Just finished........

"Un Lun Dun" by China Mieville.

 Loaned to me by my a son as being in the "suitable for mother" category it is actually written for children/young adults (which is probably why he thought it was suitable).  It is the best read I have had in a long time.  Exciting and funny it sparks the imagination.
Mr Mieville "has indicated that he plans to write a novel in every genre,^[2]"
I understand from my son that I definitely would not like some of his books so I told him to let me know if he, Mieville, ever attempts chick lit .

P.S. I would have been interested in "Supersized Earth" on BBC last night but the "background" music was so loud I couldn't hear what the man was saying.  Why do they do this????

More magic......

One of the things that suprised me yesterday at the Hollyood exhibiton yesterday was the attention to detail on every level of the cotumes, but the thing that really dropped my jaw were three beaded dresses made in the 1930's.
This one was worn by Joan Crawford in "The Bride Wore Red".

The dress was covered in 2 million beads which weighed 30lbs. I gleaned this information here
The film was made in black and white so it's full colour glory wasn't seen on film.

Just look how it hangs. I wish I had a close up to show how the beads followed the lines of the dress, I wish I could try it on, I wish I had the figure to..........

It's magic....

I have just returned from the excellent Hollywood Costume exhibition at the V&A Museum..  In the past I have been the wardrobe mistress for various amateur musical productions (I count "Camelot" as my finest hour) so of course I was fascinated be the processes which go into costuming a film. But it was the film lover who was most thrilled by this exhibition.  To stand so close to the  costume which Vivienne Leigh "made" from the cutains in "Gone With the Wind"

or

Greta Garbo as Anna Karenina gave me goosebumps.
And as for this .........

It is one of the best exhibitions I have seen ... great combination of memories and new information.

Family tree..

 I think am I am delighted with the new resource on the Find My Past site. They have added a selection of British Newspapers from 1790 - 1950.Not only have I found the death notice for my Gt x 3 Grandfather but I have I have found a source of fascinating reading.
  This obituary caught my eye...
"...of Covent Garden Theatre. After an illness of three weeks, caused by excessive inward debility, brought on, as it is supposed, by a diseased liver, and which at last attached itself to the lungs, he breathed his last a few minutes past eight o'clock on Thursday evening, at his house in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury. He was in his 47th year, and has left an amiable widow and seven young children to lament their loss, for whose future support there is reason to fear he has not made the most slender provision. Mr E. was highly esteemed by all who knew him, and everyone who has been a frequenter of the theatre is well aware of his superior talent as an actor."  Seeds of a whole novel here I think.
Poor woman.
The reason I only think I am delighted with this resource is that I can see me spending even more hours glued to the screen.
The little church at Crosscanonby in Cumberland where my Gtx2 Grandparents were married.