  I hadn’t heard of this, but I’m definitely keen to read more GBS, particularly one which will cross 1900 of my Century of Books list (although written in 1881).  It’s about ‘three wayward geniuses’, according to the blurb – two pianists and an actress, contrasted with socialites at whom Shaw pokes fun.  Sounds great!  More info on Love Among the Artists here, although I’ve had a hunt without being able to find the other reprints that they’re doing in this series (and have lost the sheet they sent me.)

My weekend is looking pretty busy – a wedding later today, and then packing, packing, packing.  For I am moving house – to Headington, just east of Oxford.  If anyone would like to update their address books, email me and I’ll let you know my new address…  My actual move date is next Wednesday, so I may go a bit quiet, depending on how internet goes in the new place, and whether or not I manage to prepare some blog posts in advance.

1.) The book – nearly two years ago, I was surprised by how much I liked Ned Beauman’s Boxer, Beetle, and now his next novel has been published by Sceptre.  It’s called The Teleportation Accident (great title; great cover) and you can read more about it here.

2.) The link – is hilarious.  Fancy eavesdropping on a sleep talking man?  His wife records his alter ego (he does know about this!) and then transcribes.  It’s so funny!  Have a listen here.

3.) The blog post – it’s that time already!  Rosamund Lehmann Reading Week starts on Monday.  When I first heard about it, I didn’t know I’d be moving house… I’m still very, very keen to join in, but… well, I’ll try really hard.  If you’re not in the process of packing up all your belongings, you should definitely join in. Let Florence tell you more here.

Have a great weekend!

Well, it’s wet and miserable here – but it has been beautiful, as exemplified in this picture from the road trip I took on Thursday to Toot Baldon (because of its brilliant name).  Not a bad view for our picnic, eh?

1.) The blog post – go and read Hayley’s lovely, thought-provoking post about why so many of us love books as well as reading…

2.) The link – is this Youtube clip: a man being ‘interviewed’ by himself, from a video he made 20 years ago.  It’s very clever.

3.) The book – came from Bloomsbury the other day.  I should have read this back during the Jubilee weekend, but it’s still Jubilee Year, isn’t it?  I’m very excited about Coronation by Paul Gallico… I’ll let you know more soon!

 Have a great weekend!

It’s been a long day, so I’m going to leave you with a very minimalist miscellany.  Follow the links to find out more…

1.) 60 Years in 60 Poems – can you help?

2.) Remember how much I loved Life in a Day?  Now there is Britain in a Day.  Not as good, but still definitely worth watching.

3.) Have you seen Karyn’s new bookshelves yet?

4.) Tove Jansson AND Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland?  Yes please!  (click the picture for more info.)

5.) Claire shares How To Write A Novel by Georgette Heyer – very funny!  And…

6.) Michelle shares On Reviewing Fiction by Rose Macaulay – also very funny!

Have a lovely weekend :)

I wonder how many Weekend Miscellanies I’ve done now?  It feels like nearly 100, but I daresay it isn’t that many yet.  I hope you’re still finding them useful – I know that I enjoy people’s round-up posts, and I also like being able to collect together bits and pieces rather than scattering them through the week.  This weekend I’ll be at work on Saturday, but not up to very much on Sunday.  I’m in a bit of a reader’s block at the moment – or, rather, reading a couple of books that I’m finding dull but have to finish – so perhaps I’ll indulge on Sunday and read something fun.  What are you up to?

1.) The link – if you happen to be in the Oxfordshire area at the end of June, why not go and see AA Milne’s brilliant play The Dover Road (PG Wodehouse’s favourite play, donchaknow) in Dorchester-upon-Thames?  More info here.  I’m hoping to go, if I can persuade some others.

