Tring Book Club- Tidelands by Phillipa Gregory

 

For my last meeting of book club, it was our first by Phillipa Gregory. I was happy with this choice as I had never before read one of her historical novels. But if this is representative of her work, it will be my last. Nothing wrong with the story, I just could not get along with her prose. Perhaps that is just me. It seemed that the author wanted to cram in everything about the history of the two years of 1648 and 1649. Now lets see, how can we introduce King Charles, hiding in Newport on the Isle of Wight, and an absent husband who has a boat. I'm afraid the book lost all credibility. There is a reasonable family drama here, Alinor and her two children Rob and Alys are interesting characters and their home lies in a dramatic place, Sealsea Island on that ragged coast of Sussex. The first part of the book promises something special. Only to sink beneath the unbelievable plot. I didn't mind the introduction of the local squire Sir William Peachey even if he had been recently pardoned for being a royalist. See what I mean. Add in stuff about dowries, witch trials and we have a history lesson instead of a novel. 

Over the thirteen years we have read 147 books. I listed them on the twelfth anniversary, but here is my final update.

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 Crac 

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 Doer 

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

Mrs Hemingway by Naomi Woo 

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 Boy 

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 Spence 

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

Spook Street by Mick Herron

The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel

Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

The Hours by Michael Cunningham

The Sanest Guy in the Room by Don Black

Still Life by Sarah Winman

The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak

Dreams from my father by Barak Obama

The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews

Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packam

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

 Rules of Civility by Amor Towles

Tidelands by Phillipa Gregory

 

 

 

Cuckoo at the Royal Court Theatre

 

 

I can only remember once before  visiting the Royal Court Theatre in Sloane Square and that was in 2003. David Haig and Rosemund Pike  starred in Hitchcock Blonde. The theatre is, unfortunately, showing it's age. It needs a Lloyd Webber type to undertake a major refurbishment. But it does show brand new dramas of which there are so few. Cuckoo is by Michael Wynne with direction by Vicky Featherstone. 

The cast is made up of Grandmother Doreen (Sue Jenkins), her two daughters Carmel (Michelle Butterly on the left) and Sarah (Jodie McNee) and Carmel's troubled daughter Megyn (Emma Harrison). They seem to spend most of their time at Doreen's house, especially Megyn who takes to Doreen's bed and refuses to come out. for a long time. So we knew who the cuckoo was. Indulged by her grandmother, talk about an awful teenager. 

So a kitchen sink drama for today, complete with mobile phones which seem to be continually in use. Including messaging each other.  For all of them. They seem to live in Birkenhead as I caught a glimpse of a shopping bag. The dialogue was terrific and the acting first rate. Unfortunately the story is disappointingly weak. The best bit comes when Doreen (bereaved for four years) is going on a date, much to the distress of her daughters. Their interrogation ends up in a slanging match that ups the dramatic stakes to where they should be. The play has mixed reviews but I'm just thankful there are such dramas still being written and performed.

I left the theatre at 4.40pm and was back at Tring by 5.50pm. A very quick journey home. The day had been warm (26C) and sunny, so different to most of the weather recently.

Battersea Power Station - Lift 109 and Royal Court Theatre

 I last visited Battersea Power Station in 2019 when it was still under reconstruction and refurbishment. I included lots of photos on my post of 8th August of that year. Just like the one below.

It was not until I read there that all the white chimneys were brand new, just replicas of the old. And that was why they were able to include a visitor lift inside one of them. Some photos of Lift 109 are below. 

But I will start with journey there. Alison kindly dropped me at Tring Station as the Chiltern Line was shut and replaced by buses to Amersham. Amazingly, the 9.43 am train to Euston started at Tring and was waiting for me to board. Arrived at Euston and took the Northern Line all the way to the brand new station for Battersea Power Station. Just one hour 35 minutes from leaving home.

I was early for my timed ticket for Lift 109 and had plenty of time to explore the three levels of the brand new shops and restaurants in the main turbine hall.

But I was more interested in the construction. I was impressed by the glazed terra cotta cladding in the top photo above where ribbed faience tiles covered the structure. (See Boston Terra Cotta website). The roof construction below is a work of art.

I found the sign directing me to the upper level for Lift 109.

Above the entrance is this sign.

There is a small interactive exhibit while waiting to be transported to the top of one of the replica chimneys. Of the photos that showed the history of the power station, I particularly liked the one from 1955 when we were living not that far away.

There are two large screens that show the movement of the lift as it rises to the top.

There is a clever swing door to enter the first traditional enclosed lift. This takes you to the bottom of the chimney where there are then 39 steps to the next lift. Any reference to John Buchan's book? Somehow I found myself at the head of our party so pushed on with the help of the handrails.

At the top is a circular glass lift and there are some great views of the construction from inside.

The real bonus is that the lift rises just above the top of the chimney, so the views are quite spectacular. The first must have been taken by a drone.

