What other author are you reading at the moment?

[Francis]

I recently overheard some younger people excitingly discussing 'Pride and Prejudice' and then realised they were
talking about 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'!

[Courtenay]

Oh, I quite enjoyed Death Comes to Pemberley and thought P.D. James did a fine job with it purely as a detective story — it's just that for me, they weren't "really" the same characters that Jane Austen created.

I recently overheard some younger people excitingly discussing 'Pride and Prejudice' and then realised they were
talking about 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies'!

Well, who knows, they may eventually go on to read the original. Or at least to realise that Douglas Booth (whoever he is) is not a patch on Colin Firth.

[Lucky Star]

Just started a very long overdue re-read of an old and well beloved book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. The cosy company of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Toad is just the thing for this nasty stormy night.

[Darrell71]

Has anyone here read any books written by James Rollins? I've read two, The Devil Colony and Black Order. The Devil Colony was great, but didn't seem that impressive compared to Black Order, which is absolutely phenomenal. I'll go as far as to say it might be one of my faves! It's part fiction, part non-fiction. She people might call it sic-fi, but that just doesn't cut it for me. The story, characters, and overall... just the entire book. Black Order is a phenomenon I can't really explain. I definitely recommend it to everyone, unless you hate quantum physics and aren't at all interested in History involving the Nazis. I didn't know anything about quantum physics, and I doubt the aim of the book is to educate people about it, but it's just an amazing book that definitely deserves to be read.

[Paul Austin]

one of the changes to "Biggles" books in the 1980s was changing yellow devils (describing Japanese soldiers) to filthy devils - still an insult but not a racially charged one. Another line cut was a pronouncement by Biggles (upholder of all things Right) that the half-caste was the worst of all breeds. In the generation before the eighties, another editor had kept in Biggles' racist attitudes but changed a line which described him as getting through a bottle of whisky a day as it was too shocking for young readers. That helps me see that if every generation imposes changes based on their current concerns, a text has no core identity, and becomes meaningless.

[Daisy]

Interesting point. I read most of the Biggles books many years ago and I think I read into such descriptions more that it was the character's opinion of the subject - 'yellow devils' for example, rather than the author's opinion.... if you see what I mean! Whether such phrases should be changed, I'm not sure, and if it doesn't change the meaning of the story perhaps it doesn't matter. Words put into a character's mouth do not reflect the view of the author, or do some people think it does?
Sorry, this is straying from the thread title.

[Rob Houghton]

In the case of Enid Blyton, I think most critics believe she wasn't 'clever' enough to give her characters different opinions to those she beloeved in herself. I've always believed that a characters opinions don't necessarily reflect the opinions of the author, but it appears that in the case of Biggles and most of Blyton's characters, people believe the opinions are also those of the authors!

[Machupicchu14]

I am reading Thomas Hardy at the moment, the language is a bit tricky but I am enjoying myself all the same. Recently I read a book by Leo Tolstoy O. M.G. It was just so profound and good. I wonder why Russian writers are so good
One of my favourite hobbies is reading!! In fact, is the best thing one can do

[Francis]

Maybe you ought to try and read 'War and Peace'!

I am reading 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene - full of dry humour and very subversive to normal conventions. I can recommend it to everyone.

[Paul Austin]

Isn't Graham Greene the bloke who was sued by Shirley Temple's adults?

[pete9012S]

I am reading 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene - full of dry humour and very subversive to normal conventions. I can recommend it to everyone.

Agatha Christie's favourite writers were Elizabeth Bowen and Graham Greene. Her favourite colour was green too!

[Courtenay]

Agatha Christie's favourite writers were Elizabeth Bowen and Graham Greene. Her favourite colour was green too!

So is mine! But I haven't read Travels with My Aunt. Maybe I should — it sounds good.

I'm still stuck on the Isles of Scilly with Nigel Farrell's An Island Parish — mainly because I haven't made as much time to read lately as I would have liked (I tend to save reading for late at night and then find I'm too tired) — but it's a most enjoyable sojourn!

[Rob Houghton]

Isn't Graham Greene the bloke who was sued by Shirley Temple's adults?

That was his review of the Shirley Temple film 'Wee Willie Winkie' - based - very loosely! - on the Kipling novel. Graham Greene's review can be found on line, and it's quite unsettling - as he describes audiences delighting in Shirley Temples figure and coquettish behaviour etc. No doubt these days Greene would have been tried for being a paedophile - he certainly writes in a very distasteful and sexual way about her. No wonder her parents sued him! Mind you, I always find Greene's writing a bit distasteful personally! It also ended with the magazine he was writing for being closed down!

[Moonraker]

I am reading 'Travels with my Aunt' by Graham Greene - full of dry humour and very subversive to normal conventions. I can recommend it to everyone.

Agatha Christie's favourite writers were Elizabeth Bowen and Graham Greene. Her favourite colour was green too!

And her holiday home in Devon was called Greenway!

I'm reading Sad Cypress, by Dame Agatha now, and listening to a three-part adaptation of her novel, Ordeal by Innocence at bedtime (via BBC iPlayer) - as we have our grandson sleeping on the floor (on a mattress!) this weekend, and I'm not allowed the light on.

[Kate Mary]

I'm reading 'The Girls of Chequertrees' by Marion St John Webb. An intriguing and slightly creepy story. Four girls who are unknown to each other are invited by the mysterious Miss Crabingway to act as caretakers in her house whilst she is away in Scotland for six months but the girls are forbidden to have contact with their families (other than by a monthly postcard), enter a locked room in the house or even peep through the keyhole. If they keep these conditions they will receive £50 each at the end of six months.

The book was originally published in 1918 and as the author died in 1930 it is now in the public domain and you can download it for free from Project Gutenberg. It's well worth reading if you fancy it. Also available by St John Webb is the brilliant 'Knock Three Times', which starts as a sort of fairy tale but turns into a chilling little story. I'm hoping Project Gutenberg get round to publishing St John Webb's 'The House with the Twisting Passage', I've never read that before and second hand copies are scarce and tend to be pricey.

Has anyone else read 'The Girls of Chequertrees'?