Just had a lovely walk in the crisp, bright sunshine. Got back to find the latest issue of Fleet Life on the doormat. This is the magazine which I was asked to write book reviews for back in September. Sadly they haven’t put them in again. Each issue comes out and I get excited, I have written about books from some of my new friends on WordPress and Twitter as well as other books. It’s a free magazine which relies heavily on sponsorship and my articles keep getting left out, such a shame. My apologies to the friends whom I told I’d written about them.
Monthly Archives: November 2012
Completed Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough
Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Have finally finished this huge book, a great story about convicts being deported to Australia and the horrors they endured. Starting in Bristol, it highlights the plight of Richard Morgan as he is sent on to London and then a year-long voyage to Australia. Another great book by Colleen.
British Fashion Award Winners
Stella McCartney was rewarded for her fashion designs last night at the British Fashion Awards. Stella previously raised her designer profile when she designed Team GB’s Olympic kit. She took awayawards for Designer of the year and Best Designer Brand.
Other award winners included; Best British Style – Alexa Chung, Outstanding Achievement – Manolo Blahnik, Emerging Talent – JW Anderson, Sophie Hulme and Johnathan Saunders, Special Recognition went to Harold Tillman, Red Carpet Award – Roksanda Ilincic, Accessory Designer – Nicholas Kirkwood, Isabella Blow award for Fashion Creator – Louise Wilson, New establishment – Erdem, Best Model – Cara Delevingne and Best Menswear Designer Kim Jones for Louis Vuitton.
BBC Sports Personality 2012
Nominees for the BBC Sports Personality 2012 have been announced. The 12 finalists are; Bradley Wiggins, Nicola Adams (Boxer), Ben Ainslie, Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah, Kath Grainger (Rower),Sir Chris Hoy, Rory McIlroy, Andy Murray and Paralympians; Sara Storey, Ellie Simmonds and David Weir. The awards take place on the 16th December.
Good Luck everyone.
Let me tell you a story…
English village schools are a part of our history, many have been in existence for 100 years or more and with the cost of housing making it harder for families to afford houses in rural villages, the village school is often under threat of closure. Also gone are the days when a local bus swept through the lanes picking up handfuls of children to deliver to the village schools. Today most children have to rely on their parents driving them to school. Rural roads have few pathways for safe walking, nor the width to build paths. On top of this there is usually not enough parking spaces near to the school. So you find a colourful mix of parents and carers twice a day gathering in the school playground to drop off or collect the children. This wonderful canvas began the seedling idea for my book “Talk of the Playground” and it grew into an ever branching tale of potential disaster, heartbreak and humorous endings which I hope you will enjoy reading very much.
25th November, The feast Day of St. Catherine
St. Catherine of Alexandria is the patron Saint of unmarried women, wheelwright, philosopher’s, lacemakers,millers and librarians. She was martyred in the 4th fourth Century and is remembered for her painful death set on a rotating spiked wheel. Hence the name of the rotating Catherine wheel. Her link with lacemakers may be from a link to Queen Catherine of Aragon who brought lace to Britain.
Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough
I’m half way through Morgan’s Run by Colleen McCullough. 883 pages is quite a huge challenge. To start with I was disappointed as I believed it was going to spend the majority of the book in Australia. Colleen McCullough is also the author of The Thorn Birds and I had visions of another epic with the delights of a character played so well by Richard Chamberlain in the film version.
However as the story rolls on the need for the background and the scenes being set become obvious. The appalling conditions of convicts and the decisions of the governments of the day to deport prisoners are eye-opening. I look back and wonder at the karma, we sent our worst people firstly to America and then to Australia. Today Britain looks to America for direction and superiority, while others of us flock to emigrate to Australia where a new life is full of attractions!
Today we take sea and air travel for granted. I’ve just been reading the part where the fleet of boats set sail from Portsmouth to Teneriffe, then they flowed with the currents across the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro before setting back off to catch the seas which will take them back across to South Africa. I don’t think anyone should moan about it taking just 24 hours to fly from London to Sydney! Will hope to let you know about the rest of the book soon.
I Love Your Face
Today’s BIG Challenge on Capital Radio is to text your Boss “I Love Your Face” to cheer them up and see what their response is. Following on from yesterday when Olly Murs was in the studio and was persuaded to send this text to Simon Cowell
Check out the interview with Olly and the text dare
http://www.capitalfm.com/london/on-air/breakfast/show-blog/olly-murs/
Costa Book Awards Shortlist
The shortlist for the Costa Book Awards were announced yesterday. There are 5 categories;
Novel Award nominees are; Bringing Up The Bodies, by Hilary Mantel, Life! Death! Prizes! by Stephen May, The Heart Broke In by James Meek and Days of the Bagnold Summer by Joff Winterhart.
First Novel Award nominees are; The Notable Brain of Maximilion Ponder by J.W. Ironmonger, Snake Ropes by Jess Richards, The Innocents by Francesca Segal ans The Bellweather Revivals by Benjamin Wood.
Other categories are; Biography Award, Poetry Award and Children’s Book Award.
Winners will be announced on the 3rd January 2013
http://www.costabookawards.com/this-year.aspx
Good Luck Everyone!
NaNoWriMo
Now three-quarters of the way through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and writers across the globe are busy writing their 50000 word novel in this exciting challenge.
The object of the exercise is to complete a new novel in just 30 days, upload it to the site, get it verified and you are a winner. Winners are shown on the winners page, they get a winners certificate and a web badge.
Check out more details on the link below and good luck everyone who is frantically typing away as you read this blog.
http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/about/hownanoworks
Rosie Amber 