Thrown – Sara Cox

Strong female fiction is hard to write and then to deliver to a world where when you are well known is going to get picked apart and analysed. Do you know what? Sara Cox has not just made a good job of it – she has made an excellent job. I felt I was reading a story from author with years of experience behind her, not a debut novelist.

Becky works in the community centre, she is determined to get back to being the heart of the community that she remembers when she was smaller and her mum worked there. It is the place she seeks solace, as a single mum with a son on the brink of adulthood, she does not need any distractions. Well not ex partners that is for sure.

Shelia’s son has flown the nest, she is lost and wants to retire to a life in Spain, her husband has other ideas and seems to be withdrawing inside himself.

Jameela seems an unlikely friendship for Shelia, but a chance encounter brings them together. Jameela sees this a chance to escape from what she wants most in the world, but seems to be alluding her.

Louise thinks her life is just boring, plodding through she wants to find the person she once was before, marriage, children and domesticity came along.

All of these women are thrown (see what I did there!) together when they come together at the new pottery class at the community centre. As they forget their troubles, they make new friends, hear new life stories and learn a skill to take them away from their current thoughts. If there was ever a advert for crafting in whatever form to take you away from it all this is it.

Just like life, the pottery doesn’t always turn out like people want it to, but learning to love the cracks in life, the flaws in others and the decorations that make us all up means that we can embrace anything and everything.

If you are a fan of women’s fiction with strong characters and with some difficult topics covered in such a delicate and thoughtful way then this book is for you. I would like to go back to these characters if Sara Cox would oblige, but if not then if the next book is going to be as strong as this, it will be a runaway bestseller.

Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Thrown is out now.

Sara Cox can be heard on BBC Radio 2 from 1700. Her book review show Between the Covers is also available on iPlayer.

The Outcast – Sadie Jones

I have been digging around some of my past reviews from before I started this blog and I have been resurrecting them for one reason or another. The main reason for mentioning this book again is because in the last couple of weeks a television adaption of the book has been on the BBC. 

Interestingly it was strictly controlled script wise by the author itself which is probably why I found it compelling but for me it all started with the book…..

It is difficult to know where to start when it comes to describing this book.

The story is set over a roughly ten year period and involves Lewis Aldridge who in the prologue is seen coming home after a spell in prison, we don’t know why he has been there or what circumstances drove him to commit a crime but this just merely sets the scene for the next three parts of the book, as we discover why Lewis has been incarcerated and trapped not just in prison but in his short life.

Lewis background is filled in and we gradually come to know and meet all the characters. Gilbert Lewis’ oppressive father who seems to think that by not talking about events means you will not have to deal with them. Elizabeth, the mother of Lewis, who hides in alcohol and who adores him and spoils him up until the day she tragically loses her life. Lewis grief sets off changes, event after event which affects everyone. Alice, the stepmother who is not stereotypical stepmother; evil, but weak in many ways, and I felt less empathy for this character, who made me want to scream, there is so much she could have done to help Lewis and stop things spiralling but she hid in her room, in alcohol and behind her new husband.

The Carmichaels are the major neighbouring family who the Aldridge’s socialise within their stuffy manner of class and system in the 1950s. Their youngest daughter Kit, is the other trapped character within this book, who is trying to escape the fact that she has fallen in love with the local bad boy `Lewis’ but also her violent father, Dicky who seems to have control over everyone, either by force and brutality or what and whom he knows. Justice will prevail in the end for the reader, and a relief it was.

Lewis is a rather lost soul, after his mother has died and his actions are always referred back to the tragic event. He is trapped within the constraints of his mind, never discussing what has happened and uses self harm to release the pain. Trapped in prison, trapped amongst his father’s regime and the neighbours as they expect a certain sort of behaviour, trapped by a local girl for fun to name but a few.

This book beautifully deals with some fairly brutal issues and places them into a society which is somewhat different to nowadays. The descriptions of the violence are somewhat shocking but this is only to emphasise the problems that these people have to deal. I really felt quite claustrophobic while reading the whole book and felt just as trapped as Lewis and Kit did.

There is not an Epilogue to this story, you do not know what happens after these major events, you just hope that justice prevails and those who live to be loved remain so and can find peace in their own minds.

Do not let any of this put you off the book it is a fantastic story which keeps you on the edge of your seat from page one right until the end. A great debut novel.

Death Comes to Pemberley – P.D. James

One always wonders what happens after you read the final page of a story. Nothing beats your own imagination I am sure but of course other authors imaginations get the chance to grace new books.

