twenty 8 and twenty 9

Andrew and I have had the A&E three video set of The Scarlet Pimpernel for five years. It's quite good. But nothing compared to the book. Though don't read it expecting it to be historically accurate, as the introduction says, it's a bit of theatrical fluff. But such good fluff. A bazillion times better than the video series.

Couldn't find a picture of the book, I have the Folio edition which is very nice, but apparently they're not selling it any more. If you have a hankering to read it, Baroness Emmuska Orczy wrote it. A funny thing about her writing career. She was hungarian nobility, whose family fled their estate after parts of it were burned by the townspeople (who didn't appreciate that her father wasn't much interested in farming...it's a long story) anyway, eventually they landed in England. One of the baroness' friends who "knew nothing of life and had never alked with anyone who might have taught her anything" had a story published. Her response?

"Here I am who have known so many brilliantly clever people, who have travelled and seen and appreciated so many marvels of this wide, wide world, who have studied art and music, history and drama, why shouldn't I try to write something, I woulud like to know."

And just finished Animal Farm by George Orwell. Another Folio book I've had for ages. I thought it would take ages to read, but it was only a hundred pages or so. Kind of a cross between Lord of the Flies and the conspiracy of 1984. Good though.

Now what to read next??T