New Years Honours

It suddenly came to me why they give honours to national treasures like Penelope Keith; it's to draw our attention away from the "friends of the Prime Minister" further down the list.

The Thirteenth Tale

It's the 1950s and 60s. A bunch of debauched aristocrats commit incest, neglect their kids, go mad and murder servants without the local authorities taking the slightest bit of notice. Apparently rural Yorkshire hasn't changed at all since the days of Cathy and Heathcliff.

It's a very silly story but effective as chain-yanking melodrama. I'm glad I ingested it as a movie because the book would have wasted a lot more time. Also the book doesn't have Vanessa Redgrave- who is surely our greatest living actor. 

The Last Day Of The Year

We got up at the usual time this morning but it was so dark it seemed earlier. It's been a dim, rainy day. Ailz has caught some bug or other and feels lousy.

My mother spent the earlier part of the afternoon watching Home Alone. It's as if she'd read my Mary Poppins post and thought, "Ha, I'll show him..."