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On the Set of Downton Abbey
After our trip to Chedworth Roman Villa, we drove all the way up to Snowshill to find that it was closed! So we then ended up having lunch in a lovely cafe in the middle of the Cotswolds, a goats cheese and roasted vegetable jacket potato which was scrumptious. After that, it was getting quite late in the afternoon so we decided to head back towards Bristol and thought we’d call in at Lacock Abbey on the way home.
But true to the luck we’d been having that day, we turned up 25 minutes after the last entry to the Abbey. But after walking to the gift shop, we were told that they were filming a ‘period drama’ in the village. The woman in the shop wouldn’t tell us what it was, but the security guard at the end of the road was all too happy to let us know that it was Downton Abbey.
I LOVE Downton Abbey, so I was properly made up that we might get to see some of the stars. And I wasn’t disappointed. They were filming a scene with Carson and Mrs Hughes, but we also walked past Mr Bates and Anna walked right past us too. She was so small and pretty, even wrapped up from the cold in a coat and ugg boots.
It was very exciting to watch them filming and see how many extra were needed for one scene. I can’t wait for the series to come out so we can see the scene! Check out a video at the bottom for a clip of what they were filming!
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Chedworth Roman Villa
This was a slightly longer drive away from Bristol than I had anticipated, and a lot of small narrow country roads, my idea of driving hell. But it was interesting to be walking around a place that was built about 1,700 years ago, it’s baffling to even consider how old that is. Especially when you consider that they had underfloor heating! If only! And the tiled mosaics that they’ve preserved are fantastic.
I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy this as much as walking around a lovely period house, but it was a good day out all the same. There were coach-loads of primary school children while we were there, I imagine they would love it if their history lessons are anything like ours were in Primary school.
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Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl
I’ve been meaning to read this book ever since I found out the film was being released, but other books kept leap-frogging it on my to-read pile, to the point where the film has been and gone and everyone has stopped talking about it and I’ve only just got around to reading it.
And now, I really really wish it hadn’t take me so long, as I bet the film was amazing on the big screen!
I would imagine if you’re reading this that you probably know the plot of the book, but if not, I don’t want to give away too much. Nick Dunne wakes up on his fifth wedding anniversary to find that his wife has disappeared, and he quickly becomes the chief suspect in her disappearance. He gives quite an honest impression and you start off thinking that there’s no way that he could have done it. But some of the things that he says and does start to make you doubt yourself and think that maybe he did it after all.
Throughout the first half of the book, interspersed with our first person account of Nick is a copy of Amy’s diary. It starts off very lovey-dovey with stories of how they first met, but she starts to get increasingly worried about Nick’s behaviour to the point where she’s convinced that he’s going to kill her.
Then BAM. Plot twist. Then BAM. Another. And BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM. From this point on it’s plot twist after plot twist to the point where you might as well just give up on trying to guess how the book will end.
And talking about the ending, it was probably my least favourite conclusion to a book in quite a long time. Even if you should have given up on trying to guess what will happen, it doesn’t stop you from doing it anyway, but if you can honestly guess how the book will end, I’d be extremely surprised.
But as much as I didn’t like the ending of the book, I found the book as a whole absolutely superb. To keep me hooked like that from start to finish without me once being able to guess what was going to happen as I turned the page makes this a fantastically written book.
I would have given this book 5 stars if not for being so completely dissatisfied with the ending, so it’s a four for me.
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Tyntesfield
For the next trip of our holiday we decided to go to Tyntesfield. Alan had been there a few times before and loved it, but we’d never been. It was a beautiful house inside and out, and the gardens were lovely. But by far my favourite part about the entire day was the chapel. Never consecrated due to arguments with the local church, but absolutely stunning. So so beautiful and unbelievable that it was built as a family chapel, so ornate!
Once we’d walked around the house and down to the cafe and gardens at the bottom (along with a lovely cuppa and slice of cake in the cafe), Alan and Vicky took the minibus back to the car park at the top of the hill, while Cameron and I spent the next half hour with a leisurely walk back up, soaking up the sunshine, which was bright and beautiful, just like Tyntesfield.
I’d highly recommend a visit to this stunning property!
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Tredegar House and Dyffryn Gardens
As we’re on holiday at my Uncle’s house in Bristol at the moment, we’ve renewed our National Trust membership and spent yesterday on a day trip across to Wales to see some places that Alan has never seen before.
A random flip through the National Trust handbook got us Tredegar House, a lovely restoration house which was only brought into Trust ownership in 2013. They’ve got a 50 year lease on it so they are at the start of their journey to restore the house to its former glory, but it was really lovely. The woman who gave us our tour was very knowledgeable and she was happy to talk to us after the tour to answer our questions.
The house itself has had an interesting history, even being used as a Catholic girls school. There was one room with a magnificent mural on the ceiling, which was apparently almost destroyed when an air display by the Vulcan flew a little low and shook the house so much it almost cracked the plaster.