In this one, we are back at Pemberley, Elizabeth Bennet got her man and lives a peaceful existence with her two children in the vast estate. Her favourite sister Jane is not far away and she has the company of Georgiana Darcy, her sister-in-law.

Pemberley holds a ball every year and it seems that the ball of 1803 is going to be very different. The night before a coach arrives at Pemberley, and disgorge the hysterical Lydia Wickham Nee Bennet. She has left her husband, George Wickham and his friend Capt Denney in the woods after an argument.

Shots were heard.

Darcy sends out a search party .

They find a body.

The murder and the mystery needs to be solved.

I came to this book knowing what happened as I had seen the television adaptation which was broadcast Christmas just gone. However I wanted to experience the book as it was meant to be and something about it does not quite hit the mark. Clearly P.D.James is not Austen and I actually approached the book knowing that I was not going to get an Austenesque novel. I did get a book which used characters that were well-known and a familiar setting and gave it legs to move onto a different story with a plot that perhaps James was used to – murder mystery.

It works on that level for me. I know it did not work for a lot of people. I am not a die-hard fan of Austen, I have not read Pride and Prejudice, nor have I read any of P.D. James work. My only knowledge was of the story of Pride and Prejudice and the adaptation of the book.

I enjoyed the book, it was slow in parts and it did not grip me, (probably because I knew what happened) but it is a worthy novel and if you like to read anything that is an offshoot of Pride and Prejudice then give the book a go. As long as you know what you are getting you will be fine.

It has taken me an age to review this book, probably because it took me an age to read (for me anyway). I found it scholarly and that will have slowed my reading down but I enjoyed it. I know it is a book I should have reviewed straight away as I think I would have captured more of the feeling of the book.

I will treasure my copy though as it is signed by the author and dedicated to me. (If anyone can translate for me the word after With Every ? I would be most grateful)

 

 

Jottings #14 Saturday Stuff

You know the feeling, lots of things going on with your life, you are busy doing it all and living it as we all should be, but sometimes you need to stop and just think hang on a minute am I missing something?

The probable answer is yes, and I feel like I am missing plenty of what is going on in the book world. I am reading but being back at work has rather put the brakes on it and I have really been too tired to turn the computer on and update the blog.  I have got into a routine of writing reviews for books on a Sunday when I am at my mums and scheduling a couple of posts for my blog during the week.

So here I am on a Saturday blogging. I also have got into the habit of reading all the blogs I follow on a Saturday morning and commenting where I can. I have the time to do this and also more importantly the time to really enjoy what others have been writing about.

Which is how I come to be writing this post and not my normal January Roundup post on the first of the month (that will come later) because there are some things I have in my head and want to share.

They say the art of letter writing is dead and I certainly rarely get any post now – I think I can narrow it down to the credit card bill, the water bill and any letters from the hospital (the rest being junk) everything else is done electronically. An email pings when my electric bill is due, hardly the same as the letterbox going. But what about during the First World War surely a letter from your loved one would bring so much excitement not just for those at home but also those at the Front. Do read this BBC article here which is fascinating and it never occurred to me that obviously the letters had to get backwards and forwards somehow.

I am sure there is going to be some more fascinating stuff coming out during the year as we commemorate and remember the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. I am hoping to read books this year with a background of the First World War.

The television is full of crime dramas at the moment (well most of the time really) but whilst I do not go in for all these Scandi crime thrillers I do like something nice, sedate and gentle. Which is why I love watching Death in Paradise on the BBC. I was surprised to see that the main detective Richard Poole played by Ben Miller was to leave and be replaced by Kris Marshall. Now as anyone knows, replacing a main character does not always work, it can give a completely new dynamic to a programme and it can fail miserably. I am desperately trying to think of an example and I am sure there is one, but at the moment it escapes me. The urban term is called ‘jumping the shark’. However it has worked, Kris Marshall is a joy to watch as he bumbled his way round the island being a detective, writing notes on anything he can, mainly napkins and post it notes and coming to the conclusion that is of course obvious to him but not necessarily everyone else. I am even at a point when I could say he is better than Ben Miller…. now they are bound to stop making the programme aren’t they?

