Theatre 2014: Review Thirty-Eight

The Scottsboro Boys, The Garrick Theatre, London. October 2014.

After a visit to a challenging art exhibition Rebecca and I continued our day to see a musical - not a genre of theatre we see an awful lot.

We hadn't picked a light-hearted musical either as the Scottsboro Boys tells the story of 9 young black men arrested and imprisoned in Alabama after being falsely accused of raping two while women on a train.  At the first trial the young men are sentenced to death but this is overturned and the trial considered not to be legal.  Over the next years the trial repeatedly comes back to court and the same verdict is given - even after one of the women admits to having lied.

A truly shocking story by any account.

However this production is even more uncomfortable as it is staged as a minstrel show with the Scottsboro Boys being run by an old white man. It is hard to explain just how well this works and just how uncomfortable it is whilst at the same time being as fantastic as I found it. The bit that unsettled me the most was when the black actors themselves appeared in the 'black-face' of the minstrel show but then even this was subverted and reclaimed...

The actors/dancers/singers are all on stage nearly all of the time, many of them play two or three roles and the only scenery is some chairs and a couple of planks of wood and yet I was there in 1930s Alabama with them throughout.

At times the story is a little badly paced and as the characters aren't individually named at the start it takes a little while to work out who is who.  Right up until the last scene I was also very unhappy with the way the one woman in the cast was used but this all becomes clear in one of the best twists I've seen.

I didn't come out singing any of the songs and even now, a week on, I feel deeply unsettled by what I saw and am struggling to put a review into any form of coherency yet I'd happily go and see this again and have been recommending it to all and sundry.  Sometimes you can like a production despite everything, and it is good for me to be jolted out of my comfort zone.

Pictures at an exhibition

Anslem Kiefer, Royal Academy of the Arts, London. October 2014.

Rebecca was keen to see this exhibition but unsure if it was my thing (I am pretty conservative and mainstream in my liking/understanding/appreciation of the art world) but I do like to try new things and so off we went to the RA no thanks to the combined efforts of various rail companies.

In advance Rebecca had warned me that some of Kiefer's work was bleak but thanks to the excellent website run by the Royal Academy I watched some films about the artist and his work and entered the exhibition with an open mind.

Like so many exhibitions where there is an audio guide the first room was a bit of a nightmare with people walking in and stopping but after this it thinned out and there was plenty of space to really spend some time looking at the pieces displayed.

I can't say I liked it all, but I had a very visceral response to many of the pieces and some of them grew more and more haunting the longer I spent looking at them. Some of the work I found myself rationalising in to things I was familiar with in an attempt to understand them and a few (many of the ones including the sunflowers below) I treated like astronomy.  The longer you actually look directly at something the less clear it becomes, but when you look to one side you clearly see the image...

The real downside to the exhibition was that they had run out of leaflets/guides to the works and so if you didn't take the audio guide then there was very little description to help you understand the pictures and installations - this was liberating in a way as we could invent our own narratives to them but I'm pretty sure we were wide of the mark!

Theatre 2014: Reviews Thirty-Six and Thirty-Seven

Henry IV parts I & II (RSC), Theatre Royal, Norwich. October 2014.

This past week I have spent a little over 6 hours in the theatre watching the two parts of Shakespeare's Henry IV and even now a few days on I am really not sure what I thought of the two plays.

Overall I enjoyed the duo but not as much as I'd expected, and this isn't just because the theatre seats weren't that comfortable for that length of time - after all I am happy to spend this much time at the Globe on wooden benches in the rain...

Whilst saying that I enjoyed the plays overall I am hard pressed to think of any specific moments except the choreography of the battle in part I and the deathbed scene and aftermath in part II. Both of these captivated me wholly and were a wonder to watch, and the latter did move me. The speaking and singing in Welsh during part I were also impressive.

However it would be fair to say that had these plays been renamed Falstaff part I & II it would be a fairer account of how the plays were staged/directed. As I never warmed to Sir Antony Sher's version of the character this was a bit of a problem.  I felt no chemistry at all between him and the rest of the cast, especially Prince Hal, and thus when he was rejected at the very end it didn't feel a surprise or a betrayal - something I keenly felt when seeing the DVD of the Globe version and from reading the texts.

The direction of Hotspur in part I also caused me some problems as he was played as completely unlikeable, again not something I've come across before. For sure he should be hot-headed but there was no reason at all for Henry IV to prefer him over Hal in this version and rather than hoping that the underdog would win I wanted to cheer when he was killed.

