A FAVOURITE AUTHOR - PHILIPPA GREGORY

 

I'm a lover of books.

 

I like nothing better than to settle back and lose myself in a good book

 

but these days that rarely means sitting down in the daytime for a read.

 

These days  most of my reading is done

before the light goes out,

in bed,

 at night.

 

Sometimes that means I have a very late night if the book is good

and even when I catch myself nodding off I shake myself awake and think " just one more chapter "

 

( No wonder I like books that have short chapters !!)

 

It can also mean that a bit of re-reading takes place the next night !!

 

In the last year or so I have slowly been introduced to the historical fiction of Philippa Gregory and I have become quite a fan.

The first one I read was The Constant Princess and I loved it.

 

I know they are works of fiction but the historical background is wonderful and it has taught me a lot about that period of history when Henry VIII ruled England.

 

Not long after reading it we visited Ludlow Castle

 

 

 

 

 

 and while visiting the nearby church looked down where Tony was standing to find it was on top of where Prince Arthur's heart is buried!

 

 

 

  Since then I have read The Other Boleyn Girl ( and seen the film !!)

 

Next I started on the series about the Wars of the Roses. ( or the Cousins' Wars as she calls them ).

 

I've read

 

 The White Queen

and 

 

The Lady of the Rivers

 

and I'm just about to begin

 

The Red Queen.

 

Not only have these books given me hours of reading pleasure but they have helped me sort out a turbulent, confusing time in English history.

 

 

PS.

Today is
Australia Day

I've written about it before here

so I'll just sign off by saying

Happy Australia Day

If you're an Aussie anywhere in the world

I hope you're celebrating by having
a BBQ,

a picnic on the beach 

or roast lamb

 

with friends and family

 

followed by a lamington or two.

 

 

TWO GOOD READS

 

 

Woody Allen's  movie "Midnight in Paris" is not Academy Award material.

In fact I found the lead actor's whiney voice very annoying

but the scenes of my beloved Paris made the film a winner for me.

 

 

 

 Dabbling in the world of Hemmingway and Fitzgerald and those fascinating times in Paris when artists and writers gathered there, sparked an interest in Hemmingway in particular.

 

 

So when I came upon this book

 

 

 

I was eager to read it.

The writer, Paula McLain, has done her research, using personal diaries of Hadley, the wife in question, letters between Hadley and Hemmingway and also Hemmingway's own memoir "A Moveable Feast" to inform her characters.

In the final pages of Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast, about his early years in Paris. , he writes of Hadley, “I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.”

 

I highly recommend it.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

"The Sandcastle Girls" is my most recent read.

 

It was written by Chris Bohjalian -- the grandson of  survivors of the Armenian genocide ( or ethnic cleansing ) by the Turks in 1916.

This is a story of ethnic destruction and endurance that seems to have slipped below my radar.

 

Now that I have read about it I have picked up snippets in current affairs programs but with a million and a half people killed it seems to me to have had little coverage.

 

Of course this may be because it has been denied by the Turks and therefore never managed to have been afforded the recognition it deserved.

 

I highly recommend it.

 

Cheers.