Teaser Tuesday - 26th June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Within this space are silence, stillness and waiting. Discretion is what Aristotle referred to as the space where virtue is found.

from Maggie Ross's Writing the Icon of the Heart - In Silence Beholding some good thoughts on discretion in that chapter - I read it last night and there was a lot of pausing for reflection. I heard Maggie Ross at the Manchester Theological Society last month - was a bit heavy - though the Q&A afterwards were far more helpful! I intended to blog on it but seem to have forgotten...

Mutterings - 24th June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Salon :: Hair
2. Tag :: HTML
3. Hawk :: Buckler (I think 'hawk and buckler' is a phrase from an Ivor Gurney song)
4. Continuous :: function
5. Sparkly :: Effect
6. Foam :: Kay-Metzeler - a company making foam products whose base I used to pass every day on the way to school.
7. Lovely :: Day
8. Jokes :: Humour
9. Shenanigans :: Dishonest
10. Bear :: Brown

Nat West!

The Nat West bank (in the UK ) has been having software problems and with apologies to the Pet Show Boys:

I do hope they don't get a take-down order! Lots of f-words in the above!
(h/t Jackschofield)

Greening the economy

Rowan Williams' message for the Rio+20 conference

If the world is a gift how to hand it on to future generations?

Teaser Tuesday - 19 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

As a matter of fact I do know a man who might fit the bill, but I'm not sure if he's available. I'll find out and give you a call back.

More from Jeffrey Archer's Only Time Will Tell.

Mutterings - 17th June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Deep end :: Off the
2. Complications :: Medical
3. Silver :: Badge
4. Bridge :: Club
5. Delete :: Key
6. Spying :: Covert
7. Ripped :: Silk
8. Tunnel :: Channel
9. Pillow fight :: Children
10. Useful :: Hint

Teaser Tuesday - 12th June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Should the pace prove to be too demanding, one or two of you may fall by the wayside,' he warned, staring down at the front three rows.' St Bede's is not a school for the faint heated. So be sure never to forget the words of the great Cecil Rhodes: If you are lucky enough to have been born an Englishman, you have won the first prize in the lottery of life.

A headmasters pep-talk for the new prep-school intake in Jeffrey Archer's Only Time will tell (by the international best selling author of that name) - I couldn't resist including that extra sentence! The latest BATS (book group) book - it has beenj an interesting transition moving from Emma Donoghue's The Room - told in the voice of a five year old to this through the eyes of a youngster and with also a pared down vocabulary - nothing to frighten the masses! Here's John Crace's digested read on the book. I went to a prep school where I boarded for a term...

The Church of England lies!

Or at least a committee drafting documents in its name does! From today's document about the same-sex marriage consultation:

We have supported various legal changes in recent years to remove unjustified discrimination and create greater legal rights for same sex couples and we welcome that fact that previous legal and material inequities between heterosexual and same-sex partnerships have now been satisfactorily
addressed.

So far and no further hey? But that statement is manifestly untrue - the majority of Bishops in the House of Lords voted against those changes - historical revisionism rules!
[Updated 13 June] The Church of England has now put up a document here giving the contributions made by the bishops in the Lords during the debates on the civil partnerships bill, it says:

The bishops, consistent with their place as independent and non-whipped members neither spoke nor voted as a bloc on these issues when they were before the House.

So some bishops spoke in favour and some opposed - that still means a line 'We have supported various legal changes..' is misleading - none of the bishops who voted 5-1 for the wrecking amendment eventually voted for the passing of the bill.

Mutterings - 10th June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Stitches :: Hospital
2. Reckless :: Behaviour
3. Wealth :: Riches
4. Tenant :: Sitting
5. Recognize :: Features (as in face)
6. Hospital :: Medicine
7. Bangs :: Fireworks
8. Hello :: Goodbye
9. Folder :: Paper
10. Glamour :: Puss

Teaser Tuesday - 5th June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

My favorite bit of Outside is the window. It's different every time. A bird goes right by zoom, I don't know what it was. The shadows are all long again now, mine waves right across our room on the green wall. I watch God's face falling slow slow, even orangier and the clouds are all colors, then after there's streaks and dark coming up so bit-at-a-time I don't see it till it's done.

Last week I wrote that this was a very dark book, maybe here with another extract redressing the balance! From Emma Donoghue's Room I'm cheating here as I wanted to quote this passage and it is far more than 2 sentences - here we have Jack seeing the world outside and a sunset (God's face is the sun) before there was only a skylight and getting used to the Outside, to freedom.

An African Elegy

We are the miracles that God made
To taste the bitter fruit of Time.
We are precious.
And one day our suffering
Will turn into the wonders of the earth.

There are things that burn me now
Which turn golden when I am happy.
Do you see the mystery of our pain?
That we bear the poverty
And are able to sing and dream sweet things.

And that we never curse the air when it is warm
Or the fruit when it tastes so good
Or the lights that bounce gently on the waters?
We bless the things even in our pain.
We bless them in silence.

That is why our music is so sweet.
It makes the air remember.
There are secret miracles at work
That only Time will bring forth.
I too have heard the dead singing.

