strange and random happenstance

2012 was a very hard year. This was my last year taking classes toward my Associate Degree in Applied Arts, Graphic Design and Illustration, and my winter semester literally started with my mom breaking her hip. I had to call 911 before leaving for my first class. I needed something, anything, to look forward to and thankfully by the end of that first hard week I had something to look forward to. On Wednesday, February 22nd, at 1:30 PM at the Barrington Public Library in Barrington, Illinois, Lauren Willig was doing an event to promote her ninth Pink Carnation book, The Garden Intrigue. Even better, the event being on a Wednesday it didn't interfere with my classes because I had a Tuesday/Thursday schedule. Though I fully admit I would've skipped for Lauren, even more so because as Lauren stated in her Valentine's Day newsletter, she was going to "be joined by the lovely Tasha Alexander." At this time Tasha already had six Lady Emily books in print but I had yet to meet her! Despite the fact she lived in Chicago, a mere three hours away from me, in good traffic! The event was billed as Talk and Tea and I just couldn't wait.

The day arrived, I was thankful it wasn't snowing, being February in Wisconsin you just can not guess what the weather will be like, a tornado is even possible! So off I headed to the flatland. I'd never been to the Barrington Public Library, all I knew from a map search was that there was a Half Price Books nearby, and yes, of course I visited it. The library was lovely. The space was large and open, it felt like a cathedral of high wood beams and lovely bookish silence. While the day was overcast it was easy to see that on a sunny day it would be magnificent, the library version of the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The event was in a large room to the left of the soaring space and I eagerly entered. Along the back wall was copious teapots and cups with a choice of Lipton teas, not exactly the "tea" I had imagined, but then again after going to high tea at The Pierre in New York City my idea of what a tea should be is not really in line with what a Midwestern library is probably going to do. But more importantly, tea should not be balanced with stacks of books! And they had stacks of books to buy! I have never seen so many books, and I felt bad I owned all but two, because I love to support local bookstores.

See, the problem was, though it's not really a problem until you go to a signing, but I had already gotten all my books by Tasha signed through Murder by the Book. Luckily I found out Tasha had written the movie tie-in edition for Elizabeth: The Golden Age, a movie I have criminally not seen especially as it has Laurence Fox in it, but my "History of Costume" class for my BA in Theater had me a little Elizabeth-ed out. We watched that first movie a lot. Well, in fairness the costumes are amazing. Even more amazing in person as I learned a few years later. But this meant there was a Tasha book I could have signed at the event! In case Lake Forest Book Store didn't have a copy I was ready with one I had gotten off Amazon. But thankfully they did so I had two copies for Tasha to sign, one was for me and one was for my blog and oh, how I wish I had saved it for Alexander Autumn, but sadly it was not to be. With my new copy of The Garden Intrigue and my two copies of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, I sat down and waited, talking to a few of my fellow book enthusiasts. One of them was very interested in my copy of Fall of Poppies, an anthology about the Great War that Lauren had participated in and which they hadn't heard of. I was happy to talk to them about it but really I couldn't wait for the event to begin.

The event was spectacular. Sometimes I really wish I had the wherewithal to remember to write down everything that happens at memorable events, but I've found taking notes makes me not really present and I tend to forget to do it afterwards when I'm still basking in the afterglow, or in this case buying a whole set of Kerry Greenwood's Miss Fisher Mysteries IN HARDCOVER from the nearby Half Price Books. There's also something about writing it out that takes some of the glamor away, it's far better to talk about it with friends as you drive home. So what do I remember about Tasha and Lauren's event? I remember thinking that they should always tour together. They are both great speakers on their own, but together they are a great double act, discussing champagne and dancing on tables, and you can just see their friendship as they're able to finish each others sentences and simultaneously recite their favorite lines from Dorothy L. Sayers. As for what Tasha talked about? Well Death in the Floating City, Lady Emily's seventh adventure, would be coming out later in the year, and she talked a bit about her process for writing the Venetian adventure. Mainly that she was glad she had a family who supported her when she said she had to write the book in Venice.           

