The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Unchartered and Death on the Nile

 

I knew nothing about American evangelism, so for me, this was a completely new story. The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a compelling drama, especially the tension between the Baptists (Jerry Falwell) and the Pentecostals (The Bakkers) and Pat Robertson. Jessica Chastain is predictably excellent as Tammy Faye Bakker and deserves her Oscar nomination. The rest of the cast are so so, Andrew Garfield as her husband is never convincing. 

Unchartered is modern day update of  Indiana Jones. If only he had access to a mobile phone and GPS apps. I watched it on the huge IMAX screen which increased in size at the beginning and the end for those scenes including the CGI heavy conclusion. I preferred the discovering to the fight scenes, of which there were thankfully few. The dialogue and acting are clunky, but those are not what the film is about. It's fun. 

Beautiful cinematography of course, Death on the Nile comes with a mainly all star cast. Except I did not know Emma Mackey in one of the lead roles. Not sure why Gal Gadot appears on the poster instead. Kenneth Branagh reprises his role as Poirot but I still prefer David Suchet. We still watch repeats of his TV adaptations which I think are more successful. I was amazed to see Annette Benning and she out acted them all. For all the gloss and star quality of this feature film, the script is not as good. Especially for those new scenes. But it does look so good.

I forgot to mention the opening sequence from the first world war. Set in the trenches and fabulously filmed in black and white, a younger Poirot is the hero and the villain. Superb.

Tring Book Club: Mrs England by Stacey Halls

 

An interesting choice for our book club. The story of Ruby May, or Nurse May as everyone calls her, is well constructed and has a wonderful location as a children's nurse travels to Hardcastle House in West Yorkshire. This is the fictitious home of Mr and Mrs England and their children, close to the real Hardcastle Crags, now National Trust property.

There is a deep mystery surrounding Mrs England, a daughter of the wealthy Greatrex family. She stays in her room most of the time and it is her husband who is Ruby's main contact. There are all sorts of clues to Mrs England's state of mind, especially that Ruby has to lock the nursery door at night. The mystery builds to a dramatic conclusion, although the latter part of the book is all plot that has too much revelation at the end. But the author describes the right atmosphere for the location and the story moves at a good pace. No literary magic, but a solid tale of family secrets.

Twelve Years of Tring Book Club

 

When I was updating the list of books we have read at book club, I found that the meetings started at the beginning of 2010. This is what I posted on the 28th February of that year.

When I last met up with my brothers, my sister in law Miranda mentioned she had joined a book club. This encouraged me to look for one locally, as it had been on my mind for some time. I found one at Tring School and the book list for the year looked quite interesting. I emailed Tring Learning Centre, found out a little about the group and sent off an application form.

It was only a small group and they had already met for their first meeting. So this gave me a couple of weeks to read "Enduring Love" by Ian McEwan and "The Bookseller of Kabul" by Asne Seierstad. I had already read the former when it first came out 12 years ago which meant I could recap whilst waiting for the other to arrive. So on Thursday evening I found my way and joined six ladies and Amanda, our group leader, for our meeting. I was made to feel very welcome and I enjoyed the contributions from all the members.

We were not at Tring School for very long, the course was cancelled after a couple of terms. So we found our way to the Bell at Aston Clinton (as photo above)  famous for accommodating Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor when they were visiting Richard's brother who was recuperating in Stoke Mandeville Hospital after falling from the outside of an upstairs window, trying to break into their house when he had forgotten the key. Also famous for hosting the reception after the wedding of yours truly.

So here we are, twelve years later and 134 books read. We were five and then six and now five again. And we take it in turns to choose the book. Here is the list of those we have read.

