Harriet Devine's Blog

Today's post is brought to you by the letter....

Perhaps you saw Simon's post of this title yesterday -- if not, well he's dishing out letters to anyone who wants to do his new meme. Simple -- just take your allotted letter (mine was F) and list your favourite book, author, song, film and object beginning with it. So after much racking of brains:

Book:

Well, I fell at the first hurdle here, as I couldn't decide between Framley Parsonage by Trollope and A Far Cry from Kensington by Muriel Spark. Two very different novels, but I loved them both. 

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald. 

 

Apart from the fact that he has two Fs in his name, Fitzgerald deserves his place here because he is a wonderful writer. Tender is the Night is possibly my favourite of his novels, but the short story The Diamond as Big as the Ritz is superb too.

Song: Faure's Requiem.

 

Yes, I know it's not a song, and that it's called after the composer, but it is one of all time favourites and would definitely make my Desert Island Dics list. This bit is called In Paradisum -- sublime.

Film: Fantasia.

 

I have watched this many times -- first as a child myself and then with two generations of children. It never palls -- lovely.

Flower:

 It had to be flower, of course -- any kind would do though I am particularly fond of roses. 

Hope to be reading some more of these soon -- great fun.

 

Meme of Fours

I've seen this all over the place but most recently on Cardigan Girl Verity.

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life:

1. Shop assistant
2. Waitress
3. Script reader
4. University lecturer

Four Books I Would Read Over and Over Again:

1. The Secret Garden
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Little Women
4. Bleak House

Four Places I Have Lived:

1.  London
2. Somerset
3. Oxford
4. Lancashire

Four Books I Would Recommend:

1. EH Young, Miss Mole
2. Barbara Comyns, The Vet's Daughter
3. Ford Madox Ford, The Good Soldier
4. JG Farrell, The Siege of Krishnapoor

Four Places I Have Been:

1.  Monastir, Tunisia 
2. Ubud, Bali
3. Santa Barbara, California
4. Lake Garda, Italy

Four of My Favorite Foods:

1. Baked potatoes
2. Thai vegetable curry
3. Real mexican burritos
4. Chocolate ice cream

Four of My Favorite Drinks:

1. Any fresh juice made in my juicer (apple, carrot, beetroot and ginger is good)
2. Proper de-caf coffee
3. Water
4. Champagne 

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:

1. My house in France
2. Kerala, South India
3. Any Greek island
4. In my Oxford garden (instead of in London where I am writing this)

Four Things That Are Very Special in My Life:

1.  My kids
2. My grandchildren
3. My friends
4. My health

Four Bloggers I Hope Will Do This Meme: Anyone!

A minor triumph

 Even if you've never been to Oxford you're probably familiar with the famous front of Blackwell's bookshop -- it appears in numerous episodes of Inspector Morse, often with the red Jaguar parked (illegally) outside, and probably shows up in Lewis as well. 

Well, yesterday evening, Blackwell's was the scene of a minor triumph when five of us -- Simon of Stuck in a Book, Simon's friend Mel, plus Ruth and Sheenagh from our book group and me -- made up a team for the Blackwell's quiz night. We were all rather nervous and I for one thought we might be ignominiously defeated. There were eight rounds on different subjects, and amazingly, when they announced the halfway marks, we were in second place out of a total of eleven. We were pretty sure we'd plummeted after that -- we really needed a scientist as the science round was a killer (pity Dark Puss wasn't there) -- but after a nail-biting finish with a tie breaker for second place ("What's the population of Chicago's Hyde Park district?" -- some serious guesswork going on here), we did end up second and each got a £5 book token. Really good fun (and free crisps and soft drinks into the bargain).