And they tell me that
This life is good
They tell me to live it gently
With fire, and always with hope.
There is wonder here

And there is surprise
In everything the unseen moves.
The ocean is full of songs.
The sky is not an enemy.
Destiny is our friend.

Ben Okri

A clipped out copy of this poem has been around my work room for a few years, I found an electronic copy here together with other examples of his work.

Mutterings - 3rd June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Model :: Aircraft
2. Clash :: of Cultures
3. Frightening :: Vision
4. Instinct :: Animal
5. Award show :: Crufts
6. Editing :: Care
7. Frumpy :: Baggy
8. Everyone :: All
9. Lifting :: Gear
10. Agencies :: Government

Teaser Tuesday - 29th May

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

After dinner Ma tells me Hansel and Gretel and How the Berlin Wall Fell Down and Rumpelstiltskin. I like when the queen has to guess the little man's name or else he'll take her baby away. "Are stories true?"

Ah, there's the question - what is real and who tells it! A very dark book - Emma Donoghue's Room - triggered by the Fritzl case, tells of a little boy and his mother and the boy's growing up in a strange isolation where the world is only seen through the TV and what his mother feels able to tell him. A hard but absorbing read.

Near Windmill Wood

The All Saints' Summer Walks are well underway! I'm keeping an album of the photos from walks I've been on here.

Last Thursday's walk was over Alderley Edge and ending at the Wizard. This photo was taken from a path over the fields across the road from the Edge.

Mutterings - 27th May

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Nervous :: Wreck
2. Style :: Fashion (various IT usages nearly come to mind - if I could remember them..)
3. Yarn :: Sailor's
4. Bangs :: Hair
5. Horoscope :: Bewildering (from Britten's Peter Grimes)
6. Talkative :: Chatterbox
7. Siren :: Rock (mainly Ulysses)
8. Quilt :: Comfort
9. Smudge :: Bootsy (I see it's actually Bootsie 'n' Snudge - a TV programme of the 60's - though I see there a few companies around called Bootsie 'n' Smudge)
10. Clicking :: Connecting

Teaser Tuesday - 22 May

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Walsingham followed up on this just 11 days later, on 29 March, with another note urging Grindal to respond quickly. He suggested thatm the queen herself was anxious to receive his official nod.

Again from David Ewing Duncan's book The Calendar - Grindal was Archbishop's of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I and here the Church of England carries on the grand tradition of obstructing progress - I was unaware that England nearly moved to the Gregorian Calendar back then.
I've now finished this book and found it alternately fascinating and infuriating. It was sloppily edited, some things occurred twice in the same level of detail (the chronology of Orthodox countries moving to Gregorian is recounted twice), some glaring factual errors (follow the link) things which sound nice but are just wrong (

In 1750..a stodgy earl named George Parker (1697-1764) stood up to deliver to the Royal Society an address... the 56 year old Stanhope was for some reason fired up by the old earl's speech.

Anyone would think that Parker was older than Stanhope. He deals sometimes with the maths, often getting it wrong, but fails to go to any depth so you get glimpses but no real background. There seemed to be a determination to mention Roger Bacon in every chapter. I found much of the historical detail - shorn of the over flowery bits - interesting I'd not put the develpment of the calendar into its historical context before so, for that, it was worth the read.

Mutterings - 20 May

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Vision :: Thing
2. Throne :: Room
3. Streaming :: Media (Cold)
4. Framed :: Unjust
5. Unrealistic :: Expectations
6. Insecure :: Gateway
7. Traffic :: Internet
8. Punch :: Judy
9. Pile :: Battery
10. Movie :: Old

Teaser Tuesday - 15 May

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The most critical moment had come sometimes between 496 and 506 when King Clovis agreed to be baptized by a Catholic bishom at Reims. A shrewd politician, Clovis embraced Rome to gain the support of Gallo-Roman Catholics in his successful war against the Arian Goths in what is now central and northern France.

(sometimes?) Not Church history but the development of the calendar - from David Ewing Duncan's book The Calendar - I was given this book back in 1999 and it has just made its way to the top of the reading pile...

Mutterings - 13th May

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Pet :: Food
2. Show :: Reveal
3. Annoying :: Habit
4. Dare you! :: Why?
5. Simplistic :: Method
6. Thrilled :: Amazed
7. Freeze :: Deep
8. Instrument :: Stand
9. Cold shoulder :: Ignore
10. Adopt :: Child

Herman!

A week ago I received a quantity of fermenting sourdough batter called Herman he's been sitting in our ktchen for a week quietly burbling, being fed accornding to the instructions (see link) and yesterday he was vivisected into quarters and today I cooked one of the quarters. The instructions I had said cook for 45 minutes, I mistakenly turned him out without testing at that point and he had to be hastily scraped off the surface and reassembled back in the tin - in the end he was cooked for 1 hour 45 minutes. It was a slightly adapted recipe as I couldn't find the cooking apples I thought I had, convinced myself I'd used them and found them just as I was removing Herman from the oven - a narrow escape.
There's still 3/4 of Herman left to pass on - so far I've found 2 recipients so unless I find another (anyone?), I'll just have to take care of another one - I gather he makes very nice hot cross buns (or whatever is the post-Easter equivalent!)