After we’d been to the house, we asked at the information centre if they had any other properties in the area, and they recommended Dyffryn Gardens, about half an hour away. They warned us that the house wasn’t as grand as Tredegar, but the gardens were lovely. And while they may have been correct about the lovely gardens, the house was still as spectacular, just in a very different style.
The only downer on the day was the fact that the weather was quite grey and miserable, but we mostly managed to avoid getting wet. We did over 7000 steps during the day though, so we all slept well last night after all the fresh air!
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Graeme Simsion – The Rosie Effect
I first read The Rosie Project about 2 years ago, as an advance reading copy won through the Goodreads First Reads program. And immediately I fell in love with Don Tillman. At the end of my review of The Rosie Project, I expressed my wish for more Don, and I was delighted when I heard about the sequel. It’s been out for a while now, but I just haven’t got round to buying it.
But Don is back, and I’m so happy! If you haven’t read The Rosie Project, stop reading immediately and go and read it. Firstly, there’ll be spoilers here, and secondly, it’s a truly fantastic book!
After the success of The Wife Project, Don has moved to New York with his new wife Rosie. He’s got a job at Columbia University, and he’s expanded his social circle to include a new boys group. His life is brilliant, and then he finds out Rosie is pregnant. It’s not on Don’s plan, and he’s thrown completely. It seems to Rosie that he’s not interested in becoming a father, but as we’re inside his head we know his true feelings. He’s panicked. He doesn’t know how to be a father, and so begins The Baby Project.
What I loved most about this book is that being inside Don’s head, we can see where things are going to go wrong, but because it’s Don, he doesn’t see it, with disastrous but somewhat hilarious consequences. Like his plan to get more experience with children (since his friend don’t have kids) by going to watch kids in the park. We can all see exactly how that’s going to look, but poor Don is completely oblivious!
I feel like I’m in the minority as a lot of reviews on Goodreads seem quite negative and I absolutely loved the book. Obviously since you’ve already been introduced to Don in the first book, the second book may feel like it’s a bit similar, especially given the nature of Don’s personality. But the book was architected so well that it kept you guessing what was going to happen, even if you thought you already knew.
As I mentioned earlier, the situations that Don got himself into made you laugh and cringe at the same time, and you can’t help but pray for everything to turn out differently to what you know will be inevitable.
If it gives you any clue how much I loved this book, I stayed up until after 2am reading it, even though I had to be up early for a 200 mile drive. I simply just couldn’t put it down without knowing that Don was going to be happy. Whether I’m right or not, I’ll leave that for you to find out, but please please please pick up this book and give it a try, it’s great!
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Iain Banks – The Wasp Factory
If I could have one word to describe this book, it would be weird. Two words? Seriously weird.
I was recommended this book by someone I used to work with a few years ago, and I just have never got around to reading it, but I’m now seriously questioning the mental health of that colleague, because this book was freaky, and not in a good way.
We’re in the mind of Frank, a slightly unconventional 16 year old, if by ‘slightly unconventional’, you mean graphic depictions of animal torture and detailed stories of how he has killed three people, including his brother and his cousin. Since we’re inside Frank’s head, I felt like we were supposed to feel some kind of alliance with him, but I found him so disturbing that I just couldn’t. No way.
There were times when I found Frank funny or when the author imagined a scenario that although horrific, still made me laugh. But immediately after, I then felt like a bad person for laughing at such a terrible thing. But it did make the book slightly more easy to read.
I’ve read quite a few reviews on Goodreads of how great this book is, and I have to agree with the fact that it is masterfully written, chilling to the bone and well paced to keep the suspense going right to the end. And when you find out the reason for Frank’s odd behaviour and the truths that his father has tried so hard to hide, you would never have expected it. It’s just that the subject matter is so far away from my usual type of book that I just couldn’t find myself enjoying the time I spent reading it.
I bought this book as part of a set of three Iain Banks novels, so I’m going to give the others a try and see if I find them any easier to read, but I’ll reserve judgement until I start.
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Jo Baker – Longbourn
After my last disastrous foray into alternative Pride and Prejudice interpretations, I swore I wouldn’t try another one for a long while! However, when I was trying to decide what to read, I saw this one sitting on my shelf since I bought it probably over a year ago, and the cover just drew me back in and I couldn’t resist.
And whereas the last one left me wishing I hadn’t even bothered, this one was quite the opposite! Beautifully written and a fantastic idea which set the book apart from others of its kind, I couldn’t put it down from start to finish.
Rather than just re-telling Austen’s story, or trying to twist it into something that it was never intended to be, Baker has imagined the story from the perspective of the household staff. During the first part of the book, I didn’t really see why it mattered that we were in Longbourn as the characters from P&P seemed to flit in and out only very briefly, but the story was much more complex than that and I came to understand perfectly the choices that the author had made.