TRING BOOK CLUB

Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad

 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime by Mark Haddon

 The Black Dahlia by James Elroy

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

 The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

An Awfully Big Adventure by Beryl Bainbridge

 Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

 The Other Hand by Chris Cleave

Headlong by Michael Frayn

 One Day by David Nicholls

Gone for Good by Harlan Coben

 Room by Emma Donoghue

Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

 Fasting Feasting by Anita Dessai

Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson

 What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn

Great House by Nicole Krauss

 Any Human Heart by William Boyd

The Midwife’s Confession by Diane Chamberlain

 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Snowdrops by A.D. Miller

 The Silent Land by Graham Joyce

Charles Dickens – Various

 Mr Phillips by John Lanchester

Pure by Andrew Miller

 The Children’s Book by A S Byatt

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

 The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

There but for the by Ali Smith

 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters

 The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz

 Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

 The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen

 Engelby by Sebastian Faulks

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

 The Sea by John Banville

 The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

 The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier

The Beginner’s Goodbye by Anne Tyler

 The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O’Farrell

 The Ice Palace by Tarjei Vesaas

Dear Life by Alice Munro

 Waterland by Graham Swift

A Long Walk Home by Judith Tebbutt

 Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Harvest by Jim Crace

 One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

 Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

 State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald

 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (and other WW1 novels).

 When I Lived in Modern Times by Linda Grant

 The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood

 The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

 Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

 The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry

 A Common Place Killing by Sian Busby

 The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

 All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

 The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

 Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Wood

 My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

 A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale

 The Daughters of Mars by Thomas Keneally

 The Green Road by Anne Enwright

 The Secret River by Kate Grenville

 The Wolf Border by Sarah Hall

 Sweet Caress by William Boyd

 The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif

 Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

 House of Orphans by Helen Dunmore

 Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

 The Loney by Andrew Hurley

 This Boy by Alan Johnson

 Remarkable Creatures by Track Chevalier

 Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

 The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith

 The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant

 The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry

 Lost for Words by Stephanie Butland

 The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult

 The Girl who Fell from the Sky by Simon Mawer

 The Pier Falls by Mark Haddon

 Midwinter Break by Bernard MacLaverty

 The Muse by Jessie Burton

 Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore

 The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor

 Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

 The Gap of Time by Jeanette Winterson

 A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

 Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Canon

 The Cleaner of Chartres by Sally Vickers

 The Bees by Laline Paull

 The Sealwoman’s Gift by Sally Magnusson

 The Mandelbaum Gate by Muriel Spark

 Love is Blind by William Boyd

 Pastoral by Nevil Shute

Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting

 Someday I’ll Find Me by Carla Lane

 Milkman by Anna Burns

 A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor

 Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift

 Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield

 The Confessions of Franie Langton by Sara Collins

 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

 The Queen of the Tambourine by Jane Gardam

 The Soldier’s Return by Melvyn Bragg

 A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

 The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter

 The Salt Path by Raynor Winn

 Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach

 Fever of the Bone by Val McDermid

 Girl by Edna O’Brien

 The Dig by John Preston

 The Overstory by Richard Powers

 Far Sweeter than Honey by William Spencer

 Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

 Undue Influence by Anita Brookner

 The Midnight Library by David Haig

 The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal

 Holding by Graham Norton

 Mrs England by Stacey Halls

 

 

 

Isabella Askew

 

It was when I sent off for the death certificate of my great Grandmother Jane Askew (ne Cuthbertson) that I found one of her daughters who was listed as the informant. Isabella Askew was recorded there as Isabella Abbs. So all I did was to Google "Isabella Askew Abbs" and found her on East Anglian Ancestors where she was married to George John Abbs. They had six children and still lived in Rotherham when Isabella died in 1930 at the too young age of 45. 

George and Jane Askew had eleven children of whom seven were girls. I only has a record of the eldest (Eleanor)  being married from the 1902 Census. Isabella was the fifth child and I like to think that as she was living not far from her parents after she married, she kept in regular contact. And that is why she is the informant. 

As for Jane Askew, she lived until she was 60 years old and died at home at 29 Mary Street (2 house 3 court) Rotherham on 16th July 1917. Her husband George is still recorded as a Coal Miner and he died at the ripe old age of 73. At the same address. 

On 20th January 2011, I posted a piece about the Askew sisters. This included "Isabella was 17 in 1901 and was in the employ of a Publican, Walter Holloway and his wife Annie, as a General Domestic Servant at The Miner's Arms in Rotherham."  For more detail go to:

http://sites.google.com/site/askewfamilyhistory where there is a link to my freepages.rootsweb data.

