Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

We have all the LOTR DVDs with all the extras, which get watched as much as the movies themselves.

PS - I must be the only person in the country who has also neither read nor seen any Harry Potter!

My husband hasn't

englishangel wrote:My husband hasn't

I haven't either, nor do I have much desire to see the films.

They are for children, and if you have no children (or local grandchildren) there is no reason to see/read Harry Potter. I have not seen the last 2, though I have read all the books.

I've just finished a book called 'I Didn't Say I Was Perfect' by Zoe Higginson. It's a curious blend of her own life story (including inter alia her time at an all girls' Boarding School in Hertfordshire which is clearly identifiable, and a move to another (mixed) school in Sussex, which again is pretty obvious) and the thinkings of a ghost called Belinda but who is clearly modelled on the the writer's impressions drawn from the Susannah Holmes portrait and the 'Susannah' mythologies which abounded at Hertford and which I believe now continue at Horsham.
Very strange! But somehow compulsive reading - albeit that it's not terribly well written and any editing is non existent. For instance, spelling and grammatical mistakes abound.

I was moved by the late Harry Patch, RIP, to borrow All Quiet on the Western Front ( Erich Maria Remarque) from the library. It's vivid, gruesomely detailed & feels completely authentic. I shall plough on to the end, but getting steadily more depressed about how little we've learned...

My fathers uncle was a machine gunner in the first world war.

He became a confirmed pacifist, but told me the most horrific tales of life in the trenches. I was young, probably only 9 or 10 at the time.

My partner's grandfather died at Loos, aged 30, & his great-uncle was killed on the Somme, aged 39. They were both in 2nd. Battn., Royal Warwicks. The ones who came home were promised "homes fit for heroes" - they said they needed to be heroes to live in them.

My grandfather died of influenza and septic pneumonia on 9th. November 1918; one of my mother's relatives had both legs blown off. He had been an apprentice cabinet-maker before the war; afterwards he was re-trained as a cobbler.

Nearly finished the book. JR, you must have been half-fascinated, half-terrified at what you heard at such a tender age - for me, even reading about it (I guess it was roughly the same for the average soldier on both sides), is difficult enough. It's a book that's been on my mental list for years, a modern classic as they say, but it was only because of Harry Patch that I plucked up the courage.

The one thing that really sticks in my mind, is my Great Uncle telling me that a machine gunner had a better chance of survival because, "He didn't have to go 'Over The Top' !"

Anita Shrieve Testimony-fantasitc read, had me in tears at points and very emotionally involved. Silas and Noelle parts written absolutly beatuifuly

"You're Nicked !!"

By Dick Kirby, a retired Met Flying-Squad detective sergeant.

Yes - I have read it before, but I thought I'd re-live the good old days once again.

Written about the times when coppers WERE coppers

I think "All quiet on the Western Front" is one of the great books of all time.
Written from the German point of view, it shows up the total futility of the War.
A few years ago I visited Thiepval on the Somme, (Lutchens Memorial) where the masses of British, French and German graves, with the thousands of names of the "No KNown Graves" brought tears to my eyes.
My great- Uncle won a VC at Thiepval ("Purely political dear boy !") and my Grandfather a DCM ("For running away !") That War -- and all Wars -- are sheer Hell !

On a much lighter note TBA is getting me to read Murial Gray's "The First Fifty" about climbing "Munroes" -- it is hilarious. Written a few years ago, but it does Take the Mickey !!

The Book Thief, absolutly captivating. Last sunday on page 90 by Wed had finished on page 553! Just beatifully written and really draws you in.

North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell. Slow going, very detailed, every nuance of feeling examined from all angles. Fairly interesting if predictable storyline, but absolutely fascinating as social history. One of those classics I had on my "ought to read before I pop my clogs" list, & grabbed off the shelf because I was rushing off to an appointment! Sorry, Mrs. G. ...