feather_ghyll

The Little Dancer: Lorna Hill. Award Publications, 1997

The latest in the ‘Dancer’ series about Annette Dancy and friends follows them from ( Read more... )

Mariana: Monica Dickens
Persephone Books, 2022 reprint

Persephone tried to sell this as ( Read more... )

All Fall Down: Ally Carter
Embassy Row 1, Orchard Books, 2015

I’ve read the Gallagher Girls and Heist Society series by Ally Carter, preferring the latter. One thing ‘All Fall Down’ shares with them is ( Read more... )

Episode 9 – semi final

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Episode 10 – final

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I didn’t mention the controversy about the grown man caught on camera stealing a hat that a player had clearly passed to a child, getting named and shamed online. His ensuing apology made the early evening news.

There was a fourth round ( Read more... )

Quarter finals: ( Read more... )

Semi-finals: ( Read more... )

I read an article pointing out that tennis is the most popular sport on TV among women in the UK. There was some blether about men having more free time, but then, you never know how long a tennis match is going to take. Of course, it is one of (if not) the best sports on gender parity, and has had female stars going back to Suzanne Longlen – and I imagine most women are perfectly happy watching athletic young men like Jack Draper etc play too…

Women’s finals: ( Read more... )

Men’s finals: I listened to this live.

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Ep 5 – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle week ( Read more... )

Ep 6 – Children’s week.

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Ep 7 – Art week

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Ep 8 - Movie week and the quarter finals

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The Thursday Murder Club (2025) Rated: 12A
Directed by: Chris Columbus
Screenplay by: Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, based on the nove by: Richard Osman
Starring: Helen Mirren, Piers Brosnan, Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley

This is well made and entertaining, it features lots of big names in the British acting firmament, some things have been dropped or tweaked for the running time, and maybe some of the characters flattened, but that’s what you expect with adaptations. I saw it in the cinema – as I don’t have Netflix, I was glad to catch it in my local arthouse cinema. I believe it’s on a short, limited run in British cinemas, at least. It is worth it for the communal chuckles, because it’s a film that sets out to entertain, and then it remembers that it is about real murders, ( Read more... )

I am aware that Bublik and Boisson made it to finals in the tournaments that were on the week after Wimbledon (I don’t know on what surfaces they were played.)

The north American swing started in Washington, ( Read more... )

The other story rumbling in the background was that quite a few top players were pulling out of the Canada Open and Cincinnati, both Masters events, which have been stretched to a week and a half, proof that the schedule is putting too much strain on top tennis players’ bodies.

( In Canada... )

( In Cincinnatti )

On to the US Open and the mixed doubles experiment. I was all set to have Sinner down as the clear favourite, but it depends how quickly he recovers. Alcaraz doesn’t quite know what his level is as his last two toughest opponents were hampered. Who knows with Djokovic – he hasn’t played since Wimbledon, but that doesn’t mean much, he’s had a great year in the Grand Slams if you’re not hunting for your twenty-fifth. It probably means more that Draper hasn’t played either. Zverev and Fritz have wobbled, though I’ve been impressed by Shelton.

The women’s side was a bit more open: Sabalenka is still no. 1, but the defending champion has had issues at grand slams this year, which only adds to the pressure. Swiatek is on her way back up, so maybe they're the top two favourites. Gauff hasn’t done much since the French relatively speaking, but it’s women’s tennis, I could totally buy there being four different champions this year – Rybakina has been improving, Paolini played herself into form at Cincinnati, don’t discount Anisimova or Keys or Whoever.

I bought Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge at the same time as I bought ‘The Heart of the Family’, discussed here, so I felt obliged to read it. But I won't be buying any more of Goudge's books from this point on. This is a historical novel, with an imaginary family, the Leighs, replacing a real-life family in Elizabethan Oxford and interacting with some historical figures. It starts with ( Read more... )

I hope to post more about books in the near future.