2.) The blog post – if you’re not doing so already, you should follow Thomas on his tour around the UK.  He’s back in the US now, but is putting up glorious photo posts of his travels – he basically seems to have had the perfect trip (give or take potentially fatal car journeys) and has gone to many places I dream of visiting.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned on here that Thomas and I had cream tea at the Randolph whilst he was in Oxford – I daresay it will appear on his blog at some point, although we didn’t actually have a photo taken.  I met Thomas on his last visit, along with lots of other bloggers, but it was a real delight to have him to myself for a couple of hours.  I always get a bit nervous about these things, which either makes me very quiet or very voluble – well, just call me Garrulous Gary, because I chatted away animatedly all the way through, and Thomas did too.  It was so easy, and such fun.  We spoke surprisingly little about books (although we agreed to continue reading each other’s blogs, despite my dislike of Hotel du Lac and Thomas’s of Rebecca) – but we seemed to speak of many other topics under the sun.

3.) The book – I passed on my copy of Julie Myerson’s Then to my housemate Mel, who read it instantly (remember those days, of never having unread books on your shelf?) and tells me it is brilliant – and baffling.  Dystopia, amnesia, and hallucination were the words I grasped from the conversation – which sounds as though it could be enthralling, or could be a huge mess – sounds as though it’s the former.  Maybe one day I’ll have time to read it… thank you to Jonathan Cape for sending me a copy.  I’ll try to persuade Mel to write about it for me…

Happy Jubilee Weekend, everyone!  Well, the actual Jubilee was back in February, so happy 59th anniversary of the Coronation, everyone.  I hope you’ve got street parties etc. planned, and are ready to toast HRH Elizabeth II – Republicans not welcome for one weekend only ;)  (I jest – my beloved, but foolish, brother is a staunch republican.)  (I mean republican in the anti-monarchy sense, not the US party sense…)  Ahem.  Right, I should be making this Jubilee-themed in some way, but I’m not – instead, it’s the usual book, blog post, and link.

1.) The blog post – is, as so often, cheating on my part.  It’s a whole blog – a photo blog, at that.  Deborah inadvertently introduced me to Humans of New York when I saw her comment on Facebook, and I was immediately hooked.  A young photographer, Brandon, goes all over New York taking portraits of interesting-looking people he sees on the street.  These tend towards a few categories – people with brightly dyed hair; cute children; dignified older people – but that’s fine, it’s not intended as an exhaustive gallery.  His little snippets of their conversations enhance the pictures, and it’s a really wonderful project.  I would love it if it were anywhere in the world, but if you’re besotted with the Empire State, then you’ll love it even more.  Facebook group is here; website is here.  I couldn’t find anything about whether or not people were allowed to reproduce photographs, with the intention of advertising his project, but… well, I’ll remove them if I’m told to!

2.) The link – is the Independent’s series on neglected authors, featuring Rachel Ferguson of The Brontes Went To Woolworths and Alas, Poor Lady fame – and Passionate Kensington, which I gave to Rachel a while ago and now want to read myself!

3.) The book – Polity Books recently sent me Letters to Hitler, edited by Henrik Eberle.  The letters are from the public – whether fooled by his charisma or antagonistic to his regime.  It looks like it might be a very challenging, disturbing read – but also a book which offers a social history like no other.  I’m going to have to brace myself to read it, but I don’t think we fight evil by ignoring it.

By the time you read this, I’ll either be in London or Sussex – a couple of my friends and I are off to Charleston and Monk’s House (the homes of Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf respectively) for a literary jaunt.  At least that’s the plan – right now I feel deathly with one of my oh-so-common colds.  But I am determined to enjoy myself!  I am equally determined to tell you about a book, a link, and a blog post… so make yourself comfortable, and enjoy.

1.) The book –  I can’t remember how I found this title, but it’s been waiting in a draft post for many months: David Batterham’s Among Booksellers.  Read all about it here, but essentially it’s the letters of a bookseller travelling Europe, meeting the eccentric booksellers of the world on his way.  It sounds great fun.

