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Monday, 31 December 2007

Monday, 17 December 2007

Christmas Music

The hell with it, it's Christmas, let's be conventional -
a good excuse to revisit the lovely Jean-Baptiste Maunier, with his superb voice (which he doesn't have any more) and his petit air de James Dean (which he'll have for a few years yet, make the most of it JB):



No? Too virtuous for you? All right then:

Saturday, 8 December 2007

Seriously..

..however busy you are, make time to read the extract from Doris Lessing's Nobel acceptance speech at http://books.guardian.co.uk/nobelprize/story/0,,2224068,00.html.
Just read it.

In the spirit of feeding the hunger, I've decided that from time to time I'll put a space on the site for book recommendations. Not just to say 'my favourite book is', or to review the latest books out, there are lots of other places to do that, but to draw attention to a book other people might have missed, and which you think is really worth reading.

I'm going to start off by recommending THE FARM by Richard Benson. I vaguely heard about this when it came out a couple of years ago, but only just got round to reading it, and I think it's really good. Benson is a journalist, and he uses a plain unaffected style to describe the events around the sale of his family's farm and the end of a way of life for his parents and brother. It is about the current state of farming in this country, but it's more about being a son (and a Yorkshireman). It's moving and funny, and - because of the indomitable characters - not quite as heartbreaking as you're afraid it's going to be, which can only be a good thing.

More recommendations please...?


Zeph

Friday, 7 December 2007

12 Days of Spam -- by File





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