Possibly the biggest problem for me was that from the circle I couldn't tell Prince Hal and his companion Poins apart and for much of the production (whether intentional direction or not) I felt that Poins was more imposing than Hal and thus I mistook him for the prince in many scenes.

It all sounds very negative, and after part I that is certainly how I felt, part II did improve the experience for me but it all felt very worthy and the joy that I've found in Shakespeare (even in the versions of Macbeth and Richard III at the Trafalgar studios) was missing here.
My complaints could be because the staging didn't work so well in a traditional, dark, proscenium arch theatre where the acoustics were not the best but I think that my unease and dislike of the production are deeper than this and again it is that I prefer the Globe's interpretation to that of the RSC.

I'm glad I saw this, and after the recent treat that was Two Gentlemen of Verona, I am a little disappointed in my reaction but it does confirm that I am right to travel to London regularly rather than struggling to Stratford.  I will keep trying the RSC versions at the cinema however!

Book Review

The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce.

Proof provided by Netgalley.com

A couple of years ago a very gentle book called The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was published and became a hit. I read it, enjoyed it and thought it an interesting premise. Over the summer excitement has been building for the companion book and I was interested enough to request an advance copy.

I'm glad that I did for this is an interesting book that faces dying head on but without slipping over into mawkishness or forced humour. It does remain moving and funny however.

In Harold Fry we follow Harold as he makes his epic journey on foot from Cornwall to Northumberland. This book focuses on Queenie - the woman he is trying to reach - and recounts her life as she remembers it, and how it intersects with Harold's alongside daily life in a hospice.

A book about dying should always be read with caution and this book will certainly not be for everyone. If I still worked in retail I would be cautious about recommending this to customers - it is such an emotive topic that people should come to it on their own, even fans of the first book should take care before reading. That all being said books on topics like this are important and the quality of writing and the ending make this a good, if sad, read.

Theatre 2014: Review Thirty-Five

Seminar, Hampstead Theatre, London. October 2014.

I was very glad that I'd made the Friday a Globe double bill for although the weather started fair on Saturday it didn't stay that way!

However before the rain fell Rebecca and I managed to get to the Tower of London to see the amazing Poppy installation at the Tower of London. This is a truly powerful way to mark the centenary of World War One and the sight of that many poppies marking those from Britain who died in the war is mind blowing.

One small section of the final 888, 246 poppies.

After this the long suffering Rebecca agreed to accompany me to Gordon Square to see all of the Book Benches in one place prior to them being auctioned off for charity.  I love these projects of installation art with themes and spent a happy half hour photographing the front and back of all 51 seats.  Poor Rebecca sat under a tree with a book hoping that the drizzle wasn't going to get worse before I was finished.  We were mostly lucky and it wasn't until we were walking towards the West End that the heavens truly opened on us.

Wet through we made our way to Hampstead, dried out a little in a cafe and then got drenched again on our way to the theatre.  Not entirely in the mood for a play that hadn't had great reviews we took our seats.

Again I find myself out of step with other reviewers.  Seminar is an odd play in that it is all about the craft of writing. We follow four aspiring writers as they present their work to an expensive and well regarded editor/author.

None of the characters - including the superb Roger Allam - are likeable and all are almost caricatures of different types of writers/artists. For me this didn't matter as the play was about how and why people write and read, and I found it easy to transfer a lot of the ideas to both my studies in theatre and also my job in the book world.  I really could see several people I've met over time in all of the stage roles - not all of them flattering!

A play about writing is hard to talk about strangely enough as it sounds terribly dull but it wasn't, in fact I found it very human and very funny.

Concentrating at times did feel hard however as Allam was playing against characters called Martin and Douglas and his accent was just like the one he puts on on the episode of Cabin Pressure called Paris.

Theatre 2014: Review Thirty-Four

Doctor Scroggy's War, Shakespeares' Globe, London. October 2014.

After meeting Rebecca, having a cup of tea, saying goodbye to companion number one and locating our hotel we returned to the Globe for the evening.

We started in the lecture theatre below the theatre for a "Perspectives" talk. This involved Howard Brenton (author of the play) talking about the play and then taking questions from the audience.  The talk tried very hard not to spoil any surprises in the play for those of us who hadn't yet seen it but at the same time gave us a good idea on how it came to be written and some of the research undertaken to formulate it.

I was most interested in the areas of the talk, and questions, that talked about how Brenton wrote the play for the space and the uniqueness of the Globe, and how the audience interaction can both be a help and a hindrance to the playwright and actor.  I was also really pleased to hear Brenton talk about how WW1 wasn't the first mechanised/trench war - he acknowledged the American Civil War! This is a pet peeve of mine - can you tell!

