Book Reviews, Winter 2013-14

I can't believe the number of novels I've read in the past three or four months! All these books were available as free downloads for Kindle so do you get what you pay for? Recent readings include:

• The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
• The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Man Who Never Was - Hylton Smith
• Tuppeny Hat Detective - Brian Sellars
• The Half-Life of Hannah - Nick Alexander
• The Christmas Bake Off - Abbey Clements
• The Fight Before Christmas - Frankie McGowan
• In a New York Minute - Eleanor Moran
• Death by Honeymoon - Jaden Skye
• Licence to Date (Better Date than Never) - Susan Hatler

(there were a couple more but a bit samey)

The Great Gatsby
I've never seen the films, just clips of affluent Americans from 100 years ago so I began reading without any preconceptions. The overriding impression of the book is not the story but the writing of it - it's as much of a struggle as Shakespeare! That aside, it was like reading a narration of the adult life of Jay Gatsby but without much satisfaction, because the story-teller had only known the subject for a few weeks and was unable to address the questions that the readers most want to know, e.g. how exactly did he become so wealthy?

The Lost World
It has adventure and humour and, although the book was quite lengthy, it never failed to entertain. Briefly, the story is about an expedition to a small area of South America that has a micro-climate that has supported a few dinosaurs, millions of years after they ceased to exist everywhere else on earth. Good story, worth a read!

The Man Who Never Was
Interesting detective story spanning two time periods, mid-1940s and 1980s. The '80s CID from 'up north' were trying to solve a 40 year old suspicious death but there were some shenanigans from London's secret services - a cover up! The lives of the early characters were well described and became 'real' to the reader so that we want to know what happened to them later on - and that the complex investigation reaches a satisfactory conclusion. Good story, well written.

Tuppeny Hat Detective
Set in post WWII northern England, a young boy is determined to pursue enquiries relating to the death of a neighbour, while the Police and resident G.P. refuse to recognise clues. Well written tale, also with a satisfactory conclusion.

The Half Life of Hannah
A cleverly misleading title; a family drives to Southern France for a summer holiday, to a rural holiday home that they have rented with some relatives and a friend. A long lost brother returns from the dead (Australia) and upsets the family apple cart. OK for a 'light' read.

The Christmas Bake Off
I seem to remember this as a fairly short story, a pre-Christmas 'filler'. A Readers Digest style simple love story that took place in the few days around the village baking competition. Not particularly memorable.

The Fight Before Christmas
An ordinary story about ordinary people going through a family break-up and the pressures of Christmas - but well told and with happy endings all round - though not the ones you might think!

In a New York Minute
A short and sweet story of a work deadline in New York that results in a missed flight back to London on Christmas Eve but leads to a blossoming friendship with the promise of romance, turning despair into happiness within a minute.

Death By Honeymoon
The perfect boyfriend becomes the perfect husband and the happy couple start their honeymoon in a small beach hotel in a tourist-free spot in Barbados. Unfortunately, the husband is killed in a surfing accident. His wife doesn't believe that it was an accident and spends far too much time pathetically protesting this whilst cocooned back at home before the author decides to get her off her backside and back to the Caribbean to pursue the enquiry herself. She solves the murder and this sparks a new career. Despite the delay in the story getting back to the action, it was a good read and I will consider reading more in the series.

Licence To Date
Enjoyable read, a well written 'nice' story about a young woman finding romance following a break-up on the eve of her wedding day. Best of a 'samey' bunch of girlie stories.

BP2/3BPs

Crumpet Rant!

Dear Supermarkets,

Buttered Crumpet

Please stock more Warburtons crumpets and don't bother with those inferior products from Kingsmill or Hovis!

For the past three weeks, in two different supermarkets, there has been empty shelf-space where Warburtons crumpets should be - so it seems that everyone else has discovered that these are the best crumpets. In disappointment, I refused to purchase a substitute brand the first week.

The second week, I thought I'd try Hovis. Not only was the taste and texture not as good but after a couple of days, the ones we hadn't eaten had gone moldy - yuk! This week, I purchased Kingsmill and they are as horrible or possibly worse. I have put them in the freezer until I find someone hungry enough to want to eat them.

By the way, I had previously tried supermarkets' own brand crumpets, including their 'best' ranges and they just don't match the quality of Warburtons crumpets.

Regards,
Me.

5th Element - Bruce Willis - Temptations

Flicking through the TV channels I spotted The Fifth Element was on - great quirky film. It was a bit spooky that I'd been singing this song to myself just before that, the link being Bruce Willis...

Under the Boardwalk was originally a hit for the Drifters in 1964, a couple of years after another great song Up On The Roof which is mentioned in the first verse and which, in a round-about way, leads me to the year of 1962, featured on My Gold Radio that same morning.

Hits from that year were incredible. The end of the '50s rock and roll era blending with the emerging Brit-pop allowed for a wide range of musical tastes to be catered for. Artists included Elvis, Cliff, Buddy Holly and The Beatles but oh so much more...

