Tring Book Club - The Sixteen Trees of the Somme by Lars Mytting and Someday I'll Find Me by Carla Lane

I cannot remember the last time I read a book that is basically a mystery that turns into a search or rather a quest. This book is carefully, intricately and meticulously plotted but not so complicated that you get lost. The author cleverly gives you the occasional little reminders along the way. Half way through I needed to write down a family tree just to keep my mind straight. Family History becomes complicated.

This captivating page turner is not a thriller in the classic sense, more a journey involving people to meet and documents to find. Although one archive just felt too much. Starting at home in Norway, Edvard's travels take him to the Shetland Isles and France. Events in a wood during the first world war is at the centre of the story.

Character development does take second place to the plot and the characters suffer as a result. But the translation is generally excellent. I had to read the ending twice, the first in a rush, the second time it made a lot more sense. There are twists and turns along the way, some I guessed, others I did not. A clever and enjoyable read.

It all started off so well with some nice anecdotes from her childhood. It isn't long before she and her friend Myra are at the BBC and being commissioned to write a comedy series about two young women sharing a flat. Whilst there is some interesting (but limited) stuff about the people there, there is almost nothing about the process of writing. Very little about the production meetings and who had what input. I wanted to know about each and every episode and where the inspiration and ideas came from. But no.

The chapter on "Butterflies" was a mystery. It felt like it was just one series when in fact there were four from 1979 to 1983. All in five and a half pages!!! Same again for "Bread" from 1986 to 1991. Somehow all this seemed to rush through so Carla can get onto what interests her most and that was the animal sanctuary she set up and as a campaigner for animal rights. None of this was of any interest to me.

Not only that, but half way through the book in the chapter titled "Changes", we are back at the BBC after "Bread was finished and she cannot cope with what she describes as "a new kind of comedy was being born", although no such programmes are mentioned. Is this just an excuse for the end of her career in television? Because she is so, so wrong.

Series such as "Last of the Summer Wine" went on until 2010, "The Vicar of Dibley" to 2007, "As Time Goes By " (with Geoffrey Palmer from "Butterflies" and Judy Dench) to 2005, "Dinner Ladies" to 2000 and "Still Game" to 2019. And our favourite "Detectorists" written by Mackenzie Crook, who also acted alongside Toby Jones, that won the 2015 British Academy TV Award for best scripted comedy.These and others prove that the situation comedy for a mature audience are still being produced.

Carla's insistence that the new kind of comedy "was in a different format, a different language even, thr0wing some viewers into a state of confusion. We were galloping towards something very new, and the middle-aged generation was being slowly squeezed out". This is complete and utter rubbish and I'm surprised her publisher didn't cut it out. I found it a disgrace.