The Tapestry of Love

I am currently reading Rosy Thornton's The Tapestry of Love and it's very good. Catherine decides to go and live in France. Why isn't really made clear - or it hasn't been so far and I'm two thirds the way through it. She finds it very easy to fit in with her neighbours in the tiny village she moves to - partly because she does speak French. She sets up a business making soft furnishings and upholstering furniture as well as designing and stitching tapestries and is asked to repair a ceremonial banner for the church. This is a gentle story about people and their surroundings and nature. Just the sort of book to read in a deck chair on a hot summer's day - with or without - a bottle of wine. Lovely cover design too.

Books

I finished Rosy Thornton's Crossed Wires last night and found it totally unlike her previous two. I was a bit doubtful about it when I read the blurb as it seemed to be mainly about the difficulties of being a single parent - a state with which I cannot identify. Once I'd started it though I found that the blurb was misleading. Yes it is about two single parents and some of the problems they encounter - but these are universal human problems - not knowing where a loved one is, worrying that they don't have enough friends, arguments etc.

The main characters are Peter - a Cambridge University lecturer - and Mina - an insurance call centre worker in Sheffield. How these two manage to sustain a relationship makes interesting reading. It is almost impossible to describe without giving away the main components of the plot. I found it satisfying and plausible. The minor characters are interesting as well - the children - Cassie and Kim and Sal - Mina's Mum and her wayward sister Jess; Peter's friends Jeremy and Martin and his research assistant Trish. The contrast between the two lifestyles is well drawn and shows that money doesn't prevent the same issues arising where children are concerned. I found it well worth reading and I look forward to this author's next book with interest.

Hearts and Minds

I finished reading Rosy Thornton's 'Hearts and Minds' last night, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not at all like her first book, but as I am always keen on novels set in universities I was quite happy to read this one. James Rycarte has been appointed Mistress - or should that be Master? - of St Radegund's College, Cambridge. He is a man in a woman's world as it is an all female college.
The college is faced with a serious moral dilemma. It needs a large amount of money to restore the college library which is slowly sinking into the Fens.

Along comes an Italian benefactor willing to offer the money in exchange for his daughter's entry to the college. In addition to potentially compromising its admissions policy the college has to decide whether the money has been honestly come by - especially when the potential donor is arrested in Italy for corruption.

James is faced with trying to do the best for the college without making to many enemies in the process. He establishes a rapport with the senior tutor, who's marriage is falling about her ears, and whose days at the college are numbered. Sometimes Martha seems to be his only friend at the college. Will James survive his baptism of fire and manage to keep his job?

The moral dilemmas involved take this book above the common run and turn it into a thoughtful and humorous story which pokes gentle fun at some of the characters who can be found at any Oxbridge college.

I'm now reading Alison Penton Harper's 'Housewife on Top', successor to 'Housewife Down and 'Housewife Up'

SAD etc

Yes it is definitely what I suffer from in winter! I felt really crotchety yesterday and every minor thing that went wrong seemed a major disaster. I did go out in the morning but obviously didn't get enough daylight. Today I walked to our post office - about 5 minutes walk - and feel a lot better. Also used my alarm with the gradually brightening light on it to wake me up - this definitely helped as well.

I'm still reading Rosy Thornton's 'Hearts and Minds' - if you like Oxbridge novels then this will be right up your street. Reminiscent of the background to Dorothy L Sayers' 'Gaudy Night' though this is not a crime story, and it's set in Cambridge not Oxford. I will write about it in more detail when I've finished it. I would not describe this as chick lit as it deals with some serious moral issues. I do like Oxbridge novels - probably because I didn't go to university myself. I expect I have a very rosy picture of life there. Jill Paton-Walsh's Imogen Quy novels are also good reading - set in Cambridge, but this time with a college nurse as the main protagonist. This is a brilliant scenario for confessions from all and sundry and being able to talk to anyone you want to without arousing suspicions.

Today I have had my Tesco delivery and the cupboards, fridge and freezer are full with enough food to last us until - oh at least next year! Apart from the midnight service on Christmas Eve I have no intention of going anywhere now for at least a week.

I need to start writing again and I think this is causing some of my less than placid mood. It's just that at the moment reading seems to hold more attraction. Writing is starting to look more interesting now I am updating this blog a bit more often.

I'm now off to review some of my favourite Internet sites and then review previous writing efforts.

Ship of fools

If you want some humour with your religion then you could do worse than try www.shipoffools.com which labels itself as 'The Magazine of Christian Unrest'. Here you can join in the search for a pizza with the face of Our Lord on it, create your own Virgin Mary piece of toast and see some very good religious cartoons. You can even buy a Virgin Mary memory stick. Then if you click on one of the links it will give you some interesting facts about today in history. One of the snippets for today - 17 December - is as follows:

It is St Olympias's Day, a wealthy widow who gave vast amounts to the poor and became a deaconness in John Chrysostom's Constantinople. She is chiefly celebrated for making things difficult for John's successor after he was deposed.

You can also buy a St Laurence pincushion to recreate his torment of being tied to a tree and having arrows fired at him. In appallingly bad taste I know but I could not resist a chuckle at some of the stuff on there. I could not help thinking that it would have been taken down long ago if it had been about any other religion . . .

I have done the last of my Christmas shopping today - mainly food bits and pieces. Once I get my Tesco order tomorrow, that will be it for us. Anything else we don't have we'll have to do without. I need to make some pork and apple sausage rolls but that is definitely it this year. Surprisingly enough the smallish - 25,000 population - local town where we went this morning to shop, was relatively quiet. We had deliberately picked 8.30am as being a quiet time, but hadn't expected it to be quite that empty.

The supermarkets, and Marks & Spencer Simply Food, all seemed to be stacked to the rafters with no one buying. I can only presume there will be a stampede later in the week - which I intend to avoid.

I'm not due back at work now until 2 weeks on Wednesday and I intend to make the most of my time off - reading and maybe even writing as well as surfing the net without one eye on clock like I usually do.

Off to read some more of Rosy Thornton's 'Hearts and Minds' - about a man in a woman's world.