dog-days

OTOH, outside academia I don't think Walter Scott himself is read widely/adapted to new media in the way that Dickens is. Scott is mostly known as the father of the historical novel, and as an influence on Dickens, rather than loved for his characters and works. So - I don't know about how things are in the academic world - but at least in terms of popular literary consciousness, the Porter sisters role in establishing a major genre is forgotten. Re: Collins. I remember really enjoying The Woman in White when I was sixteen or so. It still had the page-turning qualities that its contemporary audience must have loved, and if ever I do have a pet cat, there's a fair chance he'll be called Fosco in best nineteenth-century fashion. I've had The Moonstone and Armadale on my to-read list for ages, but never got round to them.

It was a fairly ominous sign when Albert Speer Jr's firm was hired to design the German toytown. Previous works included a central courthouse in Riyadh (2007). The UK seems full of dodgy developers and local councils. Mostly not megalomaniacal in the totalitarian style (though Cardiff has its moments), but ready to build on flood plains, produce only the type of housing that will net the biggest profit (three/four bedroom houses mainly), and create housing estates without any facilities, infrastructure or community spaces. I mean to follow the 2019 winner of the Stirling Prize, a council housing development in Norwich; I was very glad it won, but it'll be interesting to see how it develops - if it's able to fulfil the hopes the planners had for it.

That's horrendous. I can't believe anyone ever thought that was a good idea. I mean, it sounds a bit like Shanghai's new towns, but someone apparently read about them and thought "that's way too modest and low-key! What the Black Sea region needs is a valley full of identical Disney mansions." At least with the extended burst of masochism that was brutalist architecture, I can see the original ideals behind the gruesome exterior. With this, I have no words. I wonder what is was like to be involved in the project. Maybe at the start to think a new development in the area would be a good idea, and then to return and see the horror of the fantasy-made-real. I envision a Munch-Scream-style moment. Though I suspect for the senior people, the only horror was that their scheme didn't make them millions.

All the chat about political motivation in the UK thread made me pay more attention than usual when I came across a dramatic little episode in the early career of Lloyd George. It all sounded a bit North-Wales-meets-Robert-Louis-Stevenson, yet it is apparently true.

German translation of Hamilton launches in Hamburg. A studio recording of the opening song was released to hype it up. Now I just need Wales to do a version Cymraeg. Well, someone's already translated and performed a bit of Encanto. A full-scale musical can't be that much of a stretch!

Hope it's the first of many more bans. Horrible stuff.

Yes. My Dad read bits of Pyramids aloud to me when I was around nine years old, and a year or so later I read Hogfather. Afterwards Wyrd Sisters, Reaper Man and Feet of Clay. And onwards, until I soon had to wait for Terry to release a new book... A lot of people have suggested that Guards, Guards! the first City Watch book could be a good starting point.

WTF. Hilary Mantel has died. This is a shit week. I thought she was younger than seventy and imagined she'd be around and busy writing and providing social commentary for decades. The Thursday before last saw the premature and very sad death of fiddle-player and all-round lovely bloke Paul Sartin.

I read it yesterday; it was a really good article. Loved the description of the writing of Good Omens.

I'm sorry that Elder Race didn't win Best Novella. I didn't read the other contenders in the category and so didn't vote, but I enjoyed its particular combination of science fiction and fantasy a lot.

Regeneration by Barker was one of my A-level set texts. Many years on and I still haven't read the rest of the trilogy; not because the first book wasn't good, but because it was perhaps too good at depicting its subject unflinchingly. A great deal of research must have gone into the writing, but it was worn lightly. I have never read Mary Renault. However, fans and even the uninitiated like me might enjoy Daniel Mendelsohn's essay in the New Yorker The American Boy about growing up reading and corresponding with Renault.

By the name of [fantasy god moniker of choice], how does he do it? Is he really identical triplets? Also, is my local library service going to buy it?

[Snip] just lost a fight against my elderly phone. Quoted/replied when I meant to edit.

Didn't mention it in my initial post since I'm pretty sure the man himself wouldn't have wanted it brought up, but a lot of the denizens of the video games thread will of course remember Warner as the voice of Jon Irenicus in Baldur's Gate 2. Another villain, but such a good one. Michael Billington's recollections of him on stage @TheLastWolf I hope your cricketer is as good as my actor.

David Warner's died. I loved his voice. Was lucky enough to see him act live on stage a couple of times around fifteen years ago after he began his live theatre comeback. Guardian obit. Never met him, but was always left with a positive impression from what I heard. He joined the protests against the Iraq War.

My forearms got eaten by horseflies as I walked along an overgrown path between two fields on Saturday. I look as if I've got the plague, and the bites are bloody itchy. No suggestions - just sympathy.

Interesting-sounding book, albeit more difficult than the kind I'm used to reading these days. Still, I should maybe give it a go. It reminds me of the recent discovery of slave living quarters in Pompeii. I think that lupa (female wolf) was a common term for prostitute in Latin, not just in Pompeii. Hence one interpretation of the Romulus and Remus myth, that the boys weren't suckled by a wolf, but adopted by a woman who worked in the oldest trade.

Don't think so - sounds as if he's still working on it.

I remember being very disappointed by Thief of Time when it came out. Hogfather was the book that got me into the series, so the prospect of another Susan Sto Helit instalment had made me quite excited. That said, I reread it a couple of years ago, since to date it is the only Discworld novel to have been translated into Welsh (why this one in particular I have no idea) and found the character of Myria/Unity (the Auditor who commits death by chocolate) more interesting/affecting than I'd thought. The Nanny Ogg cameos were great, and I'm generally easy to amuse with digs at organised mysticism.

Thanks for the extract, Zorral. A George-and-the-dragon reference makes it as good a time as any to link to Not My Best Side by UA Fanthorpe.

Yes - the setting and story itself might not be ground-breaking, but I did feel that what it did, in terms of pacing, atmosphere, and characterisation, it did really really well.

My favourite of his is Guns of the Dawn - I also liked Dogs of War a lot. I've still got a lot of his back catalogue to catch up on. Really, I should write 'catch up on his future output' since he writes faster than I can read.

I'm fond of Jingo too, even if is a bit messy compared to Feet of Clay/Nightwatch. Loved the interspersing of references to General Tacticus, and Vimes's personal organiser. I still sometimes catch myself chuckling at odd moments, no doubt alarming passing pedestrians, when I remember Tacticus's advice regarding What to Do When One Army Occupies a Well-Fortified Fortress on Superior Ground and the Other Does Not - "Endeavour to be the one inside." ETA: I'd meant my 1000th post to be in the Second Quarter Reading thread, but then I started thinking about my favourite moments in Pratchett and forgot the plan...

Just got back from a Q&A with Ben Aaronovitch. He comes off in person as I expected him to be - a rapid talker with a quick wit and a sense of fun. His research for The October Man included learning about Feuerkartoffeln from German Twitter, eating Schnitzel and being impressed by Deutsche Bahn. Upcoming novellas include a PG Wodehouse-influenced story about Nightingale in 1920s America, and Abigail visiting Paris (accompanied by one stowaway fox), plus another Tobias Winter book. I think often at these events it feels as if the challenge is to ask a somewhat-relevant question that the author hasn't already answered a million times before - someone almost managed it tonight with "Do you speak to foxes?"

The optimal way to read Lord of the Rings for the first time is as three dog-eared paperbacks (Unwin, 1981) with dodgy spines which you borrowed from your parents' bookshelves. You have to interrupt The Two Towers periodically to put the pages back in the right order after they've fallen out. But since optimal conditions aren't always possible, digital editions would at least spare the wrists. Hope you enjoy them!