On Friday, I raised myself bleary-eyed from bed for a day working as a kind (cheap and sub-standard) of removals-man. My son and his girlfriend have just bought their first house together. Both sets of parents lent a hand and in the evening we all piled into cars and came over to our house for a meal. Anyone who's ever bought a house will know the kind of angst you have to go through! They are in! The house is theirs! I guess they'll be living out of cardboard boxes for a while, but they're young, together and I know they'll enjoy the adventure. They have our love and very best wishes.
On Saturday, we went to see the new Bond film, Skyfall. A bit of a departure from the usual Bond template and at times I have to say it felt more like I was watching John Le Carre (or possibly Len Deighton) than Ian Fleming. I know the critics have applauded it, but I'm not entirely sure that I want to see James Bond harassed by dark psychological hang-ups from a damaged childhood. We all know that JB doesn't give two hoots for that sort of thing! Isn't that why we love him? Because he's decisive, untroubled by self-doubts - not in the teensiest least bit screwed-up like the rest of us! I have always been a Judi Dench fan ever since I saw her play Viola in Twelfth Night at Stratford on a school trip there when I was fourteen. However, I must say I thought her character had too much prominence in this film, and when she started reciting Tennyson on a very slim pretext, it felt like the producers had thought, 'Let's give Judi some poetry to recite so we can enjoy her marvellous delivery.' At times watching the film it felt like 'M' might have stood for 'Mummy'! Still, there was a lot of enjoyable stuff too, but I don't personally believe this came close to being a classic Bond film. I did wonder too (no factual basis for saying this - merely a thought I had!) whether the role played by Albert Finney was conceived with Sean Connery in mind? If so, and if he'd agreed to appear this would have been a quite a coup and might have put a whole new complexion on the film. Not that there was anything at all wrong with Albert Finney, but imagine the impact of the first Bond appearing in the latest Bond fifty years on!


And now, back to writing! The delightful Brinda @Wilovebooks invited me to take part in a blog interview recently (my first!) which she posted yesterday. Here's the link to Wilove Books if you'd care to take a look.