College Road and Mary Street still exist in Rotherham as shown on the map below:

Ten Years Running

 

It was ten years to the day that I went on my first run. Strange to think that I only started running at 67.Alison took me down the canal path to try some short intervals on the 16th February 2012. I first ran in a pair of trail shoes until I bought these, my first pair of running shoes, all as my post of  13th March 2012. 

My next running shoes were Asics GT 1000 and I have stuck with this brand ever since. These are my latest in a vile lime zest and black. But they were cheap.

My running pace has come down over the years. My best ever pace for parkrun was 8.21 on 25th October 2014. In 2016 I ran 8.24, in 2017 it was 8.28, in 2018 it was down to 8.40 and in 2019 it was 8.43. In 2020 without parkrun I managed a 9.08 in August. In 2021 with parkrun back, I ran a 9.21 pace and this year it is down to 9.28. So one minute per mile slower than five years ago, so an average 12 seconds per mile slower each year.  That translates to just over 3 minutes slower for Parkrun. Then I wrote about Age Grade on 9th April 2019.

Oscar Nominations for Best Actress

 

None of the five women nominated for the best actress at this year's Oscars appear in any of the ten nominations for best film. How strange, and how disappointing. Here they are:

Jessica Chastain is a big favourite to win for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

But I preferred Penelope Cruz in Parallel Mothers.

I could not bring myself to see Kristen Stewart in Spencer.

Amazon's Being the Ricardos did not have a general release so Nicole Kidman should not even be nominated.

Same for Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter. 

And even more strange, none of the actresses above are nominated for Leading Actress at the BAFTA's. Those are:

Lady Gaga for House of Gucci

Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza

Emilia Jones for CODA

Renate Reinsve for The Worst Person In The World

Joanna Scanlon for After Love

Tessa Thomson for Passing

Upgrade to Sky Q

 

When I contacted Sky to renew our subscription, I was offered a free upgrade to Sky Q, their latest operating system. On Monday, the engineer arrived and installed the new box of tricks. What I didn't expect was a brand new satellite dish and cabling. But that was also all free. The picture on the TV is slightly better, but it was worth it for the massive storage space of 1TB that we will never come close to filling. Even better is the remote that will do everything on it's own, rather than having to use the TV remote as well as the one for Sky. The interface is also more impressive, the only downside is it is more complicated.

We first had Sky installed in August 2000, so that is over 21 years. We wanted the live Premier League football, and that is still the main reason why we have Sky Sports and BT Sport (also on the Sky platform). First it was Sky Digital, then Sky+ followed by Sky+ HD. And now Sky Q. 

The 355, Nightmare Alley and Parallel Mothers

 

The 355 is a formulaic spy movie, a cross between James Bond and Widows. I'm afraid that I have forgotten all about it already. I did note that the fights were repetitively boring, the big set piece at the nearly end was fumbled and the multiple endings did not work. The script was pretty awful, a nonsensical plot and terrible music and sound. Otherwise it looked great on the Cineworld Superscreen. The terrific female cast was wasted, the best of whom was Lupita Nyong'o as a cross between Q and Simon Pegg's Benji in Mission Impossible with added fire power.

A film noir turns into a violent melodrama, quite unusual actually. Nightmare Alley is well written and exceptionally well directed by Guillermo del Toro. Bradley Cooper (whom I have never really rated) turns in career defining performance and all the starry cast are fabulous. With a wonderfully understated role for Rooney Mara. The cinematography is superb, especially the camera that follows  Cooper from behind. The sets are also wonderful, I was just not sure if the first half could have done with some scenes outside the show village which I thought overstayed it's welcome. The movie is a little too long, some serious editing would have done it no harm. But overall a thrilling ride.

Pedro Almodovar has always been one of my favourite directors. I have seen every one of his movies including many on DVD. There is a four part review of these movies on this blog entitled The Films of Pedro Almodovar. He often works with the same actors and one of his favourites is Penelope Cruz. She is magnificent here in the lead role of Janis. The other mother in their maternity ward for two is Teresa played by Aitana Sanchez-Gijon. Their friendship is at the heart of the film and that story would have been enough. However, Almodovar bolts on a completely different thread about bodies buried during the  Spanish Civil War. This, I felt, was a distraction from what was otherwise a typically superb human drama. Just to note that another of Almodovar's regulars, Rossy de Palma is wonderful in the tiny role of Elena.