Our time was over too quickly. I just wanted something simple for lunch and a sandwich in Pret a Manger was just right. I did have time to wander around outside the power station, and sat in some shade next to the river in the warm sunshine.

Then it was time to head to Sloane Square for the Royal Court Theatre. A twenty minute walk up Chelsea Bridge Road and I was at the theatre in plenty of time and taking a well deserved rest.

The Lawn in August

 

It has been all the rain in the last few weeks that has helped the lawn look it's best. In previous years by this time it has become awfully bare as in the photo below.

But today even the far end, that was mostly moss in the spring, is quite acceptable.

Dahlia Figaro Mixed

 

This is the second year that I ordered sixty of the dwarf Dahlias from Suttons. Last summer they were the best annuals I had tried in the border next to the low wall around the back patio. They were planted at the beginning of June as the photo below.

Into August and, with the rain in July, they have never looked better. Normally I would choose a single colour for bedding, but these gaudy flowers make me smile.

Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1, Oppenheimer and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

 

A typical summer blockbuster that, fortunately, was mainly good fun. Mission Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 has a fast pace although the plot was totally bonkers. Yet another car chase, although to be fair this one has never been done before (shame you could tell so much was set in the studio). And another chase on top of a train. All done at Watford's Leavesden Studios. So a little repetitive. I liked it best when the gang gets together. And there are roles for Hayley Atwell (by far the best thing about the movie), Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby as well as the usual cohorts.

Someone said that J Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived. "Should they have done those things?" My answer is if they didn't, someone else would. So no. The film critic Jonathon Dean says "I grew up in the 1980's and assumed that would be how we would meet our end". Just try growing up in London in the 1950's and wondering if the next aeroplane going over would be dropping that bomb.

Oppenheimer is an in depth study into the one man who just happened to lead the team that created the atom bomb. Told in three parts,  the first absolutely brilliant, the second messy but riveting and the third a big surprise. I did wonder at the end of the second section what that last part would be. Lots of political and philosophical stuff that I loved. It was only then that I understood why a certain segment is filmed in black and white. Director and writer Christopher Nolan loves to chop and change time lines so this device helps enormously. 

The cast is universally excellent. Obviously Cillian Murphy is great as Oppenheimer, but I preferred Robert Downey Jr as Lewis Strauss. A tormented foil that has made best supporting actor his own. Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh are fine even if Nolan never writes so well for women. Lovely cameos from Rami Malek and Gary Oldman. 

I knew the film was three hours long but time went so quickly, there are big scenes that go in a flash, sometimes all cuts and editing keep up the fast pace. I went to see it in the IMAX screen as this is how Nolan filmed it, but there was no need. His story and direction are all that you need for one of the big films of all time.

I wasn't going to see the latest Indiana Jones film (nearly two and half hours was far too long) but it was that or Barbie. In the end I was pleasantly surprised. Director James Mangold does well with what was surprisingly a  pretty good script. The stunts were fine and occasionally hilarious. The locations were equally impressive, especially Sicily where we went on holiday many years ago. Harrison Ford just about holds things together, the conversion  to his younger self a miracle of modern technology. I was unsure about the casting of  Phoebe Waller Bridge who I found less than convincing. But we do get a cameo from Antonio Banderas. And Toby Jones. Who would have thought. 

Have You Seen .........? by David Thomson Part 7 - Scarface, Vanishing Point and Blow Up

 

A movie from 1983 that I had never seen before. In Scarface, a young Al Pacino is playing a Cuban refugee who turns into public enemy number one. As soon as I realised it was a Brian De Palma film from those dark days of 1983, I guessed what we were in for. Written by Oliver Stone with music by Giorgio Moroder, it was typical of it's time. The exterior shots of Miami are incredible, huge numbers of extras with cinematographer John A Alonzo pioneering hand held cameras. Add in an almost unrecognisable and far too thin Michelle Pfeifer. The rise and fall of Tony Montana becomes somewhat predictable with an ending that just would not be allowed today. David Thomson called it "a masterpiece". Maybe of it's time, but not now.

I was surprised that the iconic film Vanishing Point from 1971 does not appear in David Thomson's book. Now I understand why. A car delivery that turns into a chase. Chaos ensues. End of.

London in 1966, a top photographer, gorgeous models, lots of drugs. Living there I missed it all. A fabulous cast with David Hemmings, Sarah Miles and Vanessa Redgrave. Yes, they were young and beautiful in those days. The exterior shots of London are really great, the DVD quality is fantastic, it almost looked in 3D. The interior sets were beautifully lit. Although some of the language and misogamy would not be acceptable today But we do get a performance by The Yardbirds including Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck. And it was Maryon Park in Charlton where crucial action takes place. But it's south of the river, so I wouldn't know. I thought there was hardly any plot, more style over substance. Obviously David Thomson was impressed by director Antonioni as he says the film is "a deadpan delight ..... a film of huge charm". That's about all it was.