A Legacy- Sybille Bedford .
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It sounds like good recommendation, and I'm wondering if the William Holden character from "Stalag 17" may have been based upon him.Originally posted by Petrushka View PostComment
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Martin Chuzzlewit, by Dickens. I have never read this lesser known Dickens novel.Comment
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The Citadel by A.J. Cronin. In the 1980s (I think) it was serialised by the BBC, starring Ben Cross and Clare Higgins. But I had never read the book before. I checked to see whether there was a legal DVD, but apparently not.Comment
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Richard Attenborough played him (as Roger Bartlett) in the 1963 film.Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
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Just finished - 'phew - a 600 page Spanish novel, "El tiempo entre costuras" - variously translated as "The time between seams [costuras]", or "The seamstress", a best-selling 2009 novel by María Dueñas that has taken Spain by storm - translated into several languages including English, it was turned into an 11-episode serial on Spanish TV that had 5 million viewers.
A Spanish friend recommended it - it's a novel told in the first person by a fictional character Sira Quiroga and is set before and during the Spanish Civil War and Second World War, in Madrid, Spanish Morrocco and (briefly) Lisbon. The main character is a seamstress and wronged woman who finds herself in Tetuán at the start of the Civil War, interacts with real historical characters (Juan Beigbeder, the Spanish governor of Tetuán and his English mistress Rosalinda Fox, who may well have been a spy, Franco's brother in law Ramón Serrano Suñer and English consul and spymaster Alan Hillgarth. Yes, she ends up as a successful spy. A cracking yarn in either language. I read most of it on my recent Hispanic holiday - at 600 pages about right for a good holiday read. A glowing recommendation from Mario Vargas Llosa on the front cover.Comment
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Many thanks for this interesting recommendation RT.Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View PostJust finished - 'phew - a 600 page Spanish novel, "El tiempo entre costuras" - variously translated as "The time between seams [costuras]", or "The seamstress", a best-selling 2009 novel by María Dueñas that has taken Spain by storm - translated into several languages including English, it was turned into an 11-episode serial on Spanish TV that had 5 million viewers.
A Spanish friend recommended it - it's a novel told in the first person by a fictional character Sira Quiroga and is set before and during the Spanish Civil War and Second World War, in Madrid, Spanish Morrocco and (briefly) Lisbon. The main character is a seamstress and wronged woman who finds herself in Tetuán at the start of the Civil War, interacts with real historical characters (Juan Beigbeder, the Spanish governor of Tetuán and his English mistress Rosalinda Fox, who may well have been a spy, Franco's brother in law Ramón Serrano Suñer and English consul and spymaster Alan Hillgarth. Yes, she ends up as a successful spy. A cracking yarn in either language. I read most of it on my recent Hispanic holiday - at 600 pages about right for a good holiday read. A glowing recommendation from Mario Vargas Llosa on the front cover.
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As a fan of Vargas Llosa, this sounds intriguing.Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View PostJust finished - 'phew - a 600 page Spanish novel, "El tiempo entre costuras" - variously translated as "The time between seams [costuras]", or "The seamstress", a best-selling 2009 novel by María Dueñas that has taken Spain by storm - translated into several languages including English, it was turned into an 11-episode serial on Spanish TV that had 5 million viewers.
A Spanish friend recommended it - it's a novel told in the first person by a fictional character Sira Quiroga and is set before and during the Spanish Civil War and Second World War, in Madrid, Spanish Morrocco and (briefly) Lisbon. The main character is a seamstress and wronged woman who finds herself in Tetuán at the start of the Civil War, interacts with real historical characters (Juan Beigbeder, the Spanish governor of Tetuán and his English mistress Rosalinda Fox, who may well have been a spy, Franco's brother in law Ramón Serrano Suñer and English consul and spymaster Alan Hillgarth. Yes, she ends up as a successful spy. A cracking yarn in either language. I read most of it on my recent Hispanic holiday - at 600 pages about right for a good holiday read. A glowing recommendation from Mario Vargas Llosa on the front cover.
Have you ever read ShadowOf The Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon?Comment
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Vargas Llosa's puff reads: "A marvellous novel, with intrigue, love, mystery and tenderness". (I've read a few of his too).Originally posted by richardfinegold View Post
Yes - La sombra del viento - it was the last but one Spanish novel I read. Again a ripping yarn and an excellent read in the original but one that (perhaps predictably) seems to provoke extremes of opinion on Amazon!Have you ever read ShadowOf The Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon?
I try to have a Spanish novel on the go most of the time to keep up to speed. In between I read "Te trataré como a una reina" [I will treat you like a queen] by El Païs journalist Rosa Montero, a sleazy low-life tale that doesn't seem to have been translated....Comment
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Ahead of the 70th anniversary currently just started D-Day by Antony Beevor.
I went to the Normandy beaches in 2004 and had a fascinating trip in places so familiar from the history books. I'd strongly urge anyone interested to go on a guided tour (I was there a week) and you can enjoy the Normandy countryside at the same time (not to mention the Calvados
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"The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard HaitinkComment
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I just finished the sequel to Shadow (the title escapes me). It's ending is rather unfinished , so I expect another in the series to follow.Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View PostComment
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I read that a few years ago, and it made me read the rest of Beavor's work. Speaking of Spain, he wrote an excellent account of their Civil War.Originally posted by Petrushka View PostAhead of the 70th anniversary currently just started D-Day by Antony Beevor.
I went to the Normandy beaches in 2004 and had a fascinating trip in places so familiar from the history books. I'd strongly urge anyone interested to go on a guided tour (I was there a week) and you can enjoy the Normandy countryside at the same time (not to mention the Calvados)
Have you read the McIntyre series of histories that detail the deceptions of the Allies prior to D Day? One of the most fascinating characters was the Catalonian Double Agent that the British nicknamed "Garbo".Comment
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Half-way through Life after life, the latest by the excellent Kate Atkinson. By coincidence she was on the South Bank Show a couple of nights ago talking to Melvyn Bragg, a fascinating discussion (a bit of a contrast to Rob Cowan whose guest she was a few months ago
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For once I'm finding her time-shifting hard to keep up with - it will require a re-read at some point.Comment
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Just finished Le Silence de la Mer by Vercors, about the Occupation in France. A friend lent it to me with a strong recommendation and I was mistakenly under the impression that it was a single novel, not several shorter 'récits'.
The title story was intended as a warning to the French not to respond to the attempts of the Nazi officers to fraternise (or collaborate) with them.
Next up Gregor von Rezzori's The Snows of YesteryearIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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Just re-reading it - after having watched The Longest Day the other day. I haven't read Cornelius Ryan's book (nor is it in Beevor's bibliography) but just about every vignette in the film is based on an actual event - the one exception the Richard Burton/boots on the wrong feet oneOriginally posted by Petrushka View Post
, at least not referenced in Beevor! And whilst Lord Lovat did relieve Major Howard at Pegasus Bridge, Howard had already been relieved once, some hours earlier, by, er, Colonel Pine-Coffin. Max Hastings reviewed the book when it came out, and generously observed that Beevor had accessed many sources he had not used in his own earlier "Overlord".
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