Trouble is when I am watching television…..I am not reading….but I am knitting….but then when I am reading…..I am not knitting…and all of those things I want to blog about…but I cannot do that when I am knitting….reading….watching television……

Jottings #12 Jumbles and Jigsaws

I really do not know where time has gone or is going, and I thought it was time that I popped along and say hello. There is nothing amazing or major going on, it is just work is thoroughly busy and I seem to have less time to get on the computer at home and post reviews. When you have been looking at figures and a screen all day, firing up the laptop in an evening (stand fast today) is not really what I want to do. I am still reading which is good. But there is much I would like to mention and share, hence why I thought I would do this post of my jumbled thoughts and see if you can find the pieces to put it all together in some semblance of a jigsaw.

Strictly – Yes it is that time of year again, and yes I am watching it. However, I have to say I think I might have to say that this programme may have had its day. Over two hours of a programme on a Saturday night is some sort of marathon and I often get up and wander about doing other things whilst it is on. The celebrities seem to be getting less famous or well-known as the series goes on and the jokes are predictable whether they come from Tess, Bruce or even the judges.

The other factor that makes me think, enough is enough. Is the results show. Sorry if I am going to spoil something for you, but they film it on a Saturday night and simply change costumes and presenters and then claim it is a Sunday. Do not insult the British audience’s intelligence, they know. And if they are also intelligent enough and not completely hooked by the programme, they probably know who is out anyway. I check on a Sunday AM through the medium of Twitter who has left. How many others are doing this? So I am not really watching the programme when it is on.  I feel because I am not hooked by the programme I don’t really care about it any more. And if you check out Elaine’s Blog she has got this two-hour programme down to about forty minutes by recording it and watching at another time, and fast forwarding through all the dross that fills the programme. But because I am fickle, I will still watch it and perhaps when it gets down to the last few it might be a bit more captivating, until then it will be a background noise on a Saturday night for me.

Sticking with TV and getting down to the last few is The Great British Bake Off. Next week is the final – oooooo. I have been hooked by all these wonderful individuals who have brought so much to the programme. I think Mary Berry has been harsher than in previous years and Paul Hollywood, still has that smug look (along with contestant Frances) about him and I always think he needs taking down a peg or two. I so want to be able to bake every week. When I have lost the few pounds (weight not money) that have crept in I will certainly give my baking skills a bit of an exercise. It will not be anything so creative as these people but still it is lovely to eat homemade stuff. Doesn’t it taste better than shop bought mass manufactured items?

And I also cannot understand why the next series of GBBO has to be moved to BBC One. Again are they insulting are intelligence that we cannot possibly work out where to find one of our favourite programmes to watch? We can work a remote control. And also in this day and age where you can record your TV programmes weeks in advance, from your mobile phone, your bus, work, the loo, in the pub or wherever. Does it really matter which flipping channel it is broadcast on? Rant over.

Don’t worry BBC I managed to turn my television over when I wanted to another programme which is a favourite – Downton Abbey. (I went from 1 to 3 on my remote control – I had to lie down afterwards of course). I know folks have complained about a scene a couple of programmes ago and they have every right to do so. It could have been a lot worse, I am sure and more graphic. Sometimes it is the suggestion which is worse. I was only disappointed by the fact that it was Nigel Harman that did the deed! (Secret Crush – not so secret now) That aside, I do like the subtle wry wit and humour between some of the characters, makes me chuckle on a Sunday night.

Now enough television, what about books. Well I have 4 waiting to be reviewed and also a book club meeting to write up. Then a post on a book I gave up on, life is too short.  I have the posts created as an incentive to get me to moving. In fact some have words on them too! As for the books that need reading, well I expect it is like all of you out there – too many to choose from. I have been making a headway into some of my books which is good but I need to turn to some of the wonderful offerings from the publishers. Too many books, too little time.

I am intrigued by the winner of the Man Booker Prize, I like the sound of the book. Anyone read it? Would you recommend? I see it is a mighty tome.

As for the new Bridget Jones, I am slightly disheartened to read that Mark Darcy is no more. And it was part serialised in a newspaper, which put me off too. I have read very mixed reviews about it so I think I might wait for a paperback version. Sometimes it is best not to go back. Although if I was one of the lucky few that got a copy of the book, with part of the David Jason autobiography in it then I would have been thrilled! His book is on the Christmas List for sure.

I heard him on Chris Evans Breakfast Show last Friday on BBC Radio 2. If you get the chance do catch up on some of the clips. I am most excited that Open All Hours is coming back for a one off at Christmas. I loved that programme, I have it on DVD and watch it at least once or twice a year. I so wanted to go and poke round the shop. I did get to have a picture of the outside of it a few years back. It is in fact a hairdresser’s in Doncaster and round the corner from where many of many relatives lived and are now buried.  It will be interesting to see how it will all work some thirty years later.

