Flaming Nora

It’s always a joy to discover a new author and I did that last week when I read Tim Winton . I picked his book off the table in Waterstones simply because it was next to The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton, a book I adored. My eyes jumped from Patrick Hamilton’s book to Tim Winton’s Dirt Music, I flipped it over, read the back cover and was hooked from page one. Dirt Music is set in Australia, all sweeping plains and wide open spaces contrasting with the claustrophobic human relationships within. Ignore the quote from the Sunday Mail on the front cover, it really is a cracking read. And today I bought another Tim Winton, Cloud Street.

Back from a wonderful holiday to Spain. Went by train from Waterloo to Paris on Eurostar then on the trenhotel overnight from Paris to Madrid. Quite an experience but not one I think we'd want to do again due to lack of sleep (it was too exciting for sleep!) which lead to us feeling like zombies the next day. We did get train-chocolates on the pillow left at night by the lovely men who turned down our bunk beds - pictured - while we were having dinner and free drinks. From Madrid's beautiful and stunning Atocha railway station, complete with its own rain forest, we took the AVE train and spent a few days in Seville before hiring a car and spending a week on the beach on the Costa de la Luz and no, I'm not telling you where we went because it's unspoilt without hardly any other Brits. Ooh, I'm such a holiday snob. Anyway, here are the books I read while on my jollies this year: Kate Atkinson - One Good Turn (fabulous). Julie Burchill autobiography - I Knew I Was Ri...

Margaret Atwood, Edna O'Brien, Patrick Hamilton, TC Boyle. These are my four favourite authors and I know they're my favourite because I've read all their books. Douglas Coupland isn't half bad either. My favourite book of all time is The Handmaid's Tale (I've read it four times).

To Sadler’s Wells last week to see Matthew Bourne’s The Car Man . Fantabulous. I think I’ve seen all of his shows now and while this was my second viewing of The Car Man and I’ve seen Swan Lake three times over the last few years at the theatre, I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to see Highland F ling but everything else he’s done has been sublime. Also went to see Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight at The Old Vic a couple of weeks ago which was wonderful stuff. Upcoming delights we’ve got tickets for include Elling and Fiddler on the Roof although I’m looking forward to that one more than my boyfriend is, can’t think why. What’s not to like about overblown West End musical theatre? Making the most of living in London is what it’s all about. My thinking is that if you don’t go out and see things, do things, take what’s offered and enjoy it, you might as well not be here, in one of the most exciting cities in the world. I know, I'm so fickle. One minute I love the place and the next I...

Just back from a week in the sun where in between some quality sightseeing, lazing, eating and drinking I got through a few books. I love autobiographies because I enjoy reading about the private lives of public people.  Therefore, I especially bought for this holiday a book that I'd wanted to read for a very long time. It was Bill Tarmey's autobiography, Jack Duckworth and Me .  The Coronation Street actor's book wasn't what I expected, however, and I've blogged about it in depth at the Coronation Street Blog . Another light and fluffy life story I read was Strictly Come Dancing judge Craig Revel-Horwood's autobiography, All Balls and Glitter . Quite interesting but nowhere near enough backstage gossip from Strictly as I would have liked (and to be honest, what I bought the book for). Onto more weighty work with the release of a hidden gem from 1928, Patrick Hamilton's Twopence Coloured . It's been released by Faber Finds and if you've read any...

To the Old Vic this week to see Robert Lindsay and Pam Ferris (the woman from Darling Buds of May who wasn’t Catherine Zeta-Jones) in The Entertainer. It was an excellent piece of theatre. I raise my hat to Robert Lindsay who, apart from being gorgeous, whilst acting on stage and delivering dialogue, someone’s mobile phone went off in the audience. A lot of people laughed, I didn’t. Robert gave the audience member a stare and carried on. He should have threatened to walk off stage, like Richard Griffiths once did. A return to the Old Vic this summer is on the cards as they’re running Gaslight (aka The Murder in Thornton Square) by Patrick Hamilton. I’ve read all his novels , you know.

Just back from holidays in the sun - this here is one of the many pictures I took. The holiday books I read while lazing by the pool, on the beach and standed at a train station in the back of beyond after being (almost) chased by bulls through a field, dodging traffic on a motorway and getting heat-stroke were as follows. In the order I read them, they were: Piers Morgan - The Insider (tabloid tittle-tattle, great fun); Paul Carter - Don't Tell Mum I Work On The Rigs, She Thinks I'm a Piano Player in a Whore House (derring-do adventures of a bloke who worked on the oil rigs); Jancee Dunn - But Enough About me (ex-Rolling Stone magazine journo and MTV veejay memoirs); Patrick Hamilton - Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (this was really three books in one, saw it first on BBC3 and loved it to bits, the book of course was even better than the telly adaptation); Nicholas Evans - The Divide (I live in hope he'll write something as good as his first novel, The Horse Wh...