As I'm currently a third of the way through Death in the Floating City (review up next Wednesday!) I can say that going to Venice really did pay off. In fact Tasha is unique among a lot of writers in that she loves to travel and walk the streets of where she is going to set her books. This adds such a level of realism that you feel you are walking the streets beside her and Lady Emily. Also, I really wouldn't say no to writing a book in Venice... After the talk there was a signing, I talked to Lauren about what I was doing in school (personal branding) and I remember she complimented my shorter hair and I know I made a face, to which she insisted she liked the short hair, and the thing was, I wasn't making the face about my short hair, I was making the face because I really needed to get it trimmed up and a little shorter, it was a bit raggedy. I agree with Lauren, I like my hair short! Then I finally got to meet Tasha, and she was just lovely and so nice and so happy I had a book I was signing to give away on my blog (again people I'm sorry I gave it away prematurely!) Then I went back out into the lovely atrium and went on my way. Book signings always seem to end abruptly. There's all this build up, a lovely talk, a little chat with the author, and you're out the door and on your way home. It's a harsh return to reality. But at least I can look back on two of my favorite authors sharing favorite quotes and quips from Gaudy Night whenever I want. 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alexander Autumn, Book Signing, Death in the Floating City, Dorothy L. Sayers, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Gaudy Night, Kerry Greenwood, Lauren Willig, Laurence Fox, Tasha Alexander, The Garden Intrigue

A Room with a View
Based on the book by E.M. Forster
Starring: Elaine Cassidy, Rafe Spall, Laurence Fox, Timothy Spall, Timothy West, Sinéad Cusack, Elizabeth McGovern, Mark Williams, Sophie Thompson, and Tom Stewart
Release Date: November 4th, 2007
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Lucy Honeychurch and her chaperon, cousin Charlotte, are in Italy to be tourists. But the pension they have chosen is letting them down. They were promised a room with a view. Well, the room has a sort of view, not the kind they were expecting. At dinner their grievances are met with a solution, a father and son, the Emersons, have offered their rooms to the two women. Charlotte thinks this is beyond the pale and insists they switch pensions first thing in the morning. But the arrival of Mr. Beebe, a clergyman they know and respect, means they rethink their decision to leave, and Lucy convinces Charlotte with the help of Mr. Beebe to rethink the Emersons's offer. As Lucy awakes that first morning in Florence, it's to a glorious view. Lucy is very proper and polite and does all the things that tourists should do, but as Mr. Beebe notices when she plays the piano, there is something in her that is very exciting. Lucy isn't the staid Edwardian that she seems. This hidden nature of hers is very much in line with the outspoken Emersons, and before Charlotte whisks them off to Rome practically in the middle of the night, Lucy will share a kiss and maybe her heart with the young George Emerson. But in Rome she is reintroduced to Cecil Vyse, an opinionated and upright Englishman, but opinionated in all the right and not outspoken ways. Lucy eventually condescends to marry Cecil when they are back in England, but the arrival of the Emersons into their small little community is going to change Lucy's life forever.

After watching so many confined and staid and uptight and stagy adaptations of Forster's work it was such a relief to watch one that has real passion. An adaptation that could move you literally to tears. While there might be those who criticize Andrew Davies's adaptation for playing fast and loose with the storyline, I counter that he cut to the quick of the story and kept that which was vital intact. If you weren't a Forster purist or had never read the books, just watch the old Merchant and Ivory adaptation and then watch this one, it is without a doubt that this version makes a better film. That is what it comes down to in the end, which is the better movie, and this one will always win, even with the weird transfer error of blurred behinds and a lackluster score. What I think made this version work was that, like the book, the integration of Lucy's piano playing as a window to her soul was actually incorporated throughout the movie. Instead of a few set pieces with Helena Bonham Carter rigidly sitting at a piano and obviously not knowing what to do, here Elaine Cassidy throws herself into the music and bares her soul. It is distinctly a plus that you can actually see that she is playing the music, even if the ADR team might have dropped in a more accomplished version later. One can not stress enough that to make a good movie you have to connect with your audience, and this connected with me, with passion and empathy and yes, love, and sometimes it hurts.