Knitting, I have been knitting. Stitching, felting, painting, glueing in fact a range of crafty things. (Distracts from Strictly!) I am in the process of knitting squares for a blanket for a friend who is most poorly. There is a group of us doing it, as a joint gift. Then we thought we would make some more stuff to sell and raise money for my friend who is hoping to run the London marathon next year for the Iolanthe Midwifery Trust.

Followers of this blog will know that I decamp to the Knitting and Stitching Show every year with my mum for the day. This year’s trip has just passed and I need to share all that with you too. Although the coach journey has a strikingly familiar feel to it from past years…….

What else is going on – well Saturday is Guildford Book Festival Readers Day and I am off again to Guildford (Funny that!) to pick up lots more recommendations no doubt for my every growing wish list. I am trying to resist buying books. I have a couple already which I might take with me to get signed. I will report back to you all, there are lots of authors going who I have not read anything by them at all!

Autumn they say it is – but I have the new warmer fluffier slippers out. The heating has been tested to make sure it is working, although I have had no hot water in my bathroom for a while; now sorted and the winter quilt is on. I think I could quite happily hibernate.

I am fitting in swimming, Body Pump, sleeping, cleaning, eating and all of life’s other bits and bobs as well as working too! One of the reasons we are busy at work is well check out the Court Circular tomorrow (17 Oct). I will not be there, I have been more involved in preparation, but I am sure she is not worried that she will not meet me.

Hope you have enjoyed my jigsaw come jumble of thoughts and that if I have not popped by your blog and said hello for a while, I have been dropping in when I can.

What have you all been up to?

Merry Christmas

Christmas Present* – Chocolate Guinness Cake with a Christmas Twist

If you have escaped from the melee of wrapping paper, noisy toys, awful television and warring relatives then may I take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas.

If you haven’t escaped from any of that then the sentiment still stands and I hope you and yours are having a peaceful day. Plenty of books I hope?

*Recipe by Nigella, Made & Decorate by Me, Eaten by my boss!

Christmas Present Ideas?

Rather than three individual posts to talk about these books, I thought I would sweep them up into one post. My reason, because they are the sort of books you buy for folk at Christmas. I have read,looked, dipped in and out of, chuckled about all three of these books but they do not count towards my number of books read in 2012.

First up is a book which was on my Christmas list and then it came on offer for the small sum of 20 pence on Amazon Kindle and I am afraid, that the Scrooge in me, the accountant in me and the impatience in me meant I struck it off my list and bought it myself – reading it straight away!

1,227 Facts to Blow Your Socks Off as I write this post is still available for 20 pence. It does what it says on the tin as they say, and a must for all fans of the programme or those people who like to gather silly bits of knowledge to throw in at quiet moments during dinner parties. Allow me to share some of the ones that made me chuckle – try and spot the irony as well!

• George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein had their shoes hand-made by the same Italian cobbler.
• In 1894, The Times estimated that by 1950 London would be nine feet deep in horse manure.
• When eating jelly babies, nearly eight out of ten people bite off the heads first. (Jo – Now there is an interesting Christmas Game for the family)
• If all the British Empire’s dead of the First World War were to march four abreast down Whitehall, it would take them almost four days and nights to pass the Cenotaph.
• When John Hetherington ventured out in public wearing the first top hat, it was considered so shocking that children screamed, women fainted and a small boy broke his arm in the chaos. (Jo – one can only assume he was wearing JUST the top hat and nothing else to garner this reaction).
• King Edward VII insisted on weighing his guests to make sure they had eaten well. (Jo – mmm weight watchers in reverse perhaps?)
• At least 109 journeys between adjacent London Tube stations are quicker to walk.

The last little QI fact there leads me nicely on to the next book that I want to recommend.

Great for again those who like little bits of knowledge and also perhaps those people from distant shores that perhaps never visit London in their lifetime or only visit once. This book fills you in on all them interesting ‘well I never’! Again I am going to share a few with you so you get the idea of the book. I bought it when it came up on the Kindle Daily Deal having never seen or heard of it or the author before. There is a sister companion, by the same author The Little Book of the London Underground which I could be tempted by!

