Books
With all the rain we’ve had, the door on the village telephone box library is jammed shut.
Luckily, I have a number of great books on my Kindle still to read, thanks to NetGalley, which provides advance reader copies of digital books in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve just finished reading The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It’s not out yet – I had a review copy – but it’s such a compelling novel.
I’m generally a low scorer (something has to be pretty amazing for me to award it five out of five) but I gave the book four stars on Goodreads.
Here’s my review :
This is an astonishing debut. Time travel, romance, comedy and thriller, all beautifully constructed and written with literary flair.
In the near future, the unnamed protagonist works as a civil servant for The Ministry of Time in London as a ‘bridge’ between her world and her charge, a naval officer from the 19th century who history says disappeared in the frozen north, with the rest of the ill-fated crew. The plot follows the twists and turns of their relationship with each other, with authority, their pasts, presents and future and the wider world.
This was a compelling, easy read with much humour and pathos. Can see it making a great film or television series.
Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for an advance review copy of this novel.
Lo and behold, the novel is being made into a television serial.
Imagine what it must feel like to have your work adapted for the small and big screens. It’s happening to someone I know who worked at the Dorset Echo the same time as I did, albeit in different offices. It must be incredible, if a little scary, to see someone else nurturing your ‘baby’ for a different medium and audience.
Joanna Quinn’s The Whalebone Theatre, a family epic, coming-of-age novel and wartime thriller set in Dorset and France, is to get the television treatment. I loved the novel and gave it five stars.
I’m about to start reading Andrew McMillan’s Pity and The Women by Kristin Hannah.
Television
We’re still plodding through Blue Bloods (CBS), the multi-season police drama with Tom Selleck heading a family of New York cops embroiled in crime and political intrigue. It’s an easy series to watch, with self-contained episodes and likeable, hardworking characters, and nothing too taxing for an addled brain to take in late in the evening.
We’ve just started True Detective (Amazon Prime), a crime and mystery drama which is providing to be uncomfortable and brutal viewing. The jury is still out on this one. Maybe I need to get past season one. I’m done with stories that feature hideous crimes with women as victims.
There are times when our preferred viewing is just not compatible. Mr Grigg is currently watching Masters of the Air (Apple TV), an American war drama mini-series, and I’m watching Daisy Jones and the Six (Amazon Prime), which charts the rise and fall of a fictional 1970s rock band not dissimilar to Fleetwood Mac.
I wasn’t keen on the book but I’m enjoying the show, particularly the gorgeous Riley Keough, the granddaughter of Elvis and Priscilla Presley. She’s mesmerising.
Films lined up to watch include Saltburn (Amazon Prime), which I’m plucking up the courage to see after hearing someone talk about it in the pub, and One Love, the biopic of Bob Marley, in cinemas now, which looks amazing.
Maddie Grigg 