All the feels in this movie just made it more real, more human, more alive. There's affection and attraction. If you look at the kiss between George and Lucy in the Merchant and Ivory adaptation, it's like watching two people who don't even like each other being yelled at by the director to kiss and they are going to try to stop the inevitable for as long as possible. That kiss is painful to watch. Here, well, the kiss is painful to watch for different reasons. There is abandon and discovery in it. True feeling. True connection. It's joyous. In fact, I would say that is what is at the very center of this adaptation, there is joy. Life is breathed into the story and we connect to it because it's joyous. There's this message that we are to live life now. Live for today. Don't settle, don't do what you think is expected of you. Don't go for the passionless Cecil, go for the man who makes your heart race as he sneaks a kiss behind the bushes. In this version by downplaying Cecil and actually giving George all his lines you actually connect to George in a way Forster wanted you to but was never quite able to accomplish. The speech that George gives to Lucy and Charlotte in the dinning room before he is banished from Windy Corner makes you realize how they are meant to be. I was like Charlotte, in the corner weeping, because this is what love looks like. You fight for it, you make your case, you don't go off like a wounded dog wrapped in a blanket in a carriage.

Yet, all the success of the Emersons comes down to the genius who cast the Spalls as father and son. By having an actual father and son play these characters you don't get that weird disconnect between father and son that Denholm Elliott and Julian Sands had. They felt like strangers, and Julian was way too posh. Here you not only see their love for each other, but they are able to play off each other, have the same inflection in their voices, the same infectious grin. They are true kindred spirits and by having this love offscreen it bleeds over into the film. It doesn't hurt that both of them are superb actors, in fact can we perhaps get Timothy some more well deserved awards STAT? As for Rafe, I've talked about my love of Rafe before... But seriously, now and forever, they are the Emersons for me. You love Mr. Emerson for his sweetness, his befuddled charm, his strong opinions and his belief that love conquers all. And George, I can understand why Lucy would love you, I love him watching this adaptation. He is a good man with a big heart and that grin. I'm sorry, but that grin could steal anyone's heart. He exudes vulnerability and likability and you can't help but love him. Whereas Julian Sands, I can never nor will never get that. There isn't anything inherently likable about him that makes you want to take him home and never let him leave. But Rafe, he is a good man.

This likability combined with this seize the moment and live your truth today feeds into the coda that Andrew Davies created. Now a LOT of people have expressed their displeasure about the coda, which isn't really a coda so much as a framing device for the entire story. Andrew Davies has written it so that George dies a hero in the first world war and that Lucy has come back to Italy to remember the good man that she loved. Hue and cry from all around. Firstly, have these people read the real ending that Forster tried to omit later? The one where George is a conscientious objector and then cheats on Lucy? Um, I don't think so. So right there, this ending is better, love till death do they part and all that. Secondly, Forster loves his tragedies in his final act, to leave the reader with a little slice of life and a lot of what the fuck. He had apparently toyed with the idea of killing George and having a rather different ending. Perhaps that is why in the book the ending doesn't quite work. There's something off with it. He could never get it quite right so he seems to have given up. This ending fixes that imperfect fit. Yes, it's sad. But the melancholy has a truth to it. This makes the story something more. Something greater. It's a true love story that lasted as long as it could, but reality gave us that final gut punch that Forster loved so much. Yet Lucy, while sad, is still happy, in her way. She knows that she loved a good man, that she lived the life she was meant to have, even if she was only able to hold on for a short time. It's truth and love at it's most human level.