• …a sentence of hanging carried out on Henry Fauntleroy. An estimated 100,000 people thronged the streets to see the banker die after being convicted of attempting to defraud the Bank of England of £250,000 (in 1824). Money he squandered, which seemed somehow to make the offence worse. (Jo – not much has changed with bankers, MPs, etc in all this time!)
• Distinctive blue lamps were installed outside police stations in 1861 in order to identify them to the public. The one at Bow Street, however, was left white in order not to offend the sensibilities of Queen Victoria when she was visiting the opera opposite. (It was thought too tactless a reminder that Prince Albert had dies in the Blue Room at Windsor Castle) (Jo – bet no one had dared ask her though, just made the assumption)
• Deliberately targeted on a point on the M1, and with an operating range of around 30 miles, the main guns on HMS Belfast would destroy Scratchwood Services if they were ever fired.

And if you ever get bored with all this knowledge, perhaps you might feel the need for some colouring in. Colouring for Grown Ups: the Adult Activity Book is pitched as “the joy of children’s’ colouring-in meets the mind-numbing realities of adult responsibility. How many of us doodle in meetings or when talking on the phone. This book just takes it to a new level.  This will make a book for someone you really find difficult to buy for! I know which of my friends will be getting it – and I might even buy some new felt tip pens to go with it!

For sharing with this book, here are a couple of example pages. Thanks to the book’s website for letting everyone in on the experience.

 

Of course you could always buy all three of these books for yourself – I won’t tell!

Jottings #7 – Walking, Whining and Wearing thin?

Walking

As you are reading this I will have either already started, be in the middle of or finished the Rowan’s Hospice Moonlit Memories Walk. I am only doing the 5 mile walk, but all the money goes to a local charity to me and I think nearly everyone knows some that has benefited greatly from the hospice.

Whining

I am not sure if you have read any of or been following the story of Martha Payne who started her own blog (with help from dad) as a project to record pictures of her school dinners. The idea being that she could share with friends and family what she had eaten that day. It also gave an insight for her family to see why she came home hungry some days. She took photos and gave them ratings. What was the harm?

Well apparently, a newspaper took up the story and the press coverage inferred that the dinner ladies would be getting fired! In step the council and Martha was told she was no longer able to take pictures. Bureaucracy at its best if you ask me. The council should have taken issue with the newspaper and what they inferred not banned the child. Not only is Martha educating others, giving feedback she is educating herself. Followers from around the world send in pictures of their school dinners with ratings. Martha’s challenge is to find where some of these far-flung places are on a globe/in an atlas.

Then the infamous ‘U-Turn’ the ‘egg on the face’ moment, the council have overturned the ban. Presumably because it  went global. The support of Jamie Oliver, Nick Nairn, being broadcast on BBC News was probably enough bad publicity for the council.

I despair at this country sometimes and those that we elect to run it or say they know what is best.

Please go and read the article that started this furore here and then if anything head over to the NeverSeconds blog and started reading and following! There is a link there to Mary’s Meals which is where Martha has been wanting to raise money, which started from her cake sale at school. It has surpassed the £7k target by thousands! Well done Martha, well done all that have donated and I think this story is going to run and run and I hope more inspired children with a little help from parents, friends and relatives take up similar mantles. These children are our future.

Wearing Thin?

I was never a great fan of Richard and Judy but I was of their book club. It got people reading, talking about books and introduced me and many others to some fantastic authors that I still continue to read. I was disappointed when they left Channel 4 as I did not have access to their new home.

Then when the programme stopped, what was to become of the book club and the books. It was without a doubt a great way of influencing the book world as such by their choices. And as this article in the Daily Telegraph this week says they might be losing their influence because of the media chosen to advertise their books. There is no major announcement they just seem to have slipped onto shelves relatively quietly. I do wonder why? Do we need TV book shows? Quite frankly in my opinion yes and I think that is the fundamental flaw. They reached a lot more people that way. I can see it being quite cheap television really as well.

In the meantime, I hope they continue to push and promote wonderful books and authors and that perhaps once their deal with WHSmiths comes to an end (I wonder how long it is?) there might be another opportunity for them to make more of a mark.

Jottings #6 – The Future of Reading

It has been a while since I have jotted here on my blog and I thought I would share a couple of things with you from this week.

Much discussion across blogs, newspapers, readings group and the like is the continual debate over eReader versus ‘real’ book. And I am not debating that here, but in a rather tenuous link I am sharing this link to a eReader interactive programme that measures your speed of reading.