After the talk we had very high hopes for the play and were in our seats well before the start.

The plot follows three people Jack Twigg - a temporary gentleman with a commission in the London Irish Regiment, Penelope Wedgewood - a leading socialite, and Dr Harold Gillies - a pioneering plastic surgeon with a progressive and unorthodox take on medicine and the importance of morale on healing. There are many other incidental characters helping to drive the plot and in historical terms the play focuses on the Battle of Loos in 1915 and the incredible mistake made by high command.

The play purports to be, and the pre show talk lead me to believe, that the focus would be on the dramatisation of the real life Gillies and his unorthodox but effective treatment of soldiers who suffered facial injuries - he was in fact mentioned recently in the moving ITV series The People's War - however for me this didn't turn out to be the case.

For me the play felt like it was put on stage too early - I think that there are three excellent stories to be told, but that to develop them better each needs more space, or a play of their own.  Jack's story is fascinating and I wanted to know more of him in all ways, without spoilers it is also still very pertinent in asking what does being British actually mean.

Penelope undergoes the most radical of changes and has a fascinating arc to explore, especially in the light of last year's Bluestockings and as for poor Gillies...he was played by the ever wonderful James Garnon but was woefully under used and I felt that there was a lot more mileage in his character. It almost feel disrespectful to use a real person in such a desultory way.

My final grievance with the play was the jig at the end, I can't explain why but for me to see people dancing to Goodbye Dolly Gray and Tipperary seemed wrong.

On the plus side the play held my attention throughout the (scant) two hours, I laughed lots and learned lots of new things about a subject I do know well. It was acted brilliantly and the use of sound was incredible.  I hope that perhaps some more work is done on this play and that it does come back again as it is an interesting story, I'm just not 100% sure that at present the play tells it.

Theatre 2014: Review Thirty-Three

Pitcairn, Shakespeare's Globe, London. October 2014.

I'm just back from another of my epic trips to London. This two day stay saw me take in three exhibitions, three plays and a 'setting the scene' talk at The Globe!

I'd enticed a new friend to London with me this time and before we went to the Globe he suggested a visit to see the Magna Carta exhibition at London's Guildhall.  The display was small but we still managed to spend ages looking at the document and trying to understand what it was all about.  We came to the conclusion that it was a wonderful piece of propaganda that seemed to be offering the common man a lot of things but that in actual fact it was firmly maintaining the status quo and protecting the rich! The one surprise for me was how protected women were in the document and how progressive society was towards us.
After this we also visited the Roman Amphitheatre buried below, and again although small was fascinating.  I shall go back and explore other areas of the building in the future.

Pitcairn in the afternoon was another surprise.  Reviews for this had been decidedly lukewarm and I was apprehensive - was my run of great new writing at the Globe about to be broken?

Absolutely not - from the very start I loved the play, the story, the acting and the use of space.  I wasn't hugely up on my historical knowledge of Pitcairn, Fletcher Christian, Captain Bligh and the Bounty but the story was so clear that this never became an issue, without resorting to too much back story narration I understood everything clearly.

My theatre companion is more knowledgeable in this part of history and he also agreed that this was a good imagining of what could have happened and neither of us spotted the twist in the story and the very funny denouement at the end. One element of the plot was very Enid Blyton but such was the story that it just added to my enjoyment. I was impressed that even a play about the Mutiny on the Bounty could get in the obligatory dig against the French!

The play was a bit rude, lewd and crude and I can see why some might not like it but for me it was a great piece of entertainment that made me think and also made me want to know more about the history around this version.  I also adored the jig at the end becoming a South Sea Haka.

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...

Bookaday September

I love that this challenge is continuing for at least another month, this time the questions have been posed by We Love This Book which started as a print magazine for book lovers from the team behind the trade journal The Bookseller but now exists solely on line.

As ever some of my answers went on line but here I do think about them all...

1^st: Favourite book about books and/or bookshops

Torn between 84 Charing Cross Road  and the fabulous Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society both are contenders for desert island books.

2^nd: Favourite book set in a school (Back to School)

Again two choices - stand alone novel is R F Delderfield's To Serve Them All My Days but my favourite series would be the Chalet School books by EM Brent-Dyer.

3^rd: Best Home Front novel (declaration of WW2)

Eeek so hard to chose for this one as I read a lot of wartime fiction, I think that Goodnight Mister Tom might win here.

4^th: The book you bought for the cover

I love the Persephone books and am always seduced by the look and blurb, although not all of them turn out to be as suitable for me as I'd hoped.