Teaser Tuesday - 8th May

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

We pulled out of the driveway with a spray of gravel at Maxwell's feet, and as we took off up the idyllic, twisty Mercer Island road, I couldn't help but notice that the white van had gone. And with it, Eve.

The current BATS (book group) book The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein a book told from the point of view of a dog, rather too much technical car-racing detail for me, and the themes are emotionally difficult which with the emotional manipulation in the book annoyed me!

Harvest moussaka

I was struggling to think of a recipe for tonight that wasn't too similar to something we'd already consumed this weekend and that would go with the remains of a bottle of red (a Naked Wines Malbec) and I remembered this recipe I'd copied out from the winner of a Guardian cookery competition many years ago (back in the early 80's!) I couldn't find the recipe on the internet so here it is.

A veggie recipe but if you don't know you may not be able to tell!

• 4tsp veg oil
• 225g shallots/onions
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 115g mushrooms
• 115g cashews (1/2 milled 1/2 chopped)
• 115g walnuts (1/2 milled 1/2 chopped)
• 115g soft breadcrumbs
• 2 tblsp tomato paste
• 5 eggs
• 4 tsp chervil chopped
• veg stock to moisten
• gr pepper and marmite to flavour
• 2 large aubergines
• wholemeal flour
• oil for aubergine frying
• 115g grated cheddar
• 1/2 pt natural yogurt
• salt to season
  

Method

1. Chop & prick aubergines and set aside
2. Cook shallots & garlic in oil until golden, add mushrooms & cook stirring until juices run
3. Mix nuts & crumbs,stir into veg add tomato paste & chervil. Moisten mixture with stock, add pepper & marmite.
4. Dry aubergines, dust with wh flour and fry.
5. Place alternating layers of nut & aubergine in serving dish, finish with aubergine layer and sprinkle with cheese.
6. Whisk eggs add yogurt and mix well, season with s&p and sprinkle with cheese.
7. Bake in moderate oven c 40mins until top is golden

Mutterings - 6th May

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Owner :: Villa (I've no idea what the connection is here apart from someone might own that property!)
2. Impressive :: Vista
3. Compute :: Does not...
4. Choked :: with emotion
5. Sarcastic :: response
6. Wink :: confidence (as in a surreptitious one!)
7. Sheer :: Lunacy
8. Technical :: Manual
9. Laundry :: Chinese
10. Word game :: Scrabble

Teaser Tuesday - 1 May

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The Bible is Bunyan's sheet anchor, his defence against despair and atheism. He would have been lost if he had abandoned it.

Christopher Hill's wonderfully titled A Turbulent, Seditious, and Factious People and study of John Bunyan's writings and his response to his time.

Mutterings - 29th April

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Background :: Music
2. Performance :: Art
3. Husband :: Preserve
4. Scaffolding :: Contractor
5. Third :: Man
6. Stirring :: Soup
7. Slogan :: Shout
8. Odor :: Eater
9. Accent :: Foreign
10. Suspicion :: Paranoia

Evening light on the Liffey

Evening light on the Liffey, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

Last weekend we spent in Dublin - the first visit over there for us. Two days were spent seeing the sights of Dublin fairly gently. Then on Sunday after a trip round the National Gallery we had a drive down towards Wicklow seeing the coast and the hills.
We ate twice (so the re-experience was welcome) at one of Wallace's Italian winebars close to the Liffey (the Taverna)and one evening at 101 Talbot - which had a good mix of meat and veggie on the menu. More pictures from the trip on flickr!

Mutterings - 15th April

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Message :: Bottle
2. Underground :: Magazine
3. Hurting :: Working
4. Glasses :: Passes
5. Wholesome :: Food
6. Garden :: Plants
7. Plants :: Feet
8. Windows :: Light
9. Beard :: Fur
10. Encryption :: Pass Phrase

Teaser Tuesday - 10 April

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

She scanned the note that came with it. Rainer wondered, following on from their meeting at the Residency, whether Nerys might be free to visit him at home for a drink?

Following on from last week, another teaser from Rosie Thomas' The Kashmir Shawl - you'll just have to guess what 'it' is!

Mutterings - 8th April

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Justice :: Court
2. Catching :: Flies
3. Date :: Easter
4. Horoscope :: Bewlidering (this is a quote from Britten's PeterGrimes)
5. Jerry :: Can! (definitely British news here)
6. 21 :: Party
7. Paper :: Scissors
8. Holistic :: Therapy
9. Ghostly :: Shape
10. Movie :: Old

VAT and Listed buildings

The recent budget is proposing to remove the zero rating of VAT on alterations to listed buildings, this is going to cost some churches a lot of money, Wakefield cathedral is having to stump up another £200000 before their current work can proceed - enter the youtube above and Pamela Greener, the wife of the dean with a song - I posted this on facebook but if you don't know me there - here it is! For UK voters, there's a petition on the govenment website!
I kept expecting a hard-hatted chorus to enter from behind the singer....

Teaser Tuesday - 3rd April

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The tantrum abruptly faded as curiosity took over. As soon as she had the little girl's full attention Mair drew a breath, gathered herself up and executed a standing back-flip.

Our latest book group (BATS) book Rosie Thomas' The Kashmir Shawl - a tale of travel and family history. Here's a review and here's the author writing about a visit to the pashmina workshops in Kashmir.

