The Enid Blyton Society

I'm so happy right now. I have just acquired a jewel and I simply can't believe I have this magnificent book in my possession. Once I finish Emma I will definitely start this book now. And the title is War and Peace by Lev Tosltoy....

Well done, María Esther! I have to admit that's one I've never read myself, but I'm sure you'll find it worthwhile. My late grandmother, who was Russian, read it in the original language!

He also had some solo hits like "If I was" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ix1W065XA0k and "Breathe" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USFr5VeLQ2o.

I never knew Tolstoy made records, too.

Nigel, I think Wolfgang was referring to Midge Ure from Ultravox.

Moonraker wrote:I never knew Tolstoy made records, too.

Wasn't that Telstar?

Yes, Chrissie is right. I thought I had used the quotation option, but I was wrong .

Courtenay wrote:Well done, María Esther! I have to admit that's one I've never read myself, but I'm sure you'll find it worthwhile. My late grandmother, who was Russian, read it in the original language!

Wow! Reading it in Russian is definitely one of my dreams and could I even say, one of my goals. That's why I am learning Russian. I say, that's so amazing, that your grandmother was Russian
Also I've read that even when Czar Nicholas II didn't get on very well with Tolstoy, he was very fond of "War and Peace" and used to read it to his family.

Currently reading 'Buzz' - the Life and Art of Busby Berkeley' by jeffrey Spivak, and also dipping into a new book I had for Christmas, " Warner Bros - Hollwood's Ultimate Backlot' - both very good if you're a fan of old movies and how they were made.

Rob, I just read a book on the four Warner Brothers.
I think WB produced the best film noirs ever and Humphrey Bogart...as much as he hated working there...made his best movies at WB. IMHO Santana Productions made much less interesting Bogart movies later.

Yes, I agree - I think Warner Bros made some of the best movies in many genres. Film Noir, Gangster films, and musicals - especially in the early 1930's Busby Berkeley musicals such as Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade.

Rob Houghton wrote:I think Warner Bros made some of the best movies in many genres. Film Noir, Gangster films, and musicals - especially in the early 1930's Busby Berkeley musicals such as Gold Diggers of 1933 and Footlight Parade.

I'm currently reading At School with the Stanhopes by Gwendoline Courtney. Despite the title it is more a family story than school story.

When Rosalind's guardian dies she has to live with her much older brother Richard, a dour historian who makes no secret of finding her presence irksome. She has had to leave her expensive boarding school too but there is a small girls' school in the village run by the two Miss Stanhopes whose rhree younger sisters are also at the school. The two youngest Stanhopes (the Irrepressibles) set about reforming brother Richard to make Rosalind's home life happier.

This is another delightfully cosy comfort read from Gwendoline Courtney. I just love her books.

I have just started reading Over Sea, Under Stone, by Susan Cooper. First book in the "Dark is Rising" sequence.

I didn't read it as a child because I noticed Cooper misused the placename "Logres" in the first chapter.

So far it seems very similar to Enid Blyton or Arthur Ransome, maybe with a pinch of C.S. Lewis.