5^th: The book you bought despite the cover

Probably anything in my collection with the film cover as the book is always better, I really need to get a traditional version of Anne of Green Gables!

6^th: Favourite book of short stories

Collections by Katherine Mansfield or Mollie Panter-Downes win through here.

7^th: Favourite fictional monarch (Elizabeth 1^st birthday)

At the moment I'm quite taken with Henry VI as portrayed in Conn Iggulden's Wars of the Roses novels.

8^th: Favourite literary dinner party

Not a dinner party as such but the feasts described in the Redwall books by Brian Jacques always made my mouth water.

9^th: Literary crush

It changes all of the time but one of the first I can remember is Peter from Heidi - I wanted to run barefoot on the mountain and eat bread and cheese for lunch.

10^th: A book that gave you hope

I think the books written by Holocaust survivors fit the bill here, to come through such an experience and then write about it without hate gives me hope.

11^th: Best book recommended by a librarian

I can't remember if it was actually a recommendation or an anti-recommendation but I know I lread and oved This is All: The Pillowbook of Cordelia Kenn after talking about it with a librarian

12^th: Favourite Austen character (Austen Festival)

Shhh! Don't tell anyone but I've not read any of Austen's works.

13^th: Favourite Roald Dahl character (Roald Dahl Day)

Matilda - the girl who made reading cool!

14^th: Character most like you

Oh dear lord - I hope there isn't one out there, it would be a very dull book.

15^th: Favourite Agatha Christie story (Christie’s birthday)

I've only read a couple but I did enjoy And then there were none but my copy had the original title!

16^th: Favourite picture book

Diary of a Wombat is my all time favourite but for reading aloud then currently it is Chu's Day by Neil Gaiman.

17^th: Favourite literary detective/policeperson

Not a favouite genre of mine but I liked Alan Grant in Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

18^th: Favourite coming-of-age book

Never entirely sure what compromises a coming-of-age book but I do like Andre Aciman's Call Me By Your Name.

19^th: Favourite seafaring novel (Talk Like a Pirate Day)

Think this one has to be The Cruel Sea.

20^th: Favourite literary friendship

In fiction then I think the friendship portrayed in the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants novels is great. In real life I loved reading the accounts of Vera Brittain's friendship with Winifred Holtby.

21^st: A book to turn someone into a reader (International Literacy Day)

This is a very personal thing and you need to know about a person before you can do this well but I know that Journey to the River Sea and The President's Hat have gone down well when I've shared them.

22^nd: Best book recommended by a bookseller (Bookseller's Association conference)

Recently this was Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore which I'd never have picked up without the recommendation.

23^rd: Favourite prize-winning book

Captain Coreilli's Mandolin

24^th: Something to do with Gatsby/Fitzgerald/20s (F. Scott Fitzgerald’s birthday)

Both the opening and closing lines from Gatsby are memorable and ones I've used in literary quizzes.

25^th: A book recommended by your parents

We share books all of the time but as a child mum gave me her childhood copies of Heidi and Little Women, and I had my dad's copy of Black Beauty.

26^th: Favourite poetry collection (TS Eliot’s birthday)

Not a huge poetry fan but do like Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats and some collections of WW1 poetry.

27^th: Book set in your favourite country to visit (World Tourism Day)

My favourite destination changes all of the time but I guess Birds Without Wings would be a desert island book and thus counts here.

28^th: Favourite literary troublemaker

Paddington Bear although of course he doesn't mean to be causing trouble!

29^th: The book that made you question everything

I don't think I've come across one that made me question everything...

30^th: The best book you read this month.

I think that this will be Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk as I have recommended it to so many people.

Theatre 2014: Review Thirty-One

To Kill a Mockingbird, Theatre Royal, Norwich. September 2014.

I ran out of time to see this at the Open Air Theatre both last summer and this so I was very pleased to read it was coming to Norwich and that some colleagues were as keen as me to see it.

From the moment the actors appeared on the stage to the moment the curtain fell I was transfixed and I was living in 1930s America with the cast.

Rather than turning the book into a straight play and adding too much new dialogue to a classic story the cast read from the novel and various scenes are then acted out, I'm not familiar enough with the text to know if this was the original dialogue but for me it worked absolutely.

The big courtroom scene blew me away totally and even though I knew how it ended I was swept away totally and really couldn't believe that a anyone would have reached the verdict reached.  I loved the playing of the scene to the audience as well, making us the jury worked brilliantly.

