Getting some serious reading done at last

Normally I am an avid reader but recently I went through a spell when I wasn't reading anything new much at all, just rereading stuff I had already read umpteen times.

Now I am back to 'normal' thanks to my new library card and a splendid birthday gift from the lovely lemur.

I have just finished Margaret MacMillan's Women of the Raj, an interesting and sympathetic study of a rather unsympathetic breed; British women in India. Now I have two on the go. The first is Every Man Will Do His Duty, an anthology of first hand accounts of life in the Royal Navy in Nelson's time. Its a good antidote to fictional versions of the O'Brian variety. I find the point of view of the lower deck very interesting too; much more the self confident expert in his trade than the down trodden wretch sometimes portrayed.

The best of the lot though is the prezzie; Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography. I worked in London on and off in the late 70's and early 80's and even lived there for a couple of years but I wouldn't say I knew the place well. Does anyone really know London? Ackroyd's book is a tour de force of thematic writing. He draws out the essential continuity of the place over the last 2000 plus years and somehow makes it more understandable, if not more lovable. I have always disliked the noise, dirt, lack of civility and persistent low level violence of London. To know it has been like that for 2000 years is oddly comforting though it doesn't really make me like the place anymore!

BTW, if you haven't read any of Ackroyd's other stuff run to the bookstore now. My favourites include The Plato Papers, English Music and The House of Dr. Dee (all novels) and his biography of Thomas More. I haven't read his biographies of Blake and Dickens yet but I shall. FWIW I didn't care for Milton in America.

More kitten news

The good news is that the little grey guy hasn't lost any more weight but he is only gaining slowly (he is back to the weight he was a week ago) despite the fact that he is now eating up a storm. He is also the scruffiest, messiest kitten I have ever seen. We have to bathe him at least once a day and he looks so bedraggled even when his fur has been blown dry and combed out!

The black one (turns out to be a girl) is like a little bear cub. This morning when i was trying to feed the little one, the black one climbed up my chest and tried to grab the syringe was using for feeding. When her turn comes she damn near swallows the syringe and sucks away like a Hoover.

Padmini shows some interest in the little ones but Leela couldn't care less. If we can get them big enough to have their shots (cross fingers) we will be able to let them play together.

HDTV

A question for those of you on the other side of the pond... is High Definition TV available in Europe? How widespread is it?

There is a little bit here. PBS has a really good 24 hour a day channel with some decent programming but the output from the other networks is quite limited. I must say though that at its best it is pretty stunning. Better than DVD by quite a wide margin.

Slightly Silly

For reasons that will be obvious to cheekbones3 I found myself Googling for "Batley Women's Institute". There was but one result but I reproduce it here for general edification and amusement.

( The result )

And while we are on the subject...

And while we are on the subject of Womens Institutes, there really is an Ugley Women's Institute. Its in Essex, quite close to Bishop's Stortford. I know because my mother, in her roving cheese promotion job with the Milk Marketing Board days, used to lecture to them most years.

Rumour also indicates the presence of a WI at Loose in Kent but I cannot personally confirm this.

Thought for the day

Is suicide really a soft option? If one really is completely valueless in society's terms, why not?