Books

[WILF 47,975]

Just finished The Stopping Places, decent.

[jukel123 8,825]

11 hours ago, eastcoast said:

FAO Mackem. This is a good read. More the rise than the fall. Good honest research IMO. Interesting report on charge of the Light Brigade, a comedy of errors (apart from lads getting slaughtered) that could almost have resulted in a famous victory. 

Saul David used to put out some good historical TV documentaries but haven't seen anything from him for quite awhile. Possibly because he is male and tries to educate and entertain with facts. To get an historical documentary on TV