Arrival, Nocturnal Animals and Allied

Smart and original, Arrival is an interesting take on the alien visitation genre. Writer Eric Heisserer and director Denis Villeneuve have created something different and intelligent from the Ted Chiang novella. Yes, there are all the old issues of various countries having their own ideas about how to cope with the visitors, but the attempts by the Americans at communication were well developed.
Amy Adams is first rate as the language expert, Jeremy Renner less so in a supporting role. Then there is the ending, which is quite a revelation given what we have already seen.

Nocturnal Animals is not for the faint hearted. The  novel that her ex husband leaves Susan (Amy Adams is excellent once again) is shown in live action, and the beginning I found hard to watch. There is an excellent contrast here between the stark, rich and pristine LA home that Adams now inhabits, and the dirty wastes of poor rural West Texas. The interesting thing is, Susan pictures her ex (played by a mesmerising Jake Gyllenhaal) in the role of the distraught father in the story, so we never actually know how much was from his own experience. Much of both stories is about revenge, but we have to wait until the end to see how this works out. Director Tom Ford has made something thrilling and provoking.

I was far more impressed with Allied than many of the critics. How can they be so huffy on an original story and screenplay, we have so few of these. British writer Steven Knight (who wrote Locke, my favourite movie of 2013) has come up with an original World War II thriller that is pacy and twisty along the way. Director Robert Zemeckis has been given a decent budget and the cinematography is superb. I can see that the critics might feel that the all important relationship between Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard lacks chemistry. It does seem that the former's mind was elsewhere whereas Cotillard is great as always. But I thought the movie worked really well and the two hours flew by. I looked out for the parts shot at nearby RAF Halton, although we had to wait well over halfway for the first of three scenes to put in an appearance.

Tring Book Club - Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner

I very rarely read crime novels, but this was a Book Club choice. On the plus side, there was very little I could object to, it was more about the lives of the detectives and their investigations rather than the building up of the nerve tangling tension that I hate, prior to something nasty happening.

Each chapter is headed with one of the character's names and I liked that. Those about Helena, the missing Edith's friend, were the best. Just a shame there were not enough.

So far, so Kate Atkinson. Unfortunately, the writing comes nowhere close. There was something that grated, I'm not sure what. There is only a rare witticism. Jonti, the furniture maker, "planed down her sharper edges". We could have done with a lot more.

The Eynsham 10K

Perfect conditions (cloudy, chilly but no wind) for my second time at the Eynsham 10k. This time running with Alison, Angie next door and her friend Lynne whose husband Alan was there to watch. Angie and I started off running together, We both were recovering from injuries, but my calf and back, and her knee were pretty much better.

We started off quite fast but then found a nice steady pace. Angie left me behind at 6k but I manged to find a group running at my pace and I managed to hang on for the remainder of the race.

Angie came in 40 seconds ahead of me, pleased that she came in under 55 minutes. My 55.32 was much better than I expected. Alison ran with Lynne all the way round with a respectable 1 hour 8 minutes. It was then time for tea and cake in the hall before going our separate ways.

Alison and I were very hungry by the time we reached Nando's in Aylesbury after 1.30pm, and demolished a sharing platter in no time at all.

English National Ballet's Nutcracker at Milton Keynes Theatre

We are so lucky that English National Ballet come to Milton Keynes every November. This year it was Nutcracker, a ballet we had not seen for many years. As soon as I read a cast list for Friday night's performance, I knew we were in for a treat. Dancing the lead role of Clara was none other that Tamara Rojo.

After 12 years as Principal dancer at the Royal Ballet, Rojo returned to English National Ballet, this time as Artistic Director and Lead Principal Dancer. (When she was last at ENB, her performances as Clara broke all box office records at the London Coliseum and The Times named her “Dance Revelation of the Year.”) She was awarded a CBE for her services to ballet in the Queen’s 2016 New Year’s Honours. So being in the middle of the fifth row was very special privilege to see such a brilliant dancer.

The first half was OK. Lots of storytelling as the child Clara and her friends spend Christmas Eve with their families. But it is not until the second half that the ballet comes into it's own. The Spanish, Arabian (my favourite), Chinese and Russian dances are superb. And Alison McWhinney is terrific as the Lead Flower.

But then comes the pas de deux. First of all the music for the first section by Tchaikovsky has just moved up to the top of my list of favourite classical  pieces. And then the dancing of Tamara Rojo and Isaac Hernandez was out of this world. Now I'm not particularly knowledgeable about ballet dancing, but I knew this was something special. The combination of the music and Rojo's technical brilliance, and being so close, this was, perhaps, the best few minutes I have spent in a theatre. I have looked on youtube at other dancers and nothing beats what we saw. In a provincial theatre on a Friday night. Unforgettable.

A Patchwork Planet, Exposure and The Magician's Assistant

I'm gradually catching up on my Anne Tyler's. Number eight, A Patchwork Planet"  has such an unpromising start, I wondered if it might be my last. I needn't have worried. Forty pages in it turns into one of her best. The story of Barnaby Gaitlin, (the black sheep of the Gaitlins) is superbly written in the first person, how does Tyler do it? It just shows how a domestic drama can be witty, happy, sad and so poignant. 