Mutterings - 1st April

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Whispering :: Bob Harris
2. Braided :: Hair
3. Ruin :: Castle (and une ruine coquille vide (Eluard))
4. Parasite :: Tick
5. Mineral :: Water
6. Engines :: Fearsome (no I see that should be Feersum - Iain Banks)
7. Buddy :: Support
8. Tic :: Twitch
9. Small :: Empty
10. Tackled :: Rugby

Teaser Tuesday - 27th March

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Yet infants hear tonal music almost from the moment of birth, and so have been conditioned to accept it as "natural". Moreover visual arts research demonstrates that children prefer representational images to abstract ones.

From The Bedside Guardian 2011 - an anthology of writing from the Guardian over the year - this is Alex Ross on modern classical music. And on that theme, here's an article also from the Guardian from last weekend on children and 'difficult' music.

Politics and the Family - ii

Last week I saw Mio Fratello è Figlio Unico (My Brother is an Only Child) at Macc College, like the week before's film a study of the effect of politics on childhood - though in this case the children are rather older though the period is identical (the early 1970's) but in this case the background is Italy where things became a lot more unpleasant. In this case most of the political pressure comes from outside the family but the fraternal struggle is involving.

The shadow of Mussolini still had a powerful effect on Italy as the brothers go their separate ways. A very moving film but earthed in what felt to be real family situations

Politics and the Family - i

Earlier this month we saw the last film of Silkscreen's season - Blame it on Fidel, here's the trailer:

A tale of children growing up in a left-wing activist household in 1970's France. It probably helps to be to some extent left-winged and have a sense of humour, otherwise it becomes a joyless exposé of the trauma that the children suffered. Here's the Guardian review - I loved the way the children felt their way into relationship with a variety of child-minders by the sharing of creation myths. We bought the copy of the dvd at the end of the Silkscreen evening so a re-watch is lined up!

Mutterings - 25th March

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Flake :: Cadbury's (and a slow recline into a bath!)
2. Like :: Comment (facebook!)
3. Rash :: Itch
4. Humor :: Joke
5. Splash :: Soda syphon
6. Blind :: Venetian
7. Noisy :: Enthousiasm
8. Ornate :: Roccoco
9. Rain :: in Spain
10. Intensify :: Forceful

Mutterings - 18th March

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Quit :: Leave
2. Solace :: Comfort
3. Suggest :: Clue
4. Meteor :: Fireball
5. Zombies :: Terror
6. Birds :: Chorus
7. Canceled :: Abandoned
8. Compatible :: Connector
9. Alarmed :: Worried
10. Word game :: Conundrum

Teaser Tuesday - 13th March

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Annie took my hand - her hands are always dark and warm - and as she moved there was a smell about her that was hot and a little frightening. We went down Wharf Road and across to the park and I was scared stiff and thought about the park keeper and the Town Council and God.

Another teaser from our book group book for the month - Tove Jansson's The Winter Book an appealing mix of the tender and quirky - as you might guess from her other (more famous) writings - the Moonmin books.

Mutterings - 11th March

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Exist :: Be
2. Breakfast :: Continental
3. Corporation :: Large
4. Signs :: Wonders
5. Thinking :: Connections
6. Income :: Security
7. Style :: Life
8. Job :: Retire
9. Marriage :: Celebrate
10. Supplement :: Vitamin

From the Space Station

This appears to be going the rounds - taken from the International Space Station of the earth at night - but in case you've not seen it. I recommend watching it in full screen!

Teaser Tuesday - 6th March

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

There were double doors with coiled iron springs at the top, which the caretaker had put there because women always forgot to shut the doors after them. I heard the springs contract and they sang softly to themselves as they squeezed me and the stone together between the doors and I put my legs together and took tight hold of the stone and tried to roll it but the space got narrower and narrower and I knew that the caretaker's hand was sliding up the bannisters all the time.

A spooky moment from Tove Jansson's The Winter Book - our BATS (book group) book of the month - I chose it - and one story in (it's a book of short stories) I'm pretty sure I'm going to enjoy it! Tove Jansson wrote the Moonmin books which I still remember from childhood!

Mutterings - 4th March

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Knees :: Ankles
2. Law :: Rule of..
3. Goodbye :: Farewell
4. Regrets :: Looking back
5. Dedicated :: follower of fashion
6. Sushi :: Restaurant
7. Australia :: Day
8. Renovation :: Cleaning
9. Honk :: Horn
10. Beg :: Request

Teaser Tuesday - 28 Feb

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Comfortably seated in deep armchairs, they made war almost as tourists, while we, on foot all the time, had wandered for thousands of kilometres over the roads of the north and east.
Among the Germans in Paris a no less relaxed atmosphere prevailed.

Another teaser fromn Michael Burleigh's The Third Reich - A New History - starting with a comment from a Languedoc peasant on the German war machine.

Mutterings - 26th Feb

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Unsolicited :: mail
2. House :: White
3. 24 hours :: cover
4. Permission :: chmod (a unix command for modifying file permissions)
5. Inbox :: EMail
6. Presidential :: Status
7. Rising :: Sun
8. Hold :: House
9. Hourglass :: Timer
10. More :: Less

Institutionalised violence

A quote from Michael Burleigh's The Third Reich - A New History which I featured in yesterdays teaser. He's talking about the reactions to ReichKristallnacht

Hot violence, being driven by passion, was liable to peter out as moods changed; cold bureaucratic violence was a full time career option.

