Mar. 21st, 2006

ramtops: (books)
Beyond Black by Hilary MantelThis is the first of Hilary Mantel's books that I've read, and I just *loved* it. The use of language is superb, and the way that Alison's memories of her appalling childhood build up over time is beautifully dealt with.

I wish that Colette had been a more rounded character - I found her very unidimensional (is that a word?), and her actions at the end were quite unbelievable.

I understand that many people think that this is one of Mantel's less good books; in that case, I'm very much looking forward to reading some of her others.

weekend

Mar. 21st, 2006 04:01 pm
ramtops: (Default)
better [posted] late than never.

on Friday we set off not quite as bright and early as I'd have liked, but at 11 a.m., which is not bad for us, really, especially as Clients kept phoning. One of them reminded [livejournal.com profile] perlmonger quite forcefully of a deadline which had crept up on him for this Thursday ...

anyway, off we trundled to Norwich - a journey which we estimated would take us 4.5 hours. No - 5.5 hours. Passing [livejournal.com profile] captainblue territory en route, we arrived just in time to check into the hotel* then go straight out for an early supper with [livejournal.com profile] kalunina, her other half Stuart, and his children Chris and Ellie, at Captain Americas, a burger bar in central Norwich.

Saturday saw us shopping in Norwich - I bought a Hat (it deserves the capitalisation), Pete got a belt with the shipping forecast areas on it, and we bought [livejournal.com profile] kalunina a set of digital scales and some gingerbread cutters - you can tell that she's spending time with children :) We also picked up the Wallace and Gromit DVDs as a present for the children. Supper was a takeaway from somewhere called Planet Wok, which was very good.

we had to leave fairly promptly on Sunday morning, due to the aforementioned deadline, but it was a very nice weekend, and good to meet Stuart, Chris and Ellie.

*the hotel? Just don't - *don't* - ever stay at the "Quality" Hotel in Bowthorpe, Norwich. It's utterly vile. And as they were foolish enough to send me an e-mailed questionnaire this morning, I've told them so. And they wanted *six pounds* for 30 minutes of wireless internet access - FFS ...

Profile

ramtops: (Default)
ramtops

March 2016

S M T W T F S
  1 2345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
2728293031  

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags