• The Saffron Thief by T. L. Mogford
  This is a true adventure story in the very best sense - and I think to have it praised by William Boyd says enough in itself as he is such a skilled and renowned narrative storyteller.
  The protagonist Fabian is a well-meaning young man, seemingly with an excellent moral compass, and yet he is driven to - and seems surprisingly quickly committed to - pulling off something akin to the Brinks Matt Robbery of its time. I'm a bit unsure about the overall basic morality of his endeavour - just because you are surrounded with scoundrels and criminals and they have in fact cheated you out of large sums of money does not in my opinion give you carte blanch to do the same to others (even if they in their turn are pretty awful characters as well!). However, none of this detracts from this pacey page-turning tale full of suspense and derring-do (almost). I have more of a leaning towards mystery stories entwined with my historical fiction, but I read this in the space of a couple of sittings which speaks to its compelling nature.
  Fabian and his family have had the misfortune to lose everything due to the great fire of London - compounded by his brother's stupidity. The opening chapters of the book describe the devastation brought about in London in 1666 and the story follows on throughout that year with the action moving from London to Saffron Walden and provides fascinating historical detail about the saffron trade. The saffron business is on a par with the wool trade of a slightly earlier period (about which I am slightly more educated), where it's really hard to believe that such an underappreciated product these days could have been responsible for such enormous riches at that time - and the demise of both trades being so relatively sudden and devastating. Back to this story, though, prices are at their peak and fortune favours the brave (or the criminally minded...).
  [I note that the authors earlier books are a crime series, so I am very much looking forward to seeing if I will like them in the future.]


• A Shilling for Candles by Josephine Tey [Read by Karen Cass]
  A celebrated Hollywood actress is found to have drowned while swimming in the sea near her holiday retreat. Given that she swims every day, murder is soon indicated, and suspicion falls upon her handsome but impoverished young house guest, who has charm but has squandered his small inheritance over a few years of living beyond his means. DI Alan Grant feels he isn't guilty (as does the local superintendent's young daughter..!) even when he goes on the run, but Grant has to keep an open mind and follow the evidence.
  There are a lot of shady characters and other potential suspects but the final denouement was a nice plot twist. [I had assumed that the "shilling for candles" was some proverb unknown to me, but in fact it was the sum the victim left to her sinister brother in her will.]


• Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly [Read by Christine Lakin, Peter Giles, Titus Welliver]
  During his time in prison in The Law of Innocence, Mickey Haller had to deal with some requests for legal advice from fellow inmates. He successfully helped one overturn his conviction, and this led to a kind of pact between Mickey and Harry (despite his general disapproval of Mickey's defence lawyer's code of "any tactics to win a not guilty verdict"). They would look at some old cases where they felt justice had not been served - and then act for the defendant "pro bono". The case in the story was made more difficult as the defendant was half way through serving her sentence, having agreed to a guilty plea bargain.
  All the gang were involved, hence the multiple narrators.
  Excellent.
  

Posted by Christina at 5:18 pm | Category: Art and Culture, Books of the Month | Permalink

We braved the tube strikes* for a trip to Sadler's Wells to see the Birmingham Royal Ballet in Carlos Acosta’s production of Don Quixote. It was indeed spactacular. The dancers were completely secure in their performances, making it all look easy - as well as impossible! Kitri (Yu Kurihara) is a charming heroine and Basilio (Yasiel Hodelín Bello) - not to mention all the dancers really - is athletic beyond reason; they make a charismatic couple. It is a long ballet but the colourful costumes and set, along with the humour and skilled execution made it seem all too short. We were a bit concerned by the idea that they had to do all that all over again for the evening performance, but then comforted to discover that they swap the principals for the evening.
I particularly liked poor Don Quixote's visions of the sinister and threatening windmills, literally coming alive with I presume back projection of Nina Dunn's designs.

[* I can't seem to write any entries of late without complaining about the travel arrangements. However, the best way to get to Sadler's Wells from Waterloo is by bus in any case - and despite tube strikes, they did not seem too crowded. We did have to wait an atypical amount of time for the right bus (incident on Rosebery Avenue!), and on the way back we walked quite a distance for sheer pleasure of it, in the afternoon sunshine in London..]

Posted by Christina at 8:24 pm | Category: Art and Culture, Days Out | Permalink

A slightly larger family party met up in Brighton to see two more episodes of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue being recorded. The venue was the Dome, which gave me pause for thought, as I don't think I have actually been to an event there since I was a teenager in the 1960s. I can't be certain of the venue (must have been Brighton surely) but I am pretty sure of the line up even though it sounds unlikely and I can't find any direct reference to it on line: Scott Walker topped the bill... but I was there to see my idols Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, and they were all supported by the Love Affair, and Madeline Bell!

Anyway - the Dome is a great venue and the panel this evening consisted of Richard Coles with Tony Hawks once again, plus Marcus Brigstock and Rachel Parris - alongside Jack Dee in the chair, and Colin Sell on the piano (and Sven and Samantha obviously). Jon Naismith warmed up the audience... by telling precisely the same jokes as he does every time (it's a sort of traditional Barry Cryer tribute).

As an aside - what a driving trauma that was! Good thing we left very early (to avoid the traffic haha) what with road works, newly pedestrianised areas, and various streets now permanently open only busses; I guess they think they are meeting their green election pledges, but all this is not actually stopping people driving into the city, it's just making them drive round and round once they get there - lost, despite knowing the area pretty well, quartering the ground in ever decreasing circles while homing in on their ultimate destination, thus polluting the environment even more! [Yours as ever Mrs Trellis of North Wales].
Seriously though - the 35 quid cost for an evening in the NCP is far more of a deterrent...

Posted by Christina at 11:57 pm | Category: Art and Culture, Days Out | Permalink

It's a long time since I last went to an event at Woking library but - once again - the Surrey Newsletter told me that Abir Mukherjee would be hosting an evening with Sarah Hilary.
I love Abir (well his work anyway - not quite a stalker) but this was really to promote Sarah and her new book The Drowning Place; it's the start of a "new series" so I'm looking forward to reading it, (even though I am not familiar with her or the "old series").
In fact it was a very entertaining evening with a good atmosphere and some amusing author anecdotes (some of their own but many courtesy of Ian Rankin!).

Here we are! Just visible in the audience...

Posted by Christina at 9:32 pm | Category: Art and Culture, Books of the Month | Permalink

I got these tickets last year, mostly on the strength of wanting to see Lesley Manville, but I was a little unsure about the idea of the play - I only know the film with Glenn Close, which was very high profile at the time, and I have to say to some extent I did not really understand its meaning and subtext - if it had any other than a "story". So - I was pleased to be able to share the outing with my friend Alison as a surprise treat - and I have to say her thrilled and delighted reaction when she realised what we were going to see was very gratifying for me!
The play was (obviously) excellent - performances wonderful - every word delivered clearly - and the costumes - out of period, and yet not out of keeping - were utterly dazzling and cleverly conceived, as was the mannered choreography and incidental music, giving the whole production a fantastic baroque feel.
Although I thought/knew this was all based on a book, and despite its fame, I did not fully realise that it is a contemporaneous piece written in 1782, and the underlying concept was to expose the depravity and corruption of the aristocracy in France. In this light, it makes slightly more sense to me - and also that it's an epistolary novel, hence the dramatic emphasis on letters in the dramatic productions, and the importance of the written word in the ultimate downfall of the protagonists.

Prior to all that wonderfulness, we had spent the afternoon at the National Gallery - very crowded of course - Easter weekend. I was pleased to be able to see even more Constables (paintings rather than policemen, and ones not currently on exhibition at the Tate); however, very interesting to me in the light of all the Turner related talks and exhibitions I've seen recently were the paintings by Claude who was a great influence on Turner (the subject of an exhibition in 2012) - and in particular to see Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba "in the flesh", which is often compared with Turner's Dido building Carthage (currently on loan for the Tate exhibition, where I viewed it recently).

In Trafalgar Square we caught a few minutes of the Passion of Jesus being staged by the Wintershall Players - 100 actors, some of whom we ran into milling about in the Square. But then it was off for speedy pre-theatre dining at Las Iguanas - margaritas, fajitas, burrito, and nachos [although we may need to rethink our tongue-in-cheek fondness for this place in future - maybe not quite meeting the needs of staid matriarchs on the way to the theatre].

Just outside the Lyttleton, on the gallery at the NT, I snapped this costume among the exhibited work of young designers. The weaving aspect was what caught my eye, of course.

Posted by Christina at 11:59 pm | Category: Art and Culture, Days Out | Permalink