And when it's 'just' concerned with filling forms it is far easier to get collusion by the majority.

Teaser Tuesday - 21st Feb

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The Nazi retailers association, NS-Hago, could clearly exert enormous pressure on, for example, a Jewish porcelain manufacturer which was dependent upon them for retail outlets. District Economic advisers (Gauwirtschaftsführer) monitored Jewish businesses and established a creeping control over those taking them over.

Another teaser fromn Michael Burleigh's The Third Reich - A New History

Mutterings - 19th Feb

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Crown :: Porgy (we had this word a few weeks back, it's nice to see that my word association is still the same!)
2. Landmark :: Monument
3. Shock :: Horror
4. Affair :: The End of (Graham Greene novel)
5. Appear :: Manifest
6. Contemplate :: Silence
7. Hinge :: Bracket - http://www.hingeandbracket-official.co.uk
8. Function :: Mapping (a bit mathematical here!)
9. Obstinate :: Stubborn
10. Fulfill :: Prophecy

Mutterings - 12th Feb

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Reminder :: Diary
2. Shelves :: Book
3. Interpret :: Language
4. Tissue :: Box
5. Miracle :: Baby
6. Bed :: Sleep
7. Truck :: Load
8. Feelings :: Hurt
9. Polish :: Mazurka
10. Family :: Close

Teaser Tuesday - Feb 7

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The students wore white t-shirts with the words Juifs Contre la Guerre across their chests. They we talking, laughing, leaning on their signs.

from Alexander Maksik's You Deserve Nothing. This is our book group book of the month - and I've just finished it! It was a book I gradually went off as it progressed, the Guardian review highlights some of the shortcomings, sub-Camus - I'd forgotten that the woman in 'Etranger' is also called Marie, by the time we had the tale of the dark days of the French police under Papon and the Algerian Massacre I was feeling emotionally manipulated and then after a bit of digging I found this tale relating to the background of the book (don't follow that link if you want to read the book with an open mind!). If you have followed it - then my summary can't be separated from those events.

The herb garden

The herb garden, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

We had a bit of snow last night in Macclesfield..today pavements are difficult and the footbridge over Hibel Rd is far too exciting even for me!

Mutterings - 5th February

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Conditions :: Weather
2. Transfer :: Airport
3. August :: Birthdays
4. Glasses :: Passes (men seldom make passes...)
5. Crown :: Porgy & Bess (the villain in that opera)
6. Release :: Prison
7. Incriminating :: Evidence
8. Island :: Spell (A John Ireland piano work)
9. Manners :: Miss
10. Sentence :: Death

Mutterings - 29th January

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Every day :: in every way(..I am getting)
2. Rinsed :: Blue
3. Funeral :: Blues
4. Whitening :: Teeth
5. I am :: To Be
6. Cooperate :: Coerce
7. Blazer :: School
8. Valley :: Death
9. Difficult :: Passage
10. Service :: Silver

Teaser Tuesday - 24th January

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Although he was drunk by this time, Bataille managed to work out that the final number of devils and she-devils totalled fourty-four million, four hundred and thirty-five thousand five hundred and fifty six. We checked his calculation, admitting with surprise that he was right, while he banged his fist on the table and shouted, ``You see then, I'm not drunk!'' And then he was so pleased with himself that he slid under the table.

A final taster of Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery - a study of conspiracies and paranoia! (I've very glad my random page wasn't 365 where there's a 16 line sentence full of obscure proper nouns!)

Demidenko

On Saturday we had a trip out to Holmes Chapel to hear Nickolai Demidenko performing at the Music Society there. We turned up on spec - our local music society often suffers from poor numbers - things were rather different on Saturday - we guessed that there isn't the musical competition that there is within Macclesfield - and the closer link to Manchester. We were put on a waiting list until they checked that full season ticket holders didn't seem to have turned up. So we were lucky!
It was an all Schubert recital the Impromptus D899, the 3 Klavierstücke D946 and the C minor sonata D958. Concentrated interior pieces (maybe that goes without saying with Schubert). I used to attempt the Klavierstücke and they're very strange works with stabbing chords and rhythms, there's a set of podcasts on the Guardian Website from Paul Lewis which are worth hearing. Both the middle one of the Klavierstücke and the last Impromptu have excursions into the wild key of Ab minor, Demidenko played these works with a intimacy and control. Then the C minor sonata which I remember for the seemingly endless loop of the finale - Beethoven looms large here (throughout the sonata) but it's taken in Schubert's own direction and the finale almost manic obsessive rhythms were powerfully communicated.
Demidenko played the same concert at the Wigmore Hall last night - the Independent review is here - I don't find exuberance in that final movement - and we got an extra (3rd!) encore of a Glinka Farewell - all the encores having a Russian connection.(A review from the Guardian has now appeared)

Mutterings - 22nd January

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Rivals :: The (a play by Sheridan, i've never seen it though!)
2. Automatically :: Entrance
3. Bathroom :: Wash
4. Jerk :: Tug
5. Preference :: Sexual
6. Parenting :: Care
7. Helmet :: Bronze-age
8. Wave :: Greet
9. Judo :: Mat
10. Flat tire :: Problem!