Barnaby does a lot of work for old people. He tells us "At Rent-a-Back I knew couple who'd been married for almost ever-forty, fifty, sixty years. Seventy two, in one case. They'd be tending each other's illnesses, filling in each other's faulty memories, dealing with the money troubles or the daughter's suicide or the grandson's drug addiction." (Here it gets interesting). "And I was beginning to suspect that it made no difference whether they'd married the right person. Finally, you're just with who you're with. You've signed on with her, put in half a century with her, grown to know her as well as you know yourself, or even better, and she's become the right person. Or the only person, more to the point. I wish someone had told me that earlier." Just brilliant.

Not my favourite book from one of my favourite authors. This time she is far more interested in the plot than anything else. Exposure is a cold war thriller that I read in a rush, not the usual dramas in which Helen Dunmore excels. The characters are still well drawn as ever, and she captures the atmosphere of 1960 England perfectly. I would just rather have one of her novels to savour rather than get to the ending a s quickly as possible.

We never meet Parsifal the Magician, "PARSIFAL IS DEAD" are the words that start this wonderful book. But through the memories of Sabine, The Magician's Assistant, he is so much alive. The glimpses of the past are superbly written. The complicated relationship of Parsifal, Sabine and Phan gradually unfolds. Also, I'm not a big fan of how dreams are described, but here they feel just right.

The biggest surprise in Sabine's life leads her from a balmy winter in Los Angeles to the snowy spaces of Nebraska. The contrast is brilliantly described. This is my fourth Ann Patchett novel. We read State of Wonder for book club, but Bel Canto, Run and now The Magician's Assistant are all much better.

The Ascoughs of Lincolnshire - Where East Fen Meets The Wolds

Approaching, as I am, the end of my current researches into the lives of my Ascough ancestors in Lincolnshire, I thought I would list all my current sources in chronological order. The main publications are as follows:

The History of Imbanking and Draining of Divers Fens and Marshes by Sir William Dugdale 1724 Edition. The Original Edition dated 1661 was first published in 1662 with maps by Wenceslas Hollar. 

The Fens and Floods of Mid Lincolnshire by J S Padley 1882.

A History of the Fen of South Lincolnshire by William Henry Wheeler 1897. Second Edition greatly enlarged.

English Peasant Farming - The Agrarian History of Lincolnshire from Tudor the Recent Times 1957

The Agricultural Revolution in South Lincolnshire by David Grigg 1966

The Changing Fenland by H C Darby 1983

Old and New Landscapes in the Horncastle Area by Eleanor and Rex C Russell 1985

Notes on the History of Toynton All Saints and Toynton St Peter by Ethel Rudkin 1985

The Fenland Project No 8: Lincolnshire Survey, The Northern Fen-Edge by T W Lane 1993

From Punt to Plough by Rex Sly 2003

Maps of the Witham Fens by R C Wheeler 2008

Lincolnshire Fenland Lidar by S J Malone 2012

The Lost Fens - England's Greatest Ecological Disaster by Ian D Rotherham 2013

Margins of the East Fen: Historic Landscape Evolution by Professor I G Simmons 2015

There are also other sources, listed in no particular order:

A Short History of Enclosure in Britain - The Land magazine

Lindsey Archaeological Services - Toynton Sewerage Scheme 2003

The Fen Slodgers - Skegness Magazine

In the Fens by Rex Sly

The Design for the Initial Drainage of the Great Level etc by Margaret Albright Knittl i Agricultural History Review

Witham Fourth District Drainage Board - History

A Remonstrance by a Holland Watchman 1800

An Address to Ninety Commoners by Rev Edward Walls 1807

Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure etc by J M Neeson

Enclosure of the South Lincolnshire Fens - Lincolnshire Archives

The Great Depression in British Agriculture - Wikipedia

Witham Navigable Drains - Wikipedia

Grace's Guide - Lade Bank Pumping Station

Lincstothepast.com

Cassini Historical Map    Old Series 1824   Skegness and Horncastle

OS Explorer Map: Skegness, Alford and Spilsby

I have taken notes and extracts from all the above in separate documents and my next exercise is to combine them in one consolidated narrative. It will take me a while.

Doctor Strange, The Light Between Oceans and The Accountant

It was only that Doctor Strange starred Benedict Cumberbatch (and some good reviews) that made me ditch my resolve to avoid superhero movies. Whilst he does OK, and his scenes with Tilda Swinton aren't bad, it was still a case of I wish I had stuck to my principles.

I truly believed that The Light Between Oceans would be my kind of movie, and whilst there was much to admire, it just seemed that there was a big opportunity lost. And I can only think it was down to a strange performance from Alicia Vikander. She became one of my favourite actresses after Testament of Youth, Ex-Machina, The Danish Girl and even Jason Bourne. But here she seemed to be treading water. Whether that was the script or the direction (both left something to be desired by Derek Cianfrance), but it was only Michael Fassbender who almost saved the day.

I enjoyed The Accountant far more than the previous two movies despite the holes in the plot. But this is not a film where you have to think too deeply. Ben Affleck is perfect for the role as an autistic child grown up to match his proficiency in his chosen profession with a startling abilty with his fists and guns. And he uses them all to great effect. His scenes with Anna Kendrick are sensitive and the action sequences are adequate. An original script by Bill Dubuque is pretty good and direction by  Gavin O'Connor is up to the mark. An enjoyable couple of hours.