The whole production was incredibly strong, with a very small part of me finding the young actor playing Jem to be a little weaker than the rest but apart from that the staging, the music and the who thing were just fantastic.

By the end I had a definite lump in my throat (as did my companions) and this play has jumped right up towards the tops of my favourite plays of the year.

Talented friends

Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton
Electronic proof provided by Netgalley.com

This review comes with the disclaimer that I know the author and have done for many years, however the proof was provided through a third party and the review isn't paid for or sponsored in any way.

Good teen fiction that doesn't feature the supernatural seemed to be on the decline recently and then came the wonderful John Green with The Fault in Our Stars and happily good quality teen fiction with real characters is back on the publishers' agendas.

Unspeakable had me gripped from the start. A traumatic event has seen Megan lose both her best friend and the ability to speak and the start of the new school year is not going well.  Along comes Jasmine and all of a sudden things are starting to look up, however the secrets surrounding the events that left Megan unable to speak are causing more trouble than can be imagined...

The book was a fast paced read with elements of a thriller, a teen 'problem' novel, and a love story all of which combine wonderfully and do not conform to expectations - the first love isn't what you think, there are no miracle cures and mental health issues aren't always what they seem.

The book has a nice well finished ending that leaves you wanting to know more about the characters but without a sequel at all being needed or hinted at - hurrah, I love stand alone novels!

It has a really nice British feel about it, without being full of over description, I could see all of the characters and locations clearly. The issues that teenagers face - peer pressure, school pressure, drinking, parental problems, etc. - are all just a natural part of the plot not the focus of a preachy novel.
I did spot the slight twist coming which is unusual for me but I did follow the red-herring for a long time so this was well done.

The major downside is that the book isn't published until February 2015 and you'll all have to wait to share my happiness that is Abbie's fantastic book!

Theatre 2014 - Review Thirty

The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare's Globe, London. September 2014.

After seeing this earlier in the year and being less than impressed I was nervous about seeing this play even at my favourite venue - was it going to be another Julius Caesar and play I just don't like?

It started very well with a silent mime in the style of the old Chaplin-esque slapstick comedy of a man trying to get some washing off a line.  It really was something you had to see to understand just how funny it was, made all the better by a mobile phone ringing in the audience and the actor encompassing this into his routine.

The play itself is daft, mistaken identity taken well beyond the bounds of any plausibility but as the cast seemed to be having so much fun you could over look the daft plot and just go with it.  I think that some of my dislike of the earlier production is to do with the source material but this version was so much more fun - it didn't need added smut or nuns dressed as tarts to work.

This was a short, high energy play that made a great end to the Shakespeare season this year at the Globe.  I do have two more plays to see at the venue before the action moves inside to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse but on the whole the season has been brilliant - I enjoyed a play that I never thought I'd manage to sit through (Titus) and fell in love totally with another play (Antony and Cleopatra).

End of summer break reading

Uni goes back in a matter of days and so I've spent the past few days indulging in a real orgy of reading to finish a few books I know I don't want to put off until we have a break in November.

First up was Nora Webster by Colm Toibin.

Not officially published until October 7th, I read an advance copy thanks to Netgalley.

This held me captivated on a slow train journey to Cambridge and back, it follows a couple of years in the life of one family as they come to terms with the death of a family member.  In many ways this is a gentle book, very much in the vein of Maeve Binchy, but underneath all of this is a darker undercurrent that keeps you off balance and unsure as to where the plot is going to take you.
I became totally involved in the whole Webster family and my sympathies with individual characters changed all the time as we learned more about them.  This isn't a challenging book, but it is quite haunting and certainly a great read.

My next book was Travelling to Work by Michael Palin.

I've said before that I am a sucker for diaries and Palin's are no exception.  I always liked the films Life of Brian & Holy Grail plus the Ripping Yarns series and I can watch and re-watch Palin's epic travel series and enjoy them each time so it goes without saying that I'd like jump on the diaries.

The third volume doesn't disappoint, it is full of tiny details about Palin's life as well as asides about people in the entertainment world - but if you aren't interested in diaries or Palin then the book really won't be for you!

Palin is known as a really nice guy - and I'm afraid that I have to agree after meeting him a few years ago - but he rails against this from a very early stage. His diaries won't do much to dispel the image but I loved the hours I spent reading the tome!

The final book for the weekend was H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

I love birds of prey, and I'm lucky enough to have spent a day learning to handle them and another learning how to photograph them.  I think that if I has the time and money I would consider owning my own.

This is something that is shared by Helen Macdonald and in fact she has gone further and is a qualified falconer and has owned several breeds.

