O Brave Chocolate!

Mark reminded me this morning of his childhood self and how he was constantly misunderstanding things.  I know all children do this, but Mark had his own way of misunderstanding, as you can well imagine.  And one of the things he thought was that the Toblerone advert was about chocolate being isolated.  It didn’t occur to him that this was an improbable way of selling chocolate (viz. the infamous ‘Strand’ campaign):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strand_(cigarette)

he just thought that the phrase ‘out on its own’ meant that Toblerone was, well – literally ‘out on its own.’  Like a young child being out on their own; that this was something vaguely disturbing and that the viewer was being encouraged to, as it were, keep the chocolate company.

The mind of Mark!

But today is Friday and so we shall turn the mind of Lizardyoga to higher things; namely to book reviews.  I have now finished – as did Jill Paton Walsh – the final ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’ novel ‘Thrones, Dominations.’  It’s an odd title which I suspect is a quotation from somewhere, but the book is interesting because it was begun by Dorothy L Sayers and completed after her death (quite recently) by Walsh.

Wimsey is an attractive, if anachronistic character who is not so much modernised as translated here, via the agency of his wife.  He has recently married the writer Harriet Vane in a union which is more a marriage of minds than a sexual passion, although they seem fond of each other; and it is Harriet who translates Wimsey for the modern reader.  She is very much her own person and pursues a writing career in the teeth of opposition from the local community who are united in trying to persuade her to produce an heir.  So if you enjoy gently anachronistic crime fiction and are able to resist gnashing your teeth when confronted with class privilege, then give this a go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrones,_Dominations

Apparently the title is a quote from Milton.

Looks like we’re going to be moving soon.  If anyone knows of a 3-bedroom house for rent in Leicester, let us know.

Kirk out

 

Less Will Be More

It’s a library kinda week; I’m still waiting for my train to come so I can finish the review of ‘Ideas above our Station’, a train-based short story collection.  I have submitted this twice now to Thresholds and they keep saying they like my style etc but could I just…?  So I did just… – and now they’ve come back to me again saying, yes it’s better but couldn’t I just also…?  Oh, and by the way I need to reduce the word-count.  So they want more content but in fewer words.

* Sigh *

I guess this is pretty much par for the course, though.  So to occupy me while I’m waiting for my train-book to arrive, I shall be going to the library to take part in the Crime Group, where we will be discussing Rod Duncan’s book, ‘Backlash’.  I shall be complaining that due to the sustained tension of the long final scene it kept me awake until 1 am.  But to sustain me after that I am now reading the much gentler ‘Thrones, Dominations’ which is a sort of post-mortem mish-mash of a Lord Peter Wimsey novel.  Begun by Dorothy L Sayers and completed by Jill Paton Walsh, it’s turning out to be an excellent read, and much better bed-time stuff than a high-octane chase through the back streets of Leicester.  I shall post a full review when I’m finished.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/132671.Thrones_Dominations

And now I must away.  The library beckons!

 

Kirk out