When you read Pride and Prejudice, you’re so caught up in the beauty and majesty of it all that you don’t think about the other inconsequential characters who sit in the background and make everything possible. Poor Mrs Hill swept off her feet when a surprise guest like Mr Collins is announced, and poor Sarah the housemaid running back and forth from Longbourn to the post office in Meryton to post letters and pick them up (which happens way more often than you may remember).
Giving back story to characters who are hardly even mentioned by Austen could have gone either way, but Baker crafts them so intricately that you can’t imagine them ever having been another way. Poor Hill and the secrets she’s kept all her life which are suddenly dredged back up to the forefront with the arrival of James. And poor, poor James. The flashbacks that we get to the time he spent abroad (without giving away too many spoilers) made me want to sob with sympathy for him.
I think, though, that my favourite character was Sarah. We spend the most time with Sarah so we get to know her thoughts and feelings the best, and my heart just went out to her so many times. Every time it looked like she was going to finally end up happy, something happened to blow her off course. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, because if you’re a fan of Austen and P&P you’ll love this book immensely, I would highly recommend you giving it a try.
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Jane Hawking – Travelling to Infinity
Wow, this book was an absolute joy to read. When you think of Stephen Hawking, you immediately think of how brilliant his mind is, and how strong he must be to have coped with Motor Neuron Disease for so long. What you don’t immediately think about is his first wife Jane, who was with him through the diagnosis and all the trials and tribulations of the next 25 years.Stephen may have been strong, but Jane was something else. The book charts her struggles to care for Stephen alongside the pressures of bringing up three young children in a world that doesn’t seem to care much to provide assistance for Stephen’s condition.
She writes that her story “would be quite ordinary, quite common to most people’s lives, were it not for two factors: motor-neuron disease and genius”. While the strain put on their relationship by Stephen’s progressive decline due to the debilitating nature of MND is center stage, without this the book also contains many of the same stresses that any young family would encounter.
The story of Hawking leaving his first wife to live with one of his nurses is quite well known, but never told before from this angle, and rather than shy away from the strains and stresses on their marriage, Jane writes with a frank honest which was most surprising. It’s easy to believe all the salacious claims made in newspapers, and Jane also had to cope with hearing this claims from people who were supposed to be her family (by marriage at least). I can’t imagine how hard it would have been to be accused of such things when you’ve dedicated 25 years of your life to single-handedly caring for someone who is almost entirely dependent on your help.
And quite aside from Stephen’s physical disabilities, the world wasn’t content to give Jane a break. From coming down with a horrible case of shingles, to seeing her children hospitalised and having to juggle their care with that of her husband, she shows a strength that most of us could only wish for.
I’m so so glad that I decided to read this book after going to see the Theory of Everything. Although it was a brilliant film (and Eddie Redmayne deserves every award going for his superb acting), I knew that Hollywood has a tendency to simplify situations and glamorise people, and I wanted to get more of a full story than they could ever give.
A lot of reviews on Goodreads seem quite negative, and seem to suggest that this book is mainly Jane complaining about how hard her life was. But I don’t see the complaining, I see an honest account of what must have been a very difficult time, and if these reviewers can’t take the fact that Jane didn’t sugar coat the truth and leave Stephen on a pedestal for all to admire, then they’re not really taking from the book what I assume was intended.
To me, Jane was trying to show that living and caring for someone with a debilitating and life-consuming disease is hard, even if you have a huge support network of family and friends around you. Charities like the Motor Neuron Disease Association (supported by both Jane and Stephen) are invaluable help for people suffering through these situations, but Jane shows the struggles that are behind the scenes and that silently affect thousands of people across the UK living in similar situations.
If you enjoyed the film, I would whole-heartedly recommend this book. Just don’t expect it to be all sunshine and roses, you’re going to be put through an emotional wringer.
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Nick Spalding – Fat Chance
This book looked like a light hearted bit of fun, following a couple through a biggest loser style contest to lose as much weight as possible.
As I’ve just started back at the gym again in a bid to get healthier, I thought it might be a bit of motivation, but I don’t think the author can ever have been overweight in his life. From collapsing chairs, to getting stuck in dresses in changing rooms, the book was just one fat-person cliche after another. Quite insulting to anyone who has actually been overweight as the whole thing just seemed like a veiled attempt to laugh at fat people and preach about how easy it is to lose weight.
I found the characters completely unlikeable, probably due to their hugely (pardon the pun) stereotyped characters. This meant that I really felt no involvement in this competition they’re competing in, so I didn’t really care if they won or not. I pretty much just speed read through the last half of the book as I just wanted to get it over with and find something a bit more to my tastes.
A nice idea, but terribly executed and horribly stereotyped.
Louise Douglas
(I've got no) Shelf Control…
Louise Douglas 