This volume is part autobiography, part falconry manual and part biography of author T H White and it totally blew me away.

After the sudden death of her father Helen decides to buy and train a goshawk, one of the hardest birds of prey to train and fly. The book then mixes memories of her father, insights in to training Mabel and much more.  Several times the book brought tears to my eyes, it is very personal and beautifully written and deserves to become a classic book.

H is for Hawk is published but I read a copy again provided by Netgalley.

Theatre 2014 - Review Twenty-Nine (cinema)

The Two Gentlemen of Verona (RSC Live), Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford. September 2014.

According to all of the publicity this is play that the RSC haven't performed on their main stage for around 40 years and this alone made me want to see the production, however Norwich to Stratford is not the easiest journey whether by car or train and so the fact that they too broadcast selected plays into cinemas is a blessing.

I didn't know anything about this play at all prior to sitting in my seat and the broadcast started with a few interviews with the main cast members and the director. This helped set the scene and also made it easy to spot who was who when the main action started.

It wasn't that easy to see when the main action started as there was an incredibly long, wordless prologue (which included some audience participation - shudder!) and as this also featured the two male protagonists I don't think I was alone in thinking that the sound wasn't right coming through from Stratford.

Once this bit was over the story fairly raced through and even with no prior knowledge of the play it was one of the easiest plots to follow that I've seen from Shakespeare. That coupled with the modern dress made it very easy to forget that this was a 400 year old play as it felt very up-to-date. It was nice that the modern dress, set and music didn't seem at odd with the areas that were kept more 'Shakespearean' elements, or of course the original words.

A dog is major character in the play and the live dog in the play was very good, but as I've seen mentioned elsewhere it must be a little disheartening for the main actors to be working their socks off for three hours yet the dog get a round of applause for just appearing!

The play itself felt very safe, and the 'baddie' never seemed quite evil enough. His neglected lover, Julia, also seemed to forgive him a little too easily. I can see why the play hasn't been performed in full on the main stage for such a long time because of these points - although how much of this was the directors view rather than the original material I will find out when I read the play.

I enjoyed the performance very much but due to the slightness I am pleased that I did wait for the RSC Live broadcast and didn't make the trek to Stratford.  However the trailer for the two winter plays Love's Labour's Lost/Love's Labour's Found and the little bit of back story to the setting of these does have me looking at the theatre brochure and the train times!

Sequel-ly Good

Wars of the Roses: Trinity by Conn Iggulden

Electronic proof provided by Netgalley.com

Last year the first book in this series made it into my top three books of the year and was one that I'd been unable to stop thinking about since I read and reviewed it. I've been keeping a close eye on websites waiting for the sequel to be released and was over the moon when it appeared on Netgalley as an advance copy.

All too often a sequel, and especially book 2 in a trilogy, can be disappointing and after Stormbird being so relevant last year I was worried that this would be the case with Trinity. When I found the book as strong, or possibly even stronger, I was over joyed.

The book plunges straight into the action and there is no recap of what came before and I found myself enthralled from the start. The family feuds of the time influencing the monarchy, and the protectorate, made history come to life and the writing invoked life at the time wonderfully for me.  The sweeping battles being as real as the small side bets between lord and servant over how close a shave could be.

I think that seeing Shakespeare's plays covering this period of history help because as I read I can see the actors from the Globe playing the roles but the books are certainly adding to the detail sketched out in the plays.

The downside? I'm now back in that place of being desperate to read the next part of the series even before this one is officially published!

Theatre 2014: Review Twenty-Eight (cinema)

Skylight (National Theatre Live, Wyndham's Theatre, London. September 2014.

Thanks to the NT Live programme Mr Norfolkbookworm and I got the chance to see a play that were both interested in but just couldn't fit into our diaries this summer.  Instead on a Sunday when the weather was a bit 'British' we went to our local Odeon cinema and spent almost three happy hours watching a great piece of theatre.

All I really knew about this production was that Carey Mulligan made a spaghetti bolognese on stage during the course of the drama and I do find that it is a real test of if a play works or not as to whether this approach works.

In this case I found that it did, the characters and their motives were written well enough that without too much extraneous explanation you knew who they were, how they related to each other and what drove them.  There was an awful lot of humour in the roles and I found myself laughing with and at the three characters throughout the play. (The plot is well explained on Wikipedia if you are interested, but I'd try and see an Encore if you can.)