But I really want to know, what is it about Andrew Davies that he just knows? He just gets how to streamline a story, how to take something that is good or near prefect and make it perfection. His unerring eye as to what needs to be kept and what needs to be ditched and how to sum up something that was long winded but still keeps it's essence with just a few words? Of the twenty-eight adaptations of his I have watched, I only disliked six of them, and none of the problems I had with those could be laid at his feet. Well, maybe B. Monkey, because he wrote the book as well.... But still, of my favorite miniseries of all time, almost ten of those were done by him. Is he some sort of magical adaptation fairy that comes along and sprinkles pixie dust on the production so that it will be perfect? Does he have a knack for channeling the authors and just knowing how they'd write it and exactly in what way with the perfect cadence? I remember in one of the adaptations I didn't care for, Tipping the Velvet, the one thing that really added to the miniseries was the music hall songs. Watching the extras on the DVD I found out that all the songs were Andrew Davies's idea AND he wrote them all. He is a genius and has the special power of just knowing. He gets it. That is why I think he should be the only one to adapt certain pieces of literature, and I for one am beyond gleeful that one of the pieces he did adapt was A Room with a View.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Room with a View, Andrew Davies, B. Monkey, E.M. Forster, Elaine Cassidy, Forster Fall, Helena Bonham Carter, Italy, Julian Sands, Laurence Fox, Passion, Rafe Spall, Timothy Spall, Tipping the Velvet, WWI

The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Bloomsbury Reader
Publication Date: 1928
Format: Kindle, 168 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Jerry Challenor is driving slowly to London. Taking the sleepy back roads and obscure thoroughfares. He is in no hurry, so when he sees an attractive girl alight from a bus with a large burden, he offers her a ride home. She lives at the White Cottage, which is very close at hand. After he drops the girl off he notices that the weather is in for a change and he stops to put the roof up on his convertible and gets to chatting to the local policeman. While relaxing by the side of the road the two men hear the report of a gunshot. They rush to the White Cottage, but someone is dead.

As it happens, Jerry's father is the famous Detective Chief Inspector W.T. Challenor, and Jerry calls him in to handle this mysterious murder. The victim is one Eric Crowther who lived next to the White Cottage in the grey monstrosity, the Dene. No one morns his passing. Every single person who knew him wanted him dead and everyone in the house had means and motive. The shotgun that did the deed was in the corner of the dining room, so anyone could have wandered in and blown him away. For personal reasons Jerry hopes fervently that it is not Norah, the attractive girl he gave a lift to. W.T. is baffled. He could easily arrest anyone in the house with circumstantial evidence, but it's the truth he wants. With Jerry in tow, W.T. heads to the continent and tracks down every lead he can think of... but will he ever make an arrest?

Someone at the BBC needs to make this into a movie right now! This would make a wonderful adaptation, much in the vein of the recent retelling of The Lady Vanishes with Tuppence Middleton. I'm picturing Laurence Fox as the lovestruck son Jerry and his real life father, James Fox, for W.T. Challenor. Perhaps Jenna-Louise Coleman as Norah? I'm telling you, it would be awesome. There was just something so fresh and vital about this story that I can see it appealing to anyone with a love of British period dramas and murder mysteries.

After having rather a rocky go of it with Dorothy L. Sayers, I was starting to become a little leery of my "Golden Summer" scheme. What if all these other hallowed authors where of the same ilk? Great as precursors, as proto-mysteries, as a jumping off point for later authors, but lacking that something that made them timeless and a great read till this day (Agatha Christie is exempt from these thoughts because she is awesome). What if the "Golden Age" wasn't really that golden? Thankfully The White Cottage Mystery has changed my mind and just hardened my heart to Dorothy L. Sayers. Unlike Sayers who fills her books with nonsense and ramblings, there was something so clean and spare to Margery Allingham's book that I wanted to give her book a great big hug. Not literally, because I think that might shatter my Kindle. No nonsense, no fluff, just a great whodunit that reminded me on more then one occasion of the great short stories that Daphne Du Maurier is known for. The style and turn of phrase, not to mention the setting were reminiscent of Du Maurier. And trust me, this is a true compliment from me if I'm comparing Allingham to Du Maurier.

Like Du Maurier and her obsession with the Brontes, Margery Allingham has created in Eric Crowther a character with some very interesting Bronte overtones. It's almost as if Allingham wanted to create a character as psychologically manipulative, hostile, and threatening as Heathcliff and then gleefully kill him. The fact that Crowther, through his machinations and games, is able to keep not only good people in line, but evil degenerates, shows the force of his character. He is an evil man and I echo the sentiments of Jerry that perhaps his death was an "act of God." As for the murderer... well... wait till you get to the final chapter of this lean mean mystery. My faith has been restored by this "act of God" and I will now pick up the first Campion mystery, not with cringing hands, but with a joyful song in my heart.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 1 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, ARCs, BBC, Bronte, Campion, Daphne Du Maurier, Dorothy L. Sayers, Golden Age of Detection, Golden Summer, Heathcliff, Laurence Fox, Margery Allingham, The Lady Vanishes, The White Cottage Mystery

