Thread 31 Starmer - September Rain

[DuncinToffee]

Pull up a chair for some friendly chit chat about politics and beyond

Taxes optional but greatly appreciated.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5399546-thread-30-starmer-magic-roundabouts?page=40&reply=146834602

Obviously, I feel it necessary to say that I wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

'Done because are too menny'
Jude makes the rest of Hardy's novels actually seem cheerful.
I do like Elizabeth Gaskell as well (although I confess I probably last re-read North and South, or Mary Barton over 20 years ago).
Old enough for Monty Python quotes as well...

I would recommend Under the Greenwood Tree if any Hardy lovers here haven't read it. It's tied up with West Gallery Music which is also an interest of mine.

he isn’t the messiah he is a very naughty boy.

Glad to see mention of Georgette Heyer on here, I remember feeling embarrassed taking them out of my local library. As a teenager at the time I thought they were along the lines of a Mills and Boon.
I do like George Eliot and Hardy too.
I am also rather fond of the Americans like Steinbeck, Scott Fitzgerald , Yates and I do like the writing from the fifties .
What a very well read bunch we are comrades!

@Karistyleaftea my parents had loads of Heyer and I read them all as a teenager. An entire wall of our living room was bookcases, the vast majority of it English language, so I grew up with Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Rex Stout, Dorothy L Sayers, Georgette Heyer but also Jack Vance and other classic American science fiction. I never got on with the Maigret novels though, not in the original nor in translation.

The Grapes of Wrath. Another laugh a minute! The ending was a bit strange.

The children were tragic 😔

You uncultured swine - favourite quote from Toy Story.

Some of the best films are kid's films. I love Inside Out.

@pointythings I did French A Level and we studied Moliere, Zola, Voltaire and Sainte Exupery. I loved Zola and read most of his other books in French. It’s great to experience literature from another country and culture.

I see Nadine Dorries has defected to Reform.

She's not even an MP anymore. Why is this news?

She's a pretty well-known Tory?

Yes - but she's yesterday's nobody Tory.
Reporting this just looks like trying to revive her profile.
What's next? Nadine Norries takes out National Trust membership?

Everything Reform does is news

Except anything that holds them to account

What took her so long? Surely not the vetting?

I read her book on holiday several years ago. In my defence, my Kindle had run out of battery and it was lying around in the communal area. I think it might be the worst book I've ever read.

No book is as bad as 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz.

Didn't Ben Shapiro write a book once?

At the risk of being controversial I beg to differ.
The worst book ever written is 'How to kill your family' by Bella Mackie.

Oh come on, The Da Vinci Code is the worst by far.

Apart from Nadine Dorries.

La Cucina by Lily Prior is the worst book I’ve ever read. Mainly for one sentence. If you’ve ever read it, you’ll know.

DH's nan used to pass on Mills and Boone books to me. I read a couple and then politely kept the rest for a couple of weeks before giving them back. There were only a couple of plots so it was easy to pretend I'd read them. In return I lent her my copy of Lady Chatterley. It went round the entire sheltered housing and I never did get it back.

Concerned citizens, worried mums....

https://bsky.app/profile/wohyeahwohyeah.bsky.social/post/3lxxosiobnc2x
This is vile. Local guy speaks to Sky News about the impact of asylum seekers protests. Watch what happens and share widely