I came out at around 71% faster than the average, it tells you how long it would take to read War and Peace at that speed! Personally I do not want to read for upwards of 22 hours straight! I am also intrigued by the way we use War and Peace as a definition of many things. When an officer comes and asks to photocopy something, I ask ‘As long as it is not War and Peace’, you may use the machine. Colleagues mention having to read briefings, notes or minutes that resemble ‘War and Peace’. Perhaps tomorrow I might say as long as it is not “Five on a Treasure Island” and see what response I get?

This little interactive then goes to show you how many books you could read on your eReader before you needed to recharge the battery.

I found it interesting, mainly because I remember an English Teacher from Secondary School that said I read too much and too quick. She told my mum that I could not possibly be reading so much, that I was just skimming it and would not be taking any of it in. I never seemed to have a problem though. But then this is the same teacher that said my spelling was atrocious, which my mum took her to task on. (How I would love to have been there) Turns out the teacher had muddled me up with someone else. Strangely enough spelling is one of my bug bears and really irritates me after all these years. There is no excuse for poor spelling.

Many years later, I was rather unnerved to see this English Teacher doing a Body Pump class at the same gym as me. It brought back many memories!

Do have a go at the interactive speed reading test and see how you compare.

Talking about teachers and reading at school I am going to lead you to another link. This time to BBC Radio 2’s 500 Words Competition which is a competition open to youngsters. The premise to write a story in 500 words. On Friday 1 June, on Chris Evans Breakfast Show (baby depending) the winners will be announced and some of the stories will be read out by some famous voices at The Hay Festival. You can pop along to the website and read or listen to some of the Top Stories. I have only read a couple so far but do check out My Nanny is a Ninja which I think is very witty.

As part of this wonderful competition which started last year and I think will be continuing (how I wish I was a child again) next, they have teamed up with the Oxford University Press to analyse the words used in the stories (over 74,000 of them)

• The most common noun is door
• The exclamation mark is a favourite piece of punctuation. It was used 351, 731 times!
• There are lots of brilliant similes: as saggy as a baboons bum; as tall as a dozen giraffes standing on top of each other; as soft as a new bought dressing gown from M and S; as puzzled as a baby doing proper fractions

Do check out the report, it makes for very interesting reading.

There is no doubt whoever wins, (your height in books!) there are so many budding authors out there, that no matter how you read your books on paper or new technology; the story is not going anywhere.

Only Fools and Horses – Graham McCann

Only Fools and Horses (OFAH) is a sitcom which has entered the psyche of the British population. Many of us probably use words (plonker, lovely jubbly, next year we will be millionaires et al.) and we all have favourite scenes from a programme that started over thirty years ago and really only took off, because it was repeated due to industrial action by technicians at the BBC. The BBC would let programmes grow and nurture them. Nowadays unless a programme is a hit instantly, it is immediately a failure and either taken off or moved to a graveyard slot. By reading this book I realise that If OFAH was in its inception now it would certainly not have been the success it was.

This book charts its conception, inception, growth and rise. It covers the actors, the sole writer John Sullivan, the production and the inevitable problems along the way. There are little dialogues from the series, detailed descriptions of episodes and also a lot about what else was going on at the time in the televisual world. It is a thorough history of a well loved programme.

I am a fan, but I understand from other reviews that there are some factual errors, but if this is the case that did not worry me as I did not actually learn anything new. It was interesting to see someone else take on a programme. All it did do was just reinforce my love for it.

What was clear that the book was researched and that if you have a love or know someone who wants to also reinforce their love or perhaps wants to learn some other tid-bits about the programme then this is the book for you. There are many books written about OFAH which I have and I am glad I added this one to my collection.

For some reason, I found this book difficult to review. I read other reviews about the book and saw that there had been factual mistakes in the book, and I suddenly thought I did not know this have I missed the point of the book and I am not really a fan of the programme. Once I gave myself a talking to and thought “it is only a programme” I realised that I could write the review and so there it is above. 

OFAH is one of those programmes which reminds me of so many things, times in my life. The ritual of the Christmas episodes becoming an event. The final episodes I watched on my own as my parents were away, one of the first times I was left in the house alone (I was over 18 in case anyone suddenly thinks my parents treated me badly!). The scenes that I know will make my mum laugh more than I and the reminders of certain members of my own family. That is why OFAH is part of the British Pschye and shows how unique the British sense of humour. 

Of course writing a post about this, means I can share some wonderful clips; please indulge me and I hope you enjoy. 

Now we all like to save money –

and obviously stay standing –

you of course need a friend called Dave – 

but you call always rely on false friends – 

if in doubt call for backup –

You must remember to respect your elders and listen to their stories – 

And of course next year you will be millionaires!