A mark of the writing is that my opinions of the characters changed repeatedly throughout the action and although I would put myself on the liberal end of the political and social spectrum I found myself swayed by both Tom and Kyra's speeches and on balance think I had a little more sympathy with the more traditional, conservative part by the end which really surprised me! The 'star' casting was spot on and made use of actors' idiosyncrasies without making about them not the role.

Some reviewers have criticised the role, or the actor, playing Tom's son Edward.  I found him totally believable as a teenager taking a gap year.  He was the right mix of gauche, cocky, over confident and underneath it all bewildered and insecure.  His actions in the last scene are also some of the sweetest I've seen (or read in a novel) for a long time.

As is so often the case I do wish that I had seen this on stage. As I didn't manage that then I wish I'd seen it at my usual NT Live venue - Cinema City - as the screening we were in had very few people in it and really did lose more of the atmosphere than I've ever found at an NT Live screening.  I'm really pleased that another venue was showing Encores as otherwise I'd have missed this one totally but the cavernous, 3/4 empty screen did change the experience.

I've found myself thinking about the play an awful lot, it was first written and staged in 1996 but society has changed so little in that time (or we've come full circle) that it doesn't seem dated. Only the set dressing and props plus the reference to Yellow Pages give it away that this revival wasn't set in 2014. I also want to commend the set, all too often if all reviewer/bloggers can write about is the stage then there were issues with the play but in this case the backdrop was magnificent and really did make me think we were in a rundown, inner city estate.

The good news for those who missed it is there will be another chance to see the play, it will be re staged on Broadway from next April...

Hic!

Gin Glorious Gin by Olivia Williams.

Electronic proof provided by netgalley.com

I'm not sure this book was good for me, until I read it I didn't think I liked gin but after reading this book it may be that I don't like the tonic rather than the actual gin. I do think that a great deal of taste testing may be called for...

Olivia Williams' book takes us through the history of gin - how it went from being a luxury drink to being Mothers' (and almost London's) ruin - think Hogarth - and then back again to being a premium drink.

There is a nice balance in the book between history, anecdotes to amuse and recipes to try or avoid. There are also detailed descriptions and illustrations of how the different stills work to make the different types of gin.  The convoluted history of the distilleries, and product, always remain clear and I loved seeing how it all fitted together to make an interesting snapshot of social history.

At the very end of the book there are some recommendations of bars to try, pubs to find and also of different gins, their flavours and their mixers.  All of this is useful information, especially to a gin novice like myself.

Gin is again an up-and-coming fashionable drink, in Norwich there will be two gin specialist bars before very long, and after reading this book I did head out to one of them to try the product. Apologies for any incoherence and typos this has caused in this blog entry!

for the record today's choice of Elephant gin, ice, fresh strawberries and bitter lemon was very palatable :)

Book A Day August

Another part of the book world picked up the #bookadayUK baton in August and as anything that makes you think about, or talk about, books is good and so I continued to think about the 31 questions, and when possible to take part in the Twitter conversations.

This month's questions or prompts were given by the Siobhan Dowd Trust.

1st - To start, most arresting opening line?

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" always makes me smile, from I Capture the Castle.

2nd - Best pairing of words and pictures?

I adore Diary of a Wombat by Jackie French, simple words that the pictures add so much detail too.

3rd - Favourite collection of short stories?

Has to be those from Katherine Mansfield or Mollie Panter Downes both published by Persephone books.

4th - Best graphic novel?

I've only read a couple so for now has to be Maus but any recommendations are gratefully received.

5th - Classic hero/ine or antihero/ine?

I do like Henry V as portrayed by Shakespeare and Margaret of Anjou as written by Conn Iggulden is a strong character. Being more 'traditional' then m favourite antihero is Captain Hook.

6th - Best for a bedtime story?

I have very fond memories of the Chronicles of Narnia being read to me over time as bedtime stories.

7th - Enjoyed by several generations?

My mum and nan enjoyed Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson as much as I did.

8th - Never fails to cheer me up?

I love Business as Usual by Jane Oliver and Anne Stafford

9th - Most powerful storytelling?

I think that my vote on this one goes to Louis de Bernieres for Birds Without Wings

10th - Best written bestseller?

Depends on your definition of best seller I guess but I think my choice of a recent book is The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid.

11th - Ideal for a book group?

I really enjoyed the discussions my book group had when we looked at All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.

12th - Most practical book?

Has to be the book How to Boil an Egg that my nan gave me when I left home totally unable to cook for myself.

13th - Favourite controversial read?

I'm taking controversial to mean most challenged/banned and picking To Kill a Mockingbird. 

14th - Best quick read?

