Hooray for Bollywood

People who are afraid of cultural diversity really don't know what they are missing.  I realise that the clothes are only a part of the culture but the are a great place to start along with a bit of Bhangra.  Bollywood Night at Vyners High School in Ickenham was great fun although I faded quite badly at midnight as book club the previous evening had gone on until 2am.

Watching Alison go through the complicated process of getting into one of Subby's saris and selecting the right bindis to go with it and the Salwar suit I had borrowed from Sarah-Jane was a great start to the evening.  Apart from Adrian not liking the Tiger beer very much the evening was a roaring success.

Brace Yourselves for 2012 World Book Night

On April 23 - chosen because it is the anniversary of Cervantes' death and Shakespeare's birth and death. I have been selected as a giver (along with 20,000 others) and this year I will be giving away 26 copies of:

A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens

After eighteen years as a political prisoner in the Bastille the aging Dr Manette is finally released and reunited with his daughter in England. There two very different men, Charles Darnay, an exiled French aristocrat, and Sydney Carton, a disreputable but brilliant English lawyer, become enmeshed through their love for Lucie Manette. From the tranquil lanes of London, they are all drawn against their will to the vengeful, bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the Reign of Terror and soon fall under the lethal shadow of La Guillotine.

What the WBN panel think:'From the famous opening lines (It was the best of times, it was the worst of times) to the stunningly heroic hand in mouth ending this is a fantastic swashbuckling adventure from a master storyteller. Hang up every preconception you may have about Dickens and enjoy this brilliant book.'

Alice, Eva Hanagan

The inaugural meeting of the Hillside Book Club discussed this novel written by one of the previous occupants of No 4.  Three members of the group remembered Eva who passed away in 2009 a couple of years after leaving Hillside.

The the jacket picture and blurb on the back of the edition I have (we all seemed to have the same one) doesn't do the book justice.  To me they are suggestive of a light 'chick lit' frivolous sort of romp and I don't find that to be an accurate description of this short literary novel.  The characters are well drawn, most being rather flawed and consequently quite believable.  I loved the archetypal headmistress who seems to have a lifelong hold over her erstwhile pupils.  There are some quite farcical funny scenes involving  lawnmowers and a mole crazed man shooting himself in the foot but the main gist of the story seems to be a sort of right of passage for a middle aged woman learning to deal with the loss of her husband.

Overall the book seemed to score 7 - 7.5.  I liked it very much and found the ending satisfactory although others would have been happier with a more eventful ending.

The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes

Winner of the 2011 Booker Prize (I didn't discover this until after I had read it) and given to me for xmas, along with the rest of the shortlist, by my lovely sister.

It's an interesting story populated by a group of rather unlikeable characters.

I didn't see the twist in the tail coming and it worked as an ending for me but I'm not sure I understand what the £500 was about.  I think it captures very well how people misunderstand each other and particularly how youth can be so utterly selfish.

My engagement with the story flagged a bit in the middle I pressed on and found myself enjoying it again towards the end.

I recommend it as choice for reading groups.  Its well written, quite short and full of interesting themes for discussion.

Snowed In

As Michael MacIntyre rather eloquently put it - it's so much better to be snowed in than snowed out.

This is the view from my bedroom window this morning.  The little black blob on the bottom right hand corner is the rear window of my car that will not be going anywhere today, or tomorrow unless this clears.

I can hear Adrian wiping the snow off his feet downstairs having just cleared the driveway although I'm not really sure why because last year the attempt to drive a rear wheel drive car on snow resulted in the need to replace the rear view mirror!

There was quite an active snowballing event going on in Hillside this morning but everyone seems to have gone in to thaw out over their roast beef now.  There is no sign of a snowman yet.

It was with the memory of having been snowed out last winter, in London, and it being every bit as unpleasant as it sounds that led to Mother, Father and I being faced with this rather bleak picture after midnight last night.  The white streaks on the picture are blizzard in action.

The only reason we ventured out in such cold weather at all was having booked months in advance we went to the Old Vic to see Noises Off.  Getting to London without incident (other than the freezing cold) we started the evening with an early dinner at the Waterloo Bar and Kitchen, a lovely meal of goat's cheese tart followed by swordfish with roasted sweet potato.  As we stepped around the corner to the lovely old fashioned theatre it was just starting to snow.  As for the main event of the evening, the play, it was funny and well executed by a talented cast.  It starts of a bit oddly and the first act bodes will until you realise what's going one as the second act starts.

By the time we left the theatre the snow was falling heavily, we slipped along the pavement and managed to secure a taxi to Victoria having abandoned plans to spend the night in Ickenham, wisely as it turns out because although our journey home was not plain sailing we would have been snowed out if we had waited until Sunday morning to attempt the journey.

The train out of Victoria was delayed and when it did get going it kept stopping at every signal.  The train driver seemed to be much more put out about this than the passengers. He kept letting us now that he would get us home as soon as the signaller, who he obliquely indicated was a reprehensible character determined to keep us up late, came to their senses and gave a green light.

Anyway all's well that ends well as the long suffering Adrian got out of his bed to come and collect us from Horsham and we were all safely tucked up in our beds by 1am.