The French do it again...

Book Review:
George's Grand Tour - Caroline Vermalle (translator Anna Aitken)

I won this in a competition on Twitter but there was no obligation to review the book, however after finishing it I knew I just had t o share this book with everyone - in fact my sister already has the physical copy!

It starts like so many books currently, with an old man planning an adventure that will take him away from home and fussing family.  This time George and his friend Charles are going to follow the course of the Tour de France - not on bikes, they are over 70 after all - but by car.  They are going to take their time, seeing all of the sights that the commentators mention when the cyclists whizz by.

George's escape is almost thwarted when his estranged granddaughter gets in touch but thanks to the mobile phone all is not lost.

The account of the hit and miss nature of hotels when you are on the road really stuck a chord with me and the descriptions of food made me salivate and work out when we can have a trip to Normandy and Brittany.

This is another book from the Gallic Press and I think that they really have a talent for picking books that are beautiful, whimsical and with real heart. I haven't yet read one from them that I didn't like.

I'm not going to say any more about this book as I want everyone to discover it like I did, the twists weren't what I expected at all.  My one word of advice - possible don't read this on a crowded train...

Theatre 2015: Review Six

Edward Scissorhands (ballet), Theatre Royal, Norwich. February 2015.

It has been nearly two weeks since I saw this and yet I still find myself at a loss when trying to write about it.  For all the right reasons I hasten to add - it was a piece of perfect theatre.

I'm pretty sure I saw the movie back in the 1990s but again I went to see a Matthew Bourne ballet knowing very little of the plot intricacies and once more it didn't matter - the story just unfolded naturally in front of me.

Often theatre reviewers and critics say that if you notice things like the scenery and the lighting then there is something lacking in the event but in this case absolutely everything was perfect and worked together - you were supposed to notice the lights, the nets etc. At the end I was crying and yet hadn't realised that this was the case.

I came out of the performance gobsmacked that there were empty seats and it is only because I couldn't fit it in that I wasn't back at the Box Office buying tickets to see this again and again.  The one thing I feel bad about it telling my mum that she has to see this only to find that her local theatre isn't showing it.

Theatre 2014: Review Thirty-Two

My Night With Reg, The Donmar Warehouse, London. September 2014.

Not quite an impulse trip but one that Rebecca and I planned after reading several reviews and realising that this looked like a good play in one of our favourite venues.

We weren't disappointed.  The play is a very clever three act piece featuring six men all of whom know Reg in some way and it then follows their lives over the next few years as the importance of this friendship becomes known.

All three acts take place in the same room and it is very clever how they segue into each other, it is only by paying close attention to the words and body language that you you can see what is actually happening - even thought the play has now actually closed I am loathe to explain too much about this as this is so cleverly done that I don't want to spoil it for anyone who may see this, or who looks for a copy of the film.

The play managed to go from causing tears of laughter to tears of grief in a heartbeat and was totally wonderful, like the best drama it kept me guessing and the third act for me was a real surprise and shock, and I don't just mean thanks to the full frontal male nudity.

There was so much detail and nuance in this play that part of me wishes I'd caught it early in the run and had the chance to see it again but then it was close to being perfect when I saw it and perhaps a second viewing would have spoiled that.

I love the surprise of theatre - every time I see a good play I think 'that's it - I'm never going to see something that good again' and lo and behold the next play is even better...