The White Cottage Mystery by Margery Allingham
ARC Provided by the Publisher
Published by: Bloomsbury Reader
Publication Date: 1928
Format: Kindle, 168 Pages
Rating: ★★★★★
To Buy

Jerry Challenor is driving slowly to London. Taking the sleepy back roads and obscure thoroughfares. He is in no hurry, so when he sees an attractive girl alight from a bus with a large burden, he offers her a ride home. She lives at the White Cottage, which is very close at hand. After he drops the girl off he notices that the weather is in for a change and he stops to put the roof up on his convertible and gets to chatting to the local policeman. While relaxing by the side of the road the two men hear the report of a gunshot. They rush to the White Cottage, but someone is dead.

As it happens, Jerry's father is the famous Detective Chief Inspector W.T. Challenor, and Jerry calls him in to handle this mysterious murder. The victim is one Eric Crowther who lived next to the White Cottage in the grey monstrosity, the Dene. No one morns his passing. Every single person who knew him wanted him dead and everyone in the house had means and motive. The shotgun that did the deed was in the corner of the dining room, so anyone could have wandered in and blown him away. For personal reasons Jerry hopes fervently that it is not Norah, the attractive girl he gave a lift to. W.T. is baffled. He could easily arrest anyone in the house with circumstantial evidence, but it's the truth he wants. With Jerry in tow, W.T. heads to the continent and tracks down every lead he can think of... but will he ever make an arrest?

Someone at the BBC needs to make this into a movie right now! This would make a wonderful adaptation, much in the vein of the recent retelling of The Lady Vanishes with Tuppence Middleton. I'm picturing Laurence Fox as the lovestruck son Jerry and his real life father, James Fox, for W.T. Challenor. Perhaps Jenna-Louise Coleman as Norah? I'm telling you, it would be awesome. There was just something so fresh and vital about this story that I can see it appealing to anyone with a love of British period dramas and murder mysteries.

After having rather a rocky go of it with Dorothy L. Sayers, I was starting to become a little leery of my "Golden Summer" scheme. What if all these other hallowed authors where of the same ilk? Great as precursors, as proto-mysteries, as a jumping off point for later authors, but lacking that something that made them timeless and a great read till this day (Agatha Christie is exempt from these thoughts because she is awesome). What if the "Golden Age" wasn't really that golden? Thankfully The White Cottage Mystery has changed my mind and just hardened my heart to Dorothy L. Sayers. Unlike Sayers who fills her books with nonsense and ramblings, there was something so clean and spare to Margery Allingham's book that I wanted to give her book a great big hug. Not literally, because I think that might shatter my Kindle. No nonsense, no fluff, just a great whodunit that reminded me on more then one occasion of the great short stories that Daphne Du Maurier is known for. The style and turn of phrase, not to mention the setting were reminiscent of Du Maurier. And trust me, this is a true compliment from me if I'm comparing Allingham to Du Maurier.

Like Du Maurier and her obsession with the Brontes, Margery Allingham has created in Eric Crowther a character with some very interesting Bronte overtones. It's almost as if Allingham wanted to create a character as psychologically manipulative, hostile, and threatening as Heathcliff and then gleefully kill him. The fact that Crowther, through his machinations and games, is able to keep not only good people in line, but evil degenerates, shows the force of his character. He is an evil man and I echo the sentiments of Jerry that perhaps his death was an "act of God." As for the murderer... well... wait till you get to the final chapter of this lean mean mystery. My faith has been restored by this "act of God" and I will now pick up the first Campion mystery, not with cringing hands, but with a joyful song in my heart.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, ARCs, BBC, Bronte, Campion, Daphne Du Maurier, Dorothy L. Sayers, Golden Age of Detection, Golden Summer, Heathcliff, Laurence Fox, Margery Allingham, The Lady Vanishes, The White Cottage Mystery