In fact, 1962 music will have a blog post of its own, soon!

Recommended Music Blog: soundsandvision

Beebopalula

Starting in London then wandering around

Would I swap places with 75-year-old multi-billionaire Samuel Tak Lee? Nah! So what if he owns/owned properties in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Geneva and London? In recent years, he has had to try to contain a scandal by a trusted ex-secretary who tried to blackmail him, for which he paid over £1m in legal costs. Then, just months ago, he helped to appeal against his son's wife's divorce settlement of a record HK$1.4bn. The wife, who is a solicitor, wanted half the marital assets, around HK£6.5bn. The son seems to be 'privileged' and denies himself nothing: a jet, a couple of yachts, 28 cars (28 cars!!) and half the world's expensive wine – and he demanded that his pregnant wife must have an abortion.

What does all this matter to me? Nothing really, I just came across these snippets when searching for something unrelated and found myself in the middle of a Hawaii-50 script!

Anyway, closer to home, Lee reportedly purchased 14 acres of prime investment in London's West End, between Soho and Mayfair, known as The Langham Estate, for $75 million/£51million 20 years ago – it must be worth considerably more now. It is listed as being owned by Mount Eden Land Ltd (a Guernsey-registered company) where businesses can rent commercial space with prestigious London addresses, including restaurants and offices (there's a comprehensive list of clients that have been blogged about). It’s amazing what interesting stories can be discovered just by searching for new premises and checking out the property management companies!

For instance, in Eastcastle Street, W1, outside the very interesting grade II listed Capel Bedyddwyr Cymreig, a Bugatti Veyron reminded me of the YouTube video of a ‘bobby on a bicycle’ who pulled over the Bugatti driver for not having a front number plate. This led to many discussions so I looked up the official rules and discovered that failure to properly display number plates is a fine up to £1,000 (no problem if you can afford a £1m Veyron) and… your car will fail its MOT test!! (Of course, if you ride a motorbike, you don’t need a front number plate.)

And here's a rare image of a Bugatti Veyron WITH a front number plate.

Brina

The 39 Steps - stage play adaptation

I've seen a couple of the film versions, years ago, and recently read the book by John Buchan. Yesterday, I saw the stage play adaptation of The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow, performed in the West End by a cast of four.

It was cleverly funny, with numerous references to Alfred Hitchcock (director of the 1935 film) including his silhouette, some birds, a rear window, vertigo, the man who knew too much and a 'psycho' moment.

One of the many highlights was delivered by 'Mr Memory':

"Who won the cup in 1926? The Tottenham Hotspurs won the cup in 1926 defeatin’ the Arsenal Gunners by Five goals to nil in the presence of His Majesty King George the Fifth. Am I right, sir?"

According to theFA.com, he wasn't:

• Tottenham Hotspur won the cup in 1921, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0
• Bolton Wanderers beat Manchester City in 1926, 1-0
• Arsenal reached the final in 1927, losing to Cardiff, 1-0

But who cares? We'll take that win! ;-)

3BPs

Twinkle: ♫Terry ♫Golden Lights ... retirement

Actor Fay Ripley (Cold Feet) mentioned her Auntie Twinkle (Lynn Ripley) during an interview.

In the mid-60s, Twinkle released a couple of singles: Terry and Golden Lights, songs that she wrote herself. Appearing on Top of the Pops as a teenage mod in fashionable clingy striped top,  mini-skirt and long boots, with her long blonde hair, full fringe and pale lipstick, she was the envy and idol of every teenage school-girl. Twinkle's time in the spotlight was less than two years and she retired from her pop singing career at the ripe old age of 18.

I heard one of the songs on the radio at the weekend and decided to share these with you:

♪ ♫ Terry by Twinkle (unfortunately, the link no longer works)

♪ ♫ Golden Lights by Twinkle

 

Recommended Music Blog: soundsandvision

Beebopalula

Passion vs Perfection in music

Quite often, my favourite songs from an artist or a band are their early ones where the enthusiasm and excitement comes across. As an example, listen to '5 colours' from McFly and compare it with their later recordings which are very good but less exciting.



Going way back, other examples include Cliff Richard and David Essex. An exception to this is Queen whose synergy grew to the heights of unparalleled entertainment, both visually and musically. Many 'entertainers' have tried, including Elton John and Robbie Williams, but none have come close (in my opinion) to those four talented people in a harmonious direction.

Except, perhaps, The Beatles with their song-writing talents and harmonies, who exempted themselves by shifting their style (and possibly the LSD was a factor in that). But, unlike Queen, The Beatles were talented people with ambitions in different musical directions.

And the other exception: the constantly shape-shifting David Bowie.

This theory is more difficult to prove for 'mentored' artists but if we think back to the X-factor final between Joe McElderry with a perfect voice that won him the competition and Olly Murs whose voice was good and gave him in second place - who really won? Olly Murs had the energy and obvious enjoyment of performing for his audience and is as popular as Joe McElderry is obscure - thus illustrating that passion beats perfection.

Beebopalula