I'm a fast reader so not many books take that long to read for me but I do re-read Tamora Pierce's Tortall books a lot and race through them as they are old friends.

15th - Best looooooooooooooooooong read?

Once more this has to be Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres.

16th - This book defends the undefended?

Not quite sure that I fully understand this prompt but Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie certainly talked a lot about an important genocide that has swiftly been forgotten.

17th - Most beautifully designed book?

All of those published by Persephone Books and Pierene Press are works of art.

18th - I read it to impress (& did it work?)

I've always been a stubborn reader who only reads what she wants, I'll take recommendations but I don't read to impress.

19th - Best young adult book?

Recently published has to be The Fault in Our Stars by John Green but my favourite teen books of all time are those by Tamora Pierce.

20th - The sequel was better than the first?

I think that the Harry Potter books improved as the series went on.

21st - Helps to tackle a difficult subject?

This can be any book really as we all find different things difficult, anything that pushes boundaries and raises questions is good.

22nd - 19th Century characters - lets play shag/marry/kill...

Now a confession - I don't think I've read enough books from this era to pick!

23rd - Best picture book for older readers?

The Sad Book by Michael Rosen.

24th - Who's life: best biography or autobiography?

The best one I've read is Carrying the Fire by Apollo astronaut Mike Collins - his story of being the 3rd man on Apollo 11 and the man who didn't walk on the moon.

25th - Recommended for a Bank Holiday?

A Fortnight in September by R C Sherriff, a wonderful book about the end of summer where nothing much happens but the story remains tense.

26th - A book worth persevering with?

Life is too short to keep going with books that you aren't enjoying but I did love Anna Karenina on the 3rd attempt.

27th - Classic book most relevant to now?

I think many of the books about wars through the ages that stress the waste of life and futility strike home the most right now.

28th - Most timeless modern book?

Another one that is hard to predict but I do keep returning to The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

29th - Was totally worth the hype?

I think this goes to Harry Potter as they are good stories and have inspired so many readers.

30th - Best back to school book?

For the first day at school I heartily recommend Chu's First Day of School by Neil Gaiman as Chu is such a wonderful character.

31st - Top book of the month?

Of the books I've picked for August's #bookadayUK my favourites have to be the Tortall books by Tamora Pierce, great fantasy novels and real comfort reads.

Greek Delight?

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop

proof supplied by Headline and the Reading Agency

When an email dropped into my work inbox offering me the chance to apply for an advance copy of Victoria Hislop's new novel I leapt at it and was lucky enough to get one of the copies on offer.

I read The Island when it first came out and loved it - possibly because I knew the setting, mainly because it was a great book - and have read Hislop's new books avidly since.

The Sunrise is set in Cyprus in 1974, before, during and after the failed coup and the subsequent Turkish invasion and partition of the island.  Cleverly following two families and the way they are linked both sides of the argument are clearly put whilst at the same time making the point that there are very few differences between them. I knew that Cyprus was still a divided nation but not really how or why it happened and the idea of an abandoned city right in the middle of the divide was intriguing.

I'm not sure why but for me this book just didn't have the resonance of Hislop's others.  There didn't seem to be quite the depth of history that I've found in her other novels and also I never felt that I got to know any of the characters despite the length of the book. It all seemed very rushed and at the same time terribly plodding.

I do wonder if this is my fault as I started this book shortly after reading some quite 'heavy' literary fiction and perhaps I hadn't managed to switch my brain around for lighter reading.  Perhaps this really is holiday book and if I re-read it next year on a beach (possibly in Greece) I'll enjoy it more?

A recent photo of Famagusta - a modern ghost town

This is a review of an advance copy, the book is published in September 2014.

Reuniting with an old (book) friend

Best to Laugh by Lorna Landvik

Electronic proof provided from Netgalley.com

I've been a fan of Landvik's writing since a friend pressed a copy of Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons into my hand many years ago.  Since then I've eagerly treated myself to her books on publication and sometimes even ordered the American versions because I just can't wait for the English edition.

I loved this new book although as it was in electronic proof form all the advance information I has was limited and it took me a little while to work out just when the book was set.

From the beginning the characters drew me in and I laughed and cried along with them.  Despite having little in common with any of them I could instantly identify with them and that is the mark of a good writer.

I loved escaping into this book on a day off and like other reviewers I found it blurred, in the right way, fiction and autobiography.  I think that the most shocking thing I found was just how little has changed for women in so many ways since the setting of the book. Women can't be funny, are still judged by their looks and are in a quest to stay young looking.

Brilliant book and now I must go and find Angry Housewives and reread an old favourite.