2.) The link – apparently the French isn’t very good in this clip (I watched it silently with the subtitles, and also wouldn’t notice poor French anyway) but cat-lovers will find this amusing, I think…

3.) The blog post – is a little silly, and not entirely for the faint-hearted.  You’ve probably heard of Fifty Shades of Gray/Grey and have probably the same level of desire to read it as I have (i.e. none whatsoever) – well, Book Riot have read it so that you don’t have to!  Their review is very funny…

4.) P.S. – if you’re in the UK, make sure you’re watching the documentaries Chatsworth on BBC and 56 Up on ITV – both are brilliant so far.  And, guess what?  They’re on at the same time.  Of course.  9pm on Mondays – started last week, and have a couple more episodes to come.

Happy weekend, one and all.  I’m enjoying being down in Somerset, with beautiful Sherpa (oh, and Mum and Dad, of course) – and sometimes the internet stretches its reach as far as my bedroom.  Fingers crossed that I can get through writing this post without it crashing.

1.) The book – doesn’t appear to be out yet (although they’re saying early May on the website): it’s a reprint of Richmal Crompton’s wonderful novel Matty and the Dearingroydes, being brought out by Greyladies Books (who reprinted Leadon Hill a while ago.)  No cover image yet, but this is a wonderful novel with one of those eccentric, joyful, outgoing heroines whom I cherish.  I wrote a review of it in 2010, which you can read here – I’m glad there will soon be copies available easily!

2.) The blog – is a new one, called A Musical Feast.  Samantha emailed me and mentioned that she’d started up a blog, and I’m always delighted to see new faces in the blogosphere.  Go along and say hello!  Yes, the blog title sounds musical, and that is one of Samantha’s interests – but the literary side is there, in the pun on Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast.  Incidentally, Chris told me I must read Hemingway’s novel a while ago.  I hadn’t even heard of it, although I knew the quotation from the Book of Common Prayer.  I digress…

3.) The link – isn’t remotely highbrow, but it’ll give you a laugh, especially if you like puns… and American celebrities… but mostly puns.  Enjoy.

Happy weekend, one and all!  I think mine will be spent justifying my thesis in a thousand words (fun) and – rather better – hopefully the first trip of 2012 to Jane’s Teas.  But I shall not leave you neglected, oh no – here is a miscellany to enjoy.

1.) The book – the first I heard of Marilynne Robinson’s new collection of essays was through a post at Mary’s Library.  Mary found When I Was a Child I Read Books a little uneven, and I’ve got to admit, the excitement I felt at the title (a book about books, yay!) was dampened rather when I discovered what it was actually about (philosophy and theology and stuff… oh.)  I have no problem with those topics, but they don’t compare to my love of books-about-books.  Still, I’m intrigued to read it, since Robinson is such a brilliant writer – and this afternoon got a ticket to see Robinson talk about the book at Blackwell’s on 15th May.  (Anyone around in Oxford then?)

2.) The link – is a week-long course my supervisor Sally Bayley is helping to run in Oxford: Sylvia Plath Interdisciplinary Masterclass.  All the info is here, for those with the interest, finances, and proximity to Oxford!  I would just add, Sally is lovely, passionate about literature, and able to engage people in discussions about it in a dynamic and friendly way.  That sounds like a testimonial, doesn’t it?!  But it’s true :)

3.) The other link – is the Explore Learning National Young Writers’ Award, a competition for budding writers aged 5-14.  A story on ‘Old and New’, max. 500 words, can be submitted after April 11th by email, post, or at your local Explore Learning Centre.  Andrew Cope will be the judge – apparently he writes the Spy Dog series.  Being out of the loop on children’s books, I don’t know it – but I bet lots of you have read it aloud to your kids!  All the info you need is here – I’d love to know if your children/grandchildren/nephews/nieces etc. are entering.

4.) The blog post – is Daniel’s at Hibernian Homme, mostly for the beautiful picture, and the question at the end – but also because if you haven’t discovered Daniel’s quirky, joyous, bohemian corner of the blogosphere yet, then you need to do some exploring…