I have been obsessed with this image since I saw it in the National Portrait Gallery shop a few months ago. 

Isn't it just marvellous and full of grace, beauty, cheekiness? Maybe even a soupçon of devil-may-care... 

The caption reads "Betty Lindley by Bassano, 1914"

I have been looking for some info about the luminous Ms Lindley, but haven't found anything. One entry on the movie database IMDb lists a Betty Lindley as having appeared in a 1920 movie, "Duds". And that's about it! 

I now have that beautiful picture, framed, on my wall. It will be a great source of inspiration when I work on my books... 

For some more pictures of the delicately beautiful Ms Lindley, go to the National Portrait Gallery Collection HERE. 

I think I'd better start watching myself when I speak to people. Look at this funny blog showing you the subtle way to express yourself in French!
 FRENCH FACES

I think I'd better start watching myself when I speak to people. 

Righto... So basically:

OH! SORRY! 
It's the other way around, isn't it? 
Hehehe... This is the best way to demonstrate the Theory of Evolution, ever!

Well, I know the one I'd prefer to spend an afternoon with ... And it's not the one wearing a silly shirt! :-)

Well, not exactly a "wage slave"...

"The Book of Thoth" is now on hold for a while as I need to earn some money... Ahh, to be a full-time published writer... Wouldn't it be nice? It is a bit of a shame as I had come back refreshed and inspired from my holidays in Dorset. I was in the right frame of mind to take my story further...
 
I can't complain as I am a freelancer and therefore have the best working conditions... My own little flat!
But I have so much coming in that it is merely a choice between sleeping and working on the book, and I just need to sleep, in my case 8 hours a night.
So... Some sacrifices have to be made!

My first novel "I Am a Muse" is currently with two literary agents, two publishing companies and has been entered in one competition. I hope this will be enough to keep things ticking nicely while I earn some much needed dosh!

And then, in January, it will be time to decide if I throw myself into the scary world of self-publishing...

Thank you to Christopher Fowler for posting this video on his blog (www.christopherfowler.co.uk)
Food for thought, unless our brains are already dead.

This is very scary stuff in a society in which being your own person is already extremely difficult.

We need to be vigilant, now more than ever before.

I hadn't read the book, I hadn't seen the series; So I arrived at the cinema yesterday evening without too many prejudices and expectations, apart from the fact that 1) it was a British movie with a Scandinavian director, and therefore not an overblown American bling feast and  2) the cast was superb anyway, so it couldn't be all bad.

I had heard a few reviews on the radio (I never let myself be influenced by reviews, mind) - Front Row on Radio 4: they all adored it, and The Saturday Review, on Radio 4 again: a bit more blase, and I have to quote the uber-irritating Miranda Sawyer who didn't like it mostly because (she moaned)  "There is only ONE woman in the movie and she's BEAUTIFUL and she DIES" and of course mumbled something about feminism. She must have had an orgasm, then, when a graffiti spelling "The Future is Female" can be seen on a fence several times in one of the scenes...  And actually, Kathy Burke has a speaking part, so it might be demeaning to her to say such a thing... If these programmes could avoid inviting embittered female guests to review movies and plays, they would do us a favour... At least, the blokes get on with it.

Anyway, so, the movie...
I loved it, because it was such an unusual piece of work. Moody, slow, atmospheric... It recaptures the idea I have of the seventies - not that I remember any of it, though, I was just a kid - everything is dirty, grey, messy, unkempt, depressing. 
Of course, all the actors were all excellent and Gary Oldman, whom I have always liked for actually having a personality and taking risks, is masterful: understated, quiet, reserved, thoughtful but also a wounded man in his personal life. He ends up being very touching.

It is rare nowadays to see a movie that takes its time and that understands the importance of silence, of facial expressions and of what's happening behind a person's eyes.

And some of the reviewers clamoured loudly that of course, they had guessed who the mole was from the beginning, well, I didn't even try to guess, I let myself be carried to the end by the plot and the actors. It was strangely gripping, and deserves to be successful at the box office, although I am sure quite a lot of people wouldn't have the patience to sit through this slow-burning, unglamorous, intelligent movie. 




Next movie for me will be Anonymous, the "Shakespeare" movie, out at the end of October. Looks like this one won't be moody ...

What do you mean, "Dolly Who?"

