Romola Garai

The four episodes of Emma on the BBC were a delight, particularly for a fabulous performance from Romola Garai in the title roll. She has a magnetism I cannot recall from any actress for a long time. Her first major film role in I Capture the Castle in 2003 impressed the critics, and she has gone from strength to strength.

I was lucky enough to see Romola in two RSC productions in 2007, playing Cordelia opposite Ian McKellen's King Lear, and as Nina in The Seagull. Then came Atonement where I thought she gave the best performance.

I had hoped that Emma would go on for ever, but I will have to make do with her starring in the forthcoming film Glorious 39, written and directed by one of my favourites, Stephen Poliakoff. Roll on November. I have just seen the trailer on You Tube.

A Chilterns Autumn Weekend

My favourite walk for a Friday afternoon is at the reservoirs and canals at Marsworth, where British Waterways have a good size car park and stoned footpaths. A walk here on a Friday afternoon always reminds me how lucky I am to be retired and enjoy the outdoors. The canal was particularly picturesque as the sun showed dazzling reflections in the water.

Saturday was wet, so in the morning we went to Milton Keynes shopping. Quite successful, mainly adding to the profits of M&S. Coffee and a toasted sandwich in Thortons was very nice.

Sunday was another sunny morning, so my camera and I headed for the Ridgeway out of Wendover. The beech avenue at Boswells Farm, looking towards the Amersham Road, was quite spectacular.

Up into the woods, the views were equally colourful. After some cold nights, the mild weather of the last couple of days has made this one of the best autumns I can remember.

Swim class number 3

Aaaaahhhhhhhh. Our third instructor in three weeks. It gets even harder. When Steve said it's breaststroke tonight, I thought good, an easy session. I could not have been more wrong. We started off with floats in our extended arms, and so we had to concentrate on the kick, keeping our hips as high as possible. Disposing of the floats, it was then one pull to three kicks working down to one pull and one kick. I thought that was it, but no. There is the glide. Steve wanted us to hold the glide for three or four seconds. I have to say that after a couple of lengths, it was improving my technique.

Then onto crawl. Again it was with floats to start, and just using the legs. I went nowhere. Apparently it's all about turning your hips and kicking like mad. To say this is tiring is an understatement. Maybe I should have done this twenty years ago. A couple of crouch dives at the end (my first ever attempt from a standing position), the first quite good, the second awful. As I write, it is beautiful blue sky outside, perfect for a walk. I just don't think I could get very far.

The Invention of Lying, Zombieland and Up

I guess with that face, Ricky Gervais always has to play the loser. So it is no surprise that is how he starts off in The Invention of Lying. Although there are quite a few funny moments, it is hard to make a full length movie out of one concept. So it is patchy and loses momentum half way through. For me, it is the songs in the second half which hold it together: Donovan's "Try and Catch the Wind", Supertramp's "Give a Little Bit" and ELO's "Mr Blue Sky".

I do not like movies that have a narrator, but this time I will make an exception. Zombieland shows what can be done with a brilliant script. In fact, the scenes with Zombies being dispatched are the only boring and repetitive parts of the movie. The rest is the relationship that build between the four characters, and this is so well done. That they only use their destinations as names, is a neat twist. Woody Harrelson is made for the part, and Jesse Eisenberg is convincing as narrator and lead. Ruben Fleisher directs with a flourish, and the set piece ending wraps up the film nicely. There is one cameo appearance, and that is also terrific. In the same league (and another romcomzom) as Shawn of the Dead, it was a great fun movie.

If it were not for the critical acclaim, I might have given Up a miss. I am glad that I didn't. It is a great piece of film making. Again it is the script that makes it so good. The characters are lovable, and the movie has a real emotional impact. It is just not necessary to see it in 3D. I'm glad I stuck to the standard format. You could see in the action sequences that these were made for 3D, and although they were well done, it was the relationship between Carl and Russell that makes the movie. Bring on an exotic bird and Dug the dog, there are plenty of laughs. Equally good as WALL-E, it is no surprise that it gets 98% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Family History - The 533

I have now traced 533 of my father's ancestors and their families and they are now all on the database of my Family Historian programme. There remain a few tasks for the future, but the list of individuals is complete as far as I can go. They have now been transferred to a folder which can be written to a CD with the following introduction:

Charles Augustus Roberts, the brother of my great Grandfather Vincent Littlewood Roberts, created a family tree in 1937 entitled "Genealogy of the family of Roberts of Sheffield". So the contents of this CD are not only the ancestors of my father, but also updates Charles' family tree with the descendants of Oliver Roberts of Wooldale born around 1496.For this, I am indebted to the book given to me by Sir Samuel Roberts of Cockley Clay called "Some Memorials of the Family of Roberts". This was originally written by his ancestor, Sir Samuel Roberts of Queens Tower in 1862 and distributed to family members including Grandfather Vincent. This was updated by the next two Sir Samuel Roberts and finally (and extensively) by Sir Peter Roberts in 1971. It was Sir Peter who, as he describes in the "Introduction Extended", made a special study of the area of Holmfirth and concludes "At Wooldale in the first half of the XV1 century lived two families; one, that of GEORGE ROBERTS, who died in 1568, and the other of OLIVER ROBERTS, who died in 1588. It is likely that both these families had a common ancestor in one OLIVER ROBERTS who was a farmer, and paid King's Subsidy on land worth £50 in 1524. I consider that it is beyond reasonable doubt that the said GEORGE ROBERTS is the progenitor of the present Roberts family".I also wish to give thanks to Chris Rathbone and Nigel Buchanan who have given me invaluable information.

I still have to create some family trees ( ancestor and descendant diagrams), and add some other material. The CD will then be available for distribution, and sometime I will put it all on a website. The modern equivalents to those described above.

I can then turn to my mother's ancestors, a far different proposition. No previous researches this time. If I get more than fifty ancestors and their families, I shall be doing well.

131 Songs - Number 3

No 3 Travellin' Light - Cliff Richard


This is only on the list for one reason. In October 1959, when I was fourteen, my family came into possession of it's first gramophone. It was very second hand and only played 78's. It may have been Nanan (again) who took my brother John and I to a nearby shop in Braintree to purchase our first two records. Cliff was No 1 in the charts at the time with Travellin' Light, so we chose this and his previous chart topper Living Doll. Both records are notable mainly for his backing group, originally known as The Drifters on the earlier record, they had to change their name for legal reasons to The Shadows for Travellin' Light.

I cannot remember any other 78's we bought, except for Lonnie Donegan's Battle of New Orleans, also from 1959. It wasn't long before I had my own tiny record player, again second hand, that would play 45's and LP's. That was when my record collection really started.

Tring Park in October

One of the best places in the Chilterns to see autumn colours is Tring Park, as the open parkland gives great views of the surrounding hills. I park in Tring, walk past the Natural History Museum, and take the footbridge over the A41 dual carriageway. You are greeted by the view above. At the top of the hill is the Ridgeway footpath.

It was deserted when I took this photo.