'Nicholas Nickleby' by Charles Dickens

OK, so I cracked. There were just too many TV programmes praising that giant of Victorian literature, Charles Dickens, so I decided it was time to give him another go. I'm not saying I was bullied by a combination of Gyles Brandreth, Miriam Margoyles, Armando Iannucci et al, but...

'Dickens and Christmas' by Lucinda Hawksley

Merry Christmas!  The decs are up, the gifts are wrapped and I have a mug of cocoa, so it must be time for a read!  Normally, I'd be diving into the absolute perfection that is 'A Christmas Carol' around about now, but this year, for a change, I decided to uncover the story of the author's relationship with Christmas by reading 'Dickens and Christmas' by Lucinda Hawksley.

Love Fools (Nearly)

'The Love Delusion' by Nicola Mostyn

Last year, I thoroughly enjoyed Nicola Mostyn's chick-lit-adventure-comedy-fantasy mash up 'The Gods of Love', so you can imagine how excited I was when a follow up was announced.  So, did 'The Love Delusion' leave me smitten all over again?

Frida McKenzie is the most cynical of all divorce lawyers, independent, self-assured and, above all, really great at her job.  So great in fact that she's rapidly rising through the ranks of 'The Love Delusion', a movement determined to rid the world of it's illogical obsession with love.  Frida's even become the lawyer of choice for new converts and been given the chance to meet the movement's founder, the elusive R. A. Stone. Everything looks rosy, until a chance meeting with a strange yet familiar protestor plants a seed of doubt in her mind. Where did the Love Delusion come from, and why can't she remember her life before it?  Who is this strange man and why is there a photo of them together hidden in her home?  Could it be there's something important that she's somehow forgotten?

Lost to Austen?

I think I may have a confession to make and I hope you don't hate me for it.

You may have noticed that 'Sense and Sensibility' by Jane Austen has been on my 'current reads' list for rather a long time now.  To be honest, I can't really remember when I started it, but I'm sure it was several months ago.  Now, I know many, many Austen fans who rave about her work and feel incredibly guilty that I have to admit this (I could do with a Regency bonnet to hide my blushes), but I'm really not getting on well with 'Sense and Sensibility'.  And (please try not to swoon ladies)  I didn't get on with 'Pride and Prejudice' either.

Now, I know I'm supposed to like Austen.  She's light, she's witty, she's romantic, she's historical, but I just haven't been captivated by either of these books (despite the presence of Mr Darcy!).  But I think I know why.  The debate around 'which is better, the book or the film/series' is a fierce, bitter and long term one and I really think that's what has caught me out this time around.  After all, what's not to love about Andrew Davies classic 1995 'Pride and Prejudice'?  Or Ang Lee and Emma Thompson's film of 'Sense and Sensibility'?  An awful lot if you saw them long before you thought about picking up their literary equivalents!

So, here I am, a book fan who has managed to close herself off to two of English literatures most popular classics.  Just because she likes to put her feet up in front of the telly once in a while.

I commented on my 'Pride and Prejudice' conundrum to an Austenite friend of mine when I tried to read it originally.  To my surprise, she sympathised and said that the BBC adaptation was very good.  Bit too good if you ask me!

Now, I'm lucky in that although the list of Austen's work is quite short - only six completed novels - I've only watched adaptations of three of them.  So there is hope yet.  Perhaps if I try 'Persuasion', 'Mansfield Park' or 'Northanger Abbey', I will see what everyone else seems to see, learn to love Austen's work and perhaps be able to return to 'Emma', 'Sense and Sensibility' and 'Pride and Prejudice'.

In the meantime, I'm going to go back to hiding my shame behind 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' by Winifred Watson and avoid watching any adaptations of anything else on my list.  Although looking at the cinema listings, that's going to be harder than you'd think!!