Here is Matt ArtPix's report from the Leigh-on-Sea Handmade and Vintage fair that took place last Saturday... He had some very funny customers! We had a lot of fun and can't wait for our next fair (more on this soon!)

Please believe me when I say that the last time I watched an American TV series was... er... probably the 80s, then, because I am pretty sure it was "Knight Rider".
Before that, there had been things like "Charlie's Angels", "Wonder Woman", "Hart to Hart", "The Bionic Woman" and "The Fall Guy".
And all those were dubbed in French, imagine! Or rather, don't.
*UPDATE: My boyfriend has actually reminded me that I had told him I had watched a few episodes of the X-Files back in the 90s... So there, I lied... Or rather, I have selective memory.

Anyway, I had never watched another American TV series until yesterday. We decided to watch the 2009 remake of the series V (I had liked the 80s series, but I don't remember which one I had seen as there are so many different ones: V ). It had been satisfyingly creepy and disturbing.

So then, the 2009 series:
*Urgh*
Maybe if you've carried on watching US programmes, you'd had time to get used to them... But to me, it was a massive shock to the system.

Shallow doesn't even start to describe it. Everything is sleek, clean, perfect. Every actor has had a bit (or several) of their face redone and have been so injected with, what, botox? that we get science-fiction within the science-fiction: the actors all look like aliens who can't "emote"...

The Visitors look more like corporate board members than anything else, with the suitably blank stare and little satisfied smile on their plastic lips.

Of course, we get the priest whose faith is put into doubt by the appearance of the aliens; why do Americans have to throw a bit of god into everything? TICK

Oh, and of course there is the lame "side" stories, entirely devoid of any psychological depth and intelligence: the "brave" botoxed, enhanced single FBI mother (TICK) whose teenage son already looks half-human in that kind of jock, beefed up, clean pro-abstinence TV ad blandness that passes for the type of desirable physique to attain for teens these days. Of course, he's got an overweight friend! And he is attracted to a wannabe porn-star wearing too much orange make-up... Not surprising, then, when he gets taken in by the Visitors propaganda. There's a big blank space to fill. TICK.

I can feel the forbidden romance between the harassed but hard-as-nails single mother (whose son will become her worst enemy, ALL THAT BECAUSE HIS DAD HAS LEFT HER SO SHE FEELS GUILTY, geddit?) and the will-he-resist-the-pleasures-of-the-flesh-Catholic-priest-but-oh-go-on-then he-had-already-started-doubting-his-faith-already-anyway-so-might-as-well coming on. TICK.

Somewhere else, we have the obligatory "nice" black character (TICK) with surreal white teeth - I had to blink so much whilst looking at him - who of course is really an alien, but hey, he's a NICE one -  and he loves his girlfriend very much (TICK); the girlfriend oddly looks like the whole of the Jacksons siblings rolled into one - post operations. Very strange.

Gone is the Nazi allegory, in are the - absolutely NOT subtle - references to 9/11 and terrorism (the series is relocated to New York, just to make sure you GET IT, and they tell you during the opening titles too, just in case you DIDN'T GET IT!). 

The first episode reveals everything, more or less all at the same time, in order to make sure they catch the attention of a generation of viewers whose attention span has been reduced to 5 seconds by over-usage of computers and social media.

Very odd stuff indeed... It left me feeling slightly sick, as if I had eaten a jam doughnut with an extra helping of icing sugar on top. Which I've actually never done. 


Thankfully, to balance it out, tonight is the last episode of "The Hour", which is intelligent and enjoyable enough to wash the sticky feel of this disaster of a series off my skin.

It's official: I must have a big brain. It would explain quite a few things about my strange behaviour and preferences, if we are to believe this new research results that have been published.

There was an article in The Independent last Saturday about it, written by Howard Jacobson.
 
"We in the north have bigger brains, they say, only because, like primitive cameras, we need larger apertures through which to process our native darkness into light [...] If light does play a part in the difference then the way to understand it is that people with large brains seek out places where there's less light, or stay in places where there's less light, because they know that light distracts from the gritty business of living sceptically, mistrustfully, and intelligently."

I quite like this definition, really, as it would then explain why I've never liked southern Europe and exotic destinations, can't stand the beach and the forced sunny happiness of the Summer season, adore scandinavia, winter, dark venues and museums... As for living sceptically and mistrustfully... :-)