(June?! where was I yesterday morning??!!)

Still contemporary!

John Cage's Living Room Music performed by the Conservatorium Van Amsterdam X'q Percussion Quartet. I don't think I've heard this before and it made for an absorbing lunchtime listen - though I'd put the crockery away...

Mutterings - 15th January

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Red tape :: Beaureaucracy
2. Crush :: Bar
3. Magical :: Scene
4. Sticky :: Tape
5. Tile :: Roof
6. Doubt :: Faith
7. Inconsistent :: Me!
8. Kiss :: Longing
9. Inspiration :: Moment
10. Thanks :: for the memory

Teaser Tuesday - 10 January

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I am sorry to be so indelicate, especially as Diana is, one might say, a charming woman. In my view, in this state, she is suffering the effects of trausmas inflicted upon her during her adolescence, and tries to escape those memories by entering periodically into her second state.

I'm sure that teaser is very annoying as a chunk with no context! Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery, conspiracy theories...and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Guardian review says:

Eco has said, a little snottily, that he wants to appeal even to those who have the bad taste "to take Don Brown seriously".

and A S Byatt in the ft review (you need to register to view..) comments:

This is a scorpion of a novel. It waves its pincers with menace and is about things that could really hurt. But I am always surprised by dead scorpions, which are papery shells with no blood or soft tissue. This novel is a bit like that.

I shall see, I've only just started!

The seed of change

Cold pavement indeed
the night you died,
murdered;
but the airborne drop of blood
from your wound
was a seed
your mother sewed
into hard ground –
your life's length doubled,
unlived, stilled,
till one flower, thorned,
bloomed
in her hand,
love's just blade.

Stephen Lawrence by Carol Ann Duffy from the Guardian

Mutterings - 8th January

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Compute :: Does not!
2. Irristable :: object
3. Unacceptable :: Condition
4. Joy :: Unconfined (I see it's a Lord Byron phrase)
5. Noisy :: Neighbour
6. Paid in full :: Debt
7. Desire :: Wish
8. One word :: Answer
9. Huge :: Problem
10. Motorcycle :: Diaries (a film)

Another Year

The Silk Screen's film on Wednesday was Mike Leigh's another year - here's the trailer:

I thought it was a very gentle film, viewing relationships between the central couple and their friends through the seasons - lots of horticulture and horticultural metaphors! There was maybe not so much a sense of charicature as in some of Leigh's films affectionate without guying too much (cf Happy Go Lucky). Here's Peter Bradshaw's review from the Guardian. (The review says that the funeral takes place in a Lancashire town - I thought it was meant to be Hull, was I confused or not concentrating?) Lots of wine drinking - recommended!

Teaser Tuesday - 3rd January

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Look at this shit they're giving us to eat. Half-mouldy cheese and bread like a stone. Reminds me of the famine back in '27 when I was a child.

A conscript grumbling about army food in a last (I hope! 600+ pages and nearing the end!) teaser from C J Sansom's Heartstone.

Drops of water

Drops of water, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

I'm meaning to take a few more pictures this year for the blog and combine it with a bit of walking - today however the weather was a little too exciting and a garden picture in today's wild weather will have to do! Large drops and a reflection of the trees in the table.

Celebrating youth

..and not treating them as a problem. Rowan Williams' New year message.

Mutterings - 1st January

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Resolution :: New Year
2. Adorable :: Kitten
3. Fractions :: Arithmetic
4. Intensify :: Feeling
5. Commute :: Train
6. Job :: Pay
7. Advance :: Military
8. Audit :: Accountant
9. Highlight :: Hair
10. Disallow :: Goal

Teaser Tuesday - 27th December

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I looked to where two of the fat grey birds sat on a branch. 'A far different scene from the stinks of London,' Dyrick observed.

More from our current book-group read - C J Sansom's Heartstone. Getting nearer the nub...

Mutterings - 25th December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Elves :: Goblins
2. Holiday :: Rest
3. Candles :: Advent
4. Family :: Celebration
5. Insight :: Depth
6. Sleigh :: Ride
7. Party :: Popper
8. Weather :: Clear
9. Presents :: Wrappings
10. Misfit :: Outsider

Make our garden grow

Last Sunday, Jessica Duchen posted a complete performance of Leonard Bernstein's Candide obn her weblog. Here's the finale (but I recommend a watch of more!): May your garden grow this Christmas!

Teaser Tuesday - 20th Dec

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The river was still crowded with supply boats heading east. I saw one barge laden with arquebuses, five-foot iron barrels glinting in the sun.

From our current book-group read - C J Sansom's Heartstone. A massive read I think he has become too popular and therefore isn't as sub-edited as much as he should be - I'm just over 100 pages in and spotted a few bits of (in my view) padding and pieces just to prove that the historical research has been done - it's a detective story set in the last years of Henry VIII.

