Friday 9 November 2007

Fame and fortune and deadlines


Deadlines.

Dead. Lines.

D-e-a-d-l-i-n-e-s.

I am under fire. But I’m hanging on in there. Like this rose in my garden. Despite some extremely squally showers, and heavy rain overnight, it is still not in tatters. Not yet.

While performing some routine tasks in the last couple of days, I’ve been catching up on some Radio 4. Notably Frederic Raphael’s radio adaptation of his Fame and Fortune, which is being serialised in six parts. It’s very Raphaelite – stagey and self-conscious, with dialogue that’s as contrived as can be. But it works. There’s real truth in there. The students from The Glittering Prizes are middle-aged now. Aren’t we all. It’s engaging, it grips, it flows and I love it. I’m debating whether to read the book – I’ll have to have a dip in a bookshop before deciding. I rather suspect that, having listened to Tom Conti, Miranda Richardson, Harriet Walter, Nigel Havers et al, there will be little that the novel can add to this. But I may, of course, be entirely wrong. I often am.

Watched the third programme in the Genius of Photography series on BBC4 last night. This is a truly excellent series in every way – it goes that extra mile compared with so many TV documentaries. Riveting, intelligent and visually enlightening stuff from beginning to end. And knitting the whole lot together is the ideal narration by Dennis Lawson (which verges on the seductive, but maybe that’s just me),

Although, please, why don’t good actors ever query bad writing when they’re asked to read it? There was a less instead of a fewer and a mis-use of ‘comprised’. So routine these days that they don’t even register, I suppose. Except with people like me. Which is why I was so delighted to alight unexpectedly (as one does) upon this delicious blog the other day: my grammar could hit the target from that distance . It’s for People Who Care.

That William Coles fellow, author of The Well-Tempered Clavier, has his own special WTC blog. He seems to take great exception to people getting his name wrong . Which I find mildly amusing . . .

Worrying times out here on the East Coast. Many further north-east of here, in Suffolk and Norfolk, have woken this morning to the prospect of evacuation. The Muddy Island and its environs haven't yet featured in any of the flood warnings, but we're staying tuned for further news.

cartoon from www.weblogcartoons.com

Cartoon by Dave Walker. I love this site: We Blog Cartoons You can re-use Dave's cartoons on your blog free and gratis. I shall be unable to resist posting some more from time to time.

Better get on with my work.

5 comments:

Pauline Rowson said...

Thinking of you on your muddy Island. Hope the floods don't reach you, Juliet. Hang on in there.

Rob said...

Looks like you should be OK. I'm glad- otherwise that picture would have to change. How enjoyable to look around here, Juliet. I'll be back.

Juliet said...

Thanks Pauline - as you will see from the subsequent pics, it wasn't too bad at all - quite good fun in fact. We were cut off from the mainland for hours and hours, but some of us actually rather relish that (and it went down in time for the school run, thankfully).

Hi Rob - thanks for visiting the Muddy Island (now considerably more muddy than it has been for a while!)

Anonymous said...

JuliET - mea maxima culpa!
In another incarnation I'd have been sacked for such a blunder ... Billx

Juliet said...

Hey, forget it. I shall always think of you as Bob, anyway!