Happy Christmas!

I haven't been around much for a while but I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and hope you all have a wonderful year in 2012.


Sometimes telly isn't very inspiring, last year's Christmas output was dire. This year it's very different! We've already had the new drama series about the vet James Herriot and a new series of Garrow's Law. Tomorrow we're  spoilt for choice with the new Christmas Dr Who, Downton Abbey and Strictly Come Dancing Christmas programmes as well as the first of three new Absolutely Fabulous 20th anniversary specials. 


However they'll all be hard pushed to beat last night's very moving The Choir. It's an amazing programme about a group of wives whose husbands and partners were serving in Afghanistan who formed a military choir with the help of the inspirational choirmaster Gareth Malone.


Have to say it was very moving listening to their stories about their husbands and their lives without them. The letters to their loved ones inspired Paul Mealor (the royal wedding composer) to write a song for them, Wherever You Are. They performed it live at the British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Albert Hall in November.  This week their record reached Number 1 and is the fastest selling single for six years. What a pleasant change from the X Factor hyped plastic songs produced over the last few years.


I can't upload the video from YouTube but here's the link:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hR6O7VxKaQ


If you can watch the BBC's iPlayer you can see the very moving programme here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0195vs2/The_Choir_Military_Wives_Compilation/

Divas Don't Knit

Divas Don't Knit by Gil McNeil

It was the title that grabbed me when I saw this book in the library. I'm certainly no diva!

I did enjoy this bit of light reading. Brought it back from the library and struggled to put it down to eat! Loved the characters and the knitting and had a laugh at the child related situations and comments. The setting was good too in a washed up British seaside resort. Great!

A good read when you need a bit of a lift without taxing your brain too much. Must look up some more of her books!

View all my reviews

Roseanna - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Roseanna - 

I saw this series recommended in a crime blog I subscribe to, The Rap Sheet. where I get a lot of good information about TV and film and ideas for reading material covering the crime genre. The series was described as one of the best crime series ever written. Well I had to take a look!


Have to say I did enjoy this book, Roseanna, the first in the Martin Beck series, but it's not exactly easy to say why. The story was not particularly riveting and the tone and mood were rather bleak. However the writing was clear and succinct, the characters were interesting and I liked the dogged approach of Martin Beck, the Stockholm detective and main character.


The authors Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo were both Swedish journalists and communists; their books were apparently intended to be an assault on Swedish society.  The Sweden they describe in the novels isn't what my image of Sweden is like however I didn't feel that it affected my interest in the novels. 


The novels are set in the sixties, in the days before the police had access to the luxuries of our current forensic science and new technology. No genetic fingerprinting, no mobile phones and computers were in their infancy. Here we see basic policing methods and procedures. Maybe that was one of the reasons why I liked the book, it seemed real. Perhaps we've become sated with the CSI type programmes and action films and need to get back to this type of crime novel and programme. Apart from the low technology, the novels haven't dated that much, well mind you I noticed they did do a lot of smoking! 


What I particularly like is that in each of the books I've read so far, there has been a really interesting review which I have found very useful. I like seeing whether my impressions match other people's and maybe find something I've missed. 


I've read the next two books in the series, The Man Who Went Up in Smoke and The Man on the Balcony and I have to say I'm really enjoying them. I'm getting to know the characters now as a little more about them is revealed in each book. The books are getting darker and have something of the bleakness of the Wallander novels but I have to say I can't put the Martin Beck books down once I pick them up. 


Next in the series to read is The Laughing Policeman which I understand was made into a film in 1973 starring Walter Matthau and Bruce Dern. Apparently they moved the location to San Francisco for some reason. Not sure how that would work but I'll keep a look out for it!


I started this post way back in March this year! However I've been very poor at blogging in recent months but I have been reading and knitting a lot and that's my excuse. Well I've sadly reached the end of the books in this series that I can read as the library just doesn't have any more. It's so disappointing but I'll keep a lookout in the charity shops as I did like this series.  If you haven't come across this series and you like crime/police/detective stories they are well worth reading. 


I'm disappointed but never mind I moved onto Michael Dibdin's Zen series prompted by the telly adaptations which I really enjoyed and posted about.  They have definitely filled the gap!