Nantes

I listened to the Norman Lebrecht documentary on Barbara (Monique Cerf)last night - if you didn't, I'd recommend a listen while it is still available on iPlayer. Here, if like me you were frustrated by some of the voiceovers, is Barbara singing Nantes:

Understanding the words are vital, so understandably there were translations overlaying the songs especially here, where you are uncertain of the person being addressed until the last emotional bars - but they needed more space (in my view). She was separated from her father - having been abused by him in her early years, here the pain is all too plain. She's hardly known in the UK but there's lots on youtube and well worth the listen!

Mutterings - 18 December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Sleepy :: Winter (Dopey)
2. Find :: Search
3. Scrutinize :: Ballot
4. Attempt :: Try
5. Playing :: Duet
6. Stupendous :: Huge
7. Charity :: Shop
8. Frozen :: Ice
9. Turn around :: 3 point turn
10. Urge :: Persuade

Teaser Tuesday - 13th Decemeber

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Since one in three Nazi voters were defectors from the conservative camp, it is important to comprehend it. The German National People's Party or DNVP was an unstable coalition of three pre-war parties, with an admixture from the völkisch fringe that sough to make it monomaniacally antisemitic.

From Michael Burleigh's The Third Reich - A New History - a comment from the Daily Telegraph review on the back says:

Burleigh has recreated the mental world in which it became unthinkable not to do the unthinkable, and the depraved became conventional.

So I'm reading with interest - though the first 100 pages (there are 800! of them), on the early Weimar Republic, is pretty heavy going!

Mutterings - 11th December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Dedication :: Song (usually at the head of the score - also see below)
2. Dream destination :: Holiday
3. Games :: Console
4. Hard as :: Nails
5. Convict :: Jury
6. Submit :: Humiliation
7. Alcohol :: Wine
8. Clippers :: Nail
9. Hormonal :: Emotional
10. Diet :: Restraint

Trying to contact...

I'm trying to trace Michael Steward (ex of Storrington) who we believe to be in Thailand. Posting this here in case anyone who does know him googles him - or in case he does some self-googling. Contact details for him - either electronic or a postal address - would be much appreciated! - use my contact details at the side of the blog rather than commenting on this post ( I've disabled comments for this).

Teaser Tuesday - 6 December

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

His face was long and thin like some snouty animal's. He wore an old tweed jacket and grey flannel trousers and a flat cloth cap, with a scrap of dirty white cloth wrapped round his neck.

Amsterdam - Ian McEwan - I've not read this before - it dates from 1998 - but it is now even more contemporary dealing with the ethics of media intrusion.

Mutterings - 4 December

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Flannel :: Verbiage
2. Chairs :: Musical
3. Sporadic :: Violence
4. Difficult :: Crack - a section of the North Face of the Eiger - I was thinking the name came from a climb in North Wales but it's a little more serious!
5. Amusing :: Humourous
6. Collapse :: of stout party
7. Hurtful:: Words
8. Thump :: Hit
9. Frugal :: Food (an early Delia Smith recipe book
10. Collectibles :: Ornaments

Advent Reflections

DSCF8721, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

For the second year, our church has produced a book of relections for Advent. Church members were given a Bible passage and asked to reflect and write their thoughts on it. You can read the complete booklet here.
I had the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matthew 13:24:43) and mine took the form of a meditation:

Weeds cover the churchyard
Moss and lichen blur the tidy sharp lines of old gravestones
Untidiness, a Hindrance? Protection? Comfort?
Green softening the old outlines.

Guy ropes snaking across the paving stones - a barrier or a support?
Bright tension and opportunity, challenging our moral tidiness
The tents of the ungodly are where? freedom? church? money?
Those with little, seeing riches on every side.

First the blade and then the ear,
Then the full corn shall appear;
And the fruitful ears to store -
But in the fire the tares to cast;

Thank God we are not the final judges
help us to live with untidyness,
but always growing into that fruitfulness.

Mutterings 27th November

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Program :: Computer
2. Business :: Card
3. Nerve :: Some
4. Pipes :: Water
5. Man :: Woman
6. System :: Model
7. Roses :: Picardy
8. Gong :: Cymbal
9. Heartfelt :: Emotion
10. Strolling :: Promenade

La Palma

DSCF8594, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

As you may have gathered ,we've spent a week in the Canaries - on La Palma - with InnTravel, this time self catering and one base rather than walking between hotels.We did some walking but mostly sightseeing - this picture is in the Caldera de Taburiente in the crater of one of the many volcanoes on the island. The set of pictures I took over the week is on flickr

Mutterings - 20th November

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Crushed :: Flat
2. Thanks :: for the memory
3. Steam :: Engine
4. Bulletin :: Parish
5. Budget :: Holiday
6. Value :: for Money
7. Aquarium :: Sea
8. Logo :: Attention
9. Information :: Age
10. Lend :: Library

Teaser Tuesday - 15 November

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

It was late and I thought he wasn't there. Then I saw a man come out and walk away.

From our book group book of the month - The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.

View from the top

to the left, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

This morning we drove (well I did the driving!) over the top of La Palma and stopped at the top to take a few photos, this is from the Mirador de los Andenes at around 2000m the dome of the William herschel Observatory (well one of the domes) is just visible.

Mutterings - 13 November

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Help :: Panic
2. Close :: Glenn
3. Start over :: Begin
4. Dirt :: Track
5. Kilometer :: Millimeter
6. Speedy :: Gonzales
7. Shop :: Betray
8. Trumpet :: Major - a Thomas Hardy novel though I've never read it!
9. Dog :: Affection
10. Canoe :: Capsize

The binary moment

11-11-11-11-11-11, a photo by rajmarshall on Flickr.

As suggested here - this is a photo I took today 11-11-11 at 11:11:11, as you can see I was airborne!

Teaser Tuesday - 8th November

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

The garden featured groups of flowing, asymmetrical flower-beds, winding walks and an axial view leading to a Temple of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, all planted 'with a poet's feeling and a painter's eye'. Upon his return from France that autumn, the Earl was said to have been 'disgusted' by the garden's faded state, comparing it unfavourably with the year-round elegance of formal gardens (as live an issue today as it was then, with proponents still on both sides).

Probably a last teaser from Katherine Swift's The Morville Hours, a gentle placid book but still with lots of interest even for a non-gardener!

Mutterings 6th November

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Distress :: Anguish
2. White lie :: Evasion
3. Costume :: Ball
4. Stampede :: Wild Animal
5. Unappealing :: Distasteful
6. Idiot :: Fool
7. Correction :: Facility
8. Resignation :: Abandonment
9. Insipid :: Taste
10. Celebration :: Birthday

Teaser Tuesday - 1st November

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

What must it be like to sleep on the wing, so trusting in the cushion of air to hold you up; so perfectly in your element that you are everywhere at home, with no fear of getting lost, no dread of arrival or pang of departure? Not like Leland, compulsively, obsessvely, restlessly searching, but sublimely free, sipping from the rain clouds, dining on the plankton of the skies.

Another teaser from Katherine Swift's The Morville Hours - here she's talking about the swift - an interesting coincidence - and Leland was an early book colllector (and collector of ex-monasteries under Henry VIII). I'm afraid this is a little late for Tuesday....

Mutterings - 30th October

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Class :: War
2. Shopping :: Trolley
3. Bitchy :: Rresponse
4. Consulting :: Fee
5. Texts :: Phone
6. Sigh :: Despair
7. Office :: Software
8. Develop :: Code
9. Boardwalk :: Pier
10. Prime :: Time

Teaser Tuesday - 25th October

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

With Mary's coaching and the exercises she practised every day at home, Terri slowly felt her throat opening, lengthening and widening and the voice starting to form lower and lower in her body. It grew stronger and clearer, rounder and more beautiful.

As last week, a teaser from Jessica Duchen's Songs of Triumphant Love this is turning into a good read - I had mixed feelings at the start where it felt as if musical details were being thrown at you sometimes for effect and the same with the sexual encounters but it has found an interesting pace binding together musical careers, the breakup of Yugoslavia and British troops in Afghanistan.

Mutterings - 23 October

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Inhibitions :: Conquor
2. Sprint :: Final
3. You :: Me
4. Shop :: (til you) Drop
5. Priority :: First
6. Testify :: Witness
7. Guys :: Dolls
8. Phone call :: Ring
9. Removed :: Absent
10. Produce :: Children

Georges Brassens : auprès de mon arbre

Georges Brassens was born 90 years ago today..

Teaser Tuesday - 18th October

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

`D'ye know what it means', he'd asked.

'No' She was flat out underneath him at the time 'It means: "tell me, fair ladies, what is love? What is this burning, yearning, seething desire?"

Jessica Duchen's Songs of Triumphant Love - I've read most (all?) of her previous books - she's a music writer - written a biography of Fauré - all of her novels are around the theme of music - and I've enjoyed them so am looking forward to this. The quote is the main character's - an opera singer's introduction to love and the Italian language (as well as singing it!). Yes there does appear to be rather a lot of sex in this work - maybe inevitable from the title - I'm looking forward to the development of other themes! Here are the reviews on her website - the amazon ones are also pretty uniformly positive.

Sacconi Quartet in Bollington

Its over a week ago now but here's a quick reaction to seeing the Sacconi Quartet perform in Bollington. Due to the job situation I've not been to the Bollington Chamber Concert series for some time - when we arrived we found that the proscenium arch has been removed and the performance area is (apparently) much closer to the audience - I gathered that this was the first of these concerts since the change - I welcomed the lack of distancing and I think audibility was better. This was apparently the quartet's 4th visit to Bollington - I'd not seen them before - so obviously they were enjoyed on their previous trips.They performed the first of the Haydn Op 77 quartets and then the Bartók Quartet No 3 - I know this well (bette rthan the Haydn) and have loved - if you can love it(!) - for many years. There appeared to be a certain nervousness and a statement that it was new to their repertoire - comfirmed later that this was the first public performance for them - even the page turns looked hairy - I've never seen it performed and the live performance showed how difficult it is - bits where I thought where all 4 instruments are playing turned out to be just 2 of them. Only just over 15 minutes but what an intense work it is. After the interval came the Schubert Death and the Maiden - far longer but it didn't seem so, the rapt silence of the audience at the end of the slow movement (the variations) showed how much the audience were involved by the performance.

They had cds available at the interval but after persuading a friend to get their Ravel/Lalo/Turina disc I then discovered that there weren't any more of that one - still I see that the Sacconi's repertoire is on emusic - I expect to be downloading...