Poor Maurice! And Hamnpork

Yes, darlings, I did read it - after the fact - and enjoyed it, but not as much as the Tiffany Aching series which are also said to be written for children.  And I had forgotten that Death loves cats which is why he is so accommodating to Maurice - and the Death of Rats, too.  Worth the read but not up there with my favourites.  Baby Ogg has lent me a book about one's inner chimp- in my case, it seems to be a raging gorilla these days - and this book is very much about the hypotheses posited in that book.  Interesting.

Lovely to see you all again, ladies, a most enjoyable evening as always and Jonathan - we all raised a glass to you and send you our warmest love and hopes for a more comfortable ride during the chemo.  I expect you had read the book, too, being a TP fan?

How well organised you are, Jules.  I expect we shall see the list on the blog pretty soon so that we can stock up on reading matter; not that any of us really need to stock up because I guess we all have a tottering mountain of unread books somewhere in the house.

I'm sorry I deflected you from The Bolter, Jules.  Like you, I had read good reviews in both The Times and The Lady (yes, I do occasionally slide into Downtonland but only via the magazine - the series does nothing for me at all, whereas The Hour is good and very evocative of the period, and Southland - but I digress).  Despite the  good press it received, I found it stultifyingly dull.  Nothing of Idina's personality really came through and so one wondered if she simply serially married all her lovers out of boredom with her excessively privileged life.  The decadent lifestyle of the "upper" classes seemed to consist of eating richly, spending like mad and after marrying the right man and giving him his "heir and spare", hopping from one bed to another, particularly at the country house weekends they enjoyed so much.  Bit like throwing one's car-keys into a bowl in later times. 

And the whole Happy Valley episode was simply more of the same, sex in the sun, but dressed up as the love of her life - but there were so many loves of her life....   So I never got a feeling for what the woman was like.  She may have been fizzing company and a great friend, but we'll never know from the book which I have now disembowelled and spoiled for you.  Sorry!  And sorry too that I said I had bought it, Kate - I remember now that I borrowed it from the library following The Times glowing write-up. 

On the plus side, I am enjoying an Italianate detective feast with Donna Leon, Andrea Camilleri and Michael Dibden (I did like Rufus Sewell in the Aurelio Zen series which alas was not continued); also intend to catch up onthe Bryant and May series and possibly get round to reading Bring up the Bodies.

I am sure we shall be in touch before Christmas but just in case, we aren't, have a very joyful time, everyone, and thank you so much for the cards and presents (which like a good girl, i shall not open until christmas morning).