A Westminster Walk

I took these a few weeks ago on my usual walk from work to the tube, inspired by Spring in the air and the fact that I see this stuff every day of the week twice a day.. The Houses of Parliament, mostly a Victorian creation, although Westminster Hall is the largest Mediaeval Hammerbeamed Hall in England and was the scene of Anne Boyleyns trial. The back of Westminster Abbey shows its Gothic splendour and I rather like the statue of George V looking across the road towards Parliament. Westminster Tube, like the rest of the Jubliee line extension designed by Michael Hopkins and partners and v impressive.

Dark Doings amongst Tokyo housewives...

Out by Natsuo Kirino

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was super-dark. Seedy underworld Japan. Creepy in the extreme and quite nauseating in parts. I did actually fly through the first half. It was so unusual and there was the element of whats going to happen next. How will everything become undone. It was really a portrayal of how people change through getting involved in some dark deeds, what it does to them, how they cope with it. How things that would have been unthinkable can become matter of fact. The last few chapters let it down for me, although I think I know where she was going with them.



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The Trial of Queen Caroline

Rebel Queen: The Trial of Queen Caroline by Jane Robins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ah.. tis nice to slip back into some quality non - fictch. I love a bit of controversial history. This time - Regency England. Really had no idea of this drama. I knew that The Regent, later George IV (son of the mad one) wasnt too fond of his wife Caroline of Brunswick and was allready secretly married to a Catholic. I wasnt aware of the Queens story though. Shunned immediately - three people in the marriage scenario, he had countless mistresses, she was dismissed to her own court in Blackheath. This was only 20 years prior to Queen Victoria. She heads of round Europe being loud and vulgar but seemingly quite loveable, comes back to get charged with adultery so that the old sod can try and divorce her. Public outrage with Diana style peoples princess anti-monarch feeling. Brink of civil war as radicals support the Queen over the King. Poor luv cant get into the coronation to get crowned herself - goes hurtling round all the gates to the Abbey trying to get in and embarrassing herself. Real life Regency drama, cracking good read.



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Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This probably wouldnt have been a 5 if it was shorter, funnily enough. But I feel like Ive been reading it so dern long that it earns itself another stripe just by familiarity. Its so nice when you've been in the same territory with a big long book for a while and it feels comforting to pick up and slip back in with the characters and plot with ease. I think you really feel your on the journey with them across the wide open spaces and going through their trials and tribulations. I loved Gus and Clara. I loved being in a Western and enjoying the ride, I didn't think I would. There was a fair bit of humour and some nasty surprises. You do get to wonder if theres a female in the whole of the Southern states who Isnt or has'nt been a whore at some point or at least been abused by men and been involved in some carrott wetting of some description. I thought it might get a bit much being in such a male dominated environment for so long but the emotion beneath their cowboy exteriors was intriguing.



If you caint squirt yer squirt in 20 minutes you need a doctor not a whore.



wise words indeeed



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Sunday in Spitalfields and Brick Lane

Last sunday i took myself for a wander on a rather wet Sunday afternoon to Spitalfieds and through Brick lane. The catalyst for this meander was the announcement of a new Italian run cafe in Time out just off Petticoat lane market. Ive been pining for decent coffee and the sort of cafe culture establishment you can just hang out in for half an afternoon with a friend or a book. I find this sadly lacking in London - we do pubs well it has to be said, but not cafes. I think once you have lived in a cafe-centric place its hard to get out of your system. Anyway..said cafe was smallish and full but its takeaway latte was lovely and I took it on with me through the aforementioned environs taking some snaps. Brick lane on a Sunday has relatively ordinary markets but top notch multicultural snackage! There are scores of yummy looking stalls serving all manor of foods not to mention the bagel shop at the top of the road if you can actually get in. At night time the Bengali Restaurant touts come out and try to entice passers by into their neon lit curry houses like Kings cross pimps advertising a strip club. Each restaurant claiming to have won an award. Apparently those in the know wouldnt be seen eating dead here (hmm something wrong with that analogy!) but Sharon and I had a lovely if somewhat slow meal at Bengal Cuisine the other week. Regardless, its a very interesting neck of the woods. There was even an exhibition on the early years of Queen in a converted brewery - complete with white lycra catsuit. Freddy R.I.P

Georgian Stepney

Which side of the street to do you choose to look at...

This is my latest outlook on life, along the lines of is the glass half full or empty. In my quest to not get sucked into the English doom and gloom machine, and living in what can be a gloomy wintery East end with horrific 60's council flats, I choose to focus on the historic Georgian terraces that many people pass by. Often facing an estate, like many interesting London buildings you could easily pass them by if you didnt take time to stop and look. Much of Stepney was unfortunately bombed quite badly, such as the street my Dad grew up on, but many fine buildings remain.

On my way to the tube from home and just round the corner I pass Stepney Green, the street after which the tube was named and the most desirable one in the area, fronted by a cobbled lane and gardens Also a Peabody Trust late Victorian housing estate building. The Peabody trust was set up in the area and there are many housing estates in London from this period that have loads of character and are lovely places to live if you are lucky enough to get on the list and get mega cheap period living. Sadly in later decades architects almost seemed to out do each other for the sheer ugliness of their mass housing projects.

On the Mile End road itself you have another couple of fantastic buildings that im sure most people walk past without giving a thought. Peering through the foliage clad gates of one to its tumble down steps, reminds one of the house in Great Expectations. Actually if you squint at some of the streets you could picture Dickensian London quite easily. Also on the Mile End / Whitechapel road you have Trinity Square - Alms houses from the late 1600's. The proposed demolition of which in the 1800's caused the start of the listed building program in England. Just next door is a memorial to William Booth, this was where the Salvation army started.

In the other direction towards Limehouse, across the park, you have Arbour Square, which could easilly have been used in period dramas, still retaining gas lamp style street lighting and build round a beautiful square. Again on one side the orginal buildings didnt make it, but in this case at least the Estate is 30's deco rather than 60's mass ugliness. Across the other side of Commercial road is yet another beautiful Georgian square.

So what do you choose to focus on when you wander around your area - the good, the bad or the ugly? Sometimes even the Ugly has a certain charm. Ive chucked in a crumbly down East end pub on the end of this slideshow. I think it has a certain character even if theres a good chance it had a Kray twin or two in it at some point!.

Brick Lane

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Reading the majority of reviews of this it does seem that the popular opinion is not great despite the critics praise. I think it had a particular resonance for me as I've recently moved into the area. I know these streets now and being predominantly Bangladeshi I found it an interesting fictional insight into these communities. Im generally not a fan of harsh grim gritty miserable novels. Although theres certainly no glamour in this, theres a lot of warmth of character and moments of humour in the dialogue. I loved the characters. In the movie the husband was not a sympathetic character at all really. In the book though my affection for him increased as Nanzeens did. His predictable lectures and commentary became quite endearing. Others have mentioned an unsatisactory ending. I have to say it did somehow fall a bit flat. There was so much build up of tension towards what would eventually happend that in the end it seemed like a little bit of an anticlimax tacked onto the end. I will always have a fondness for this book now as much for the novel itself as for the memories of this chapter of my London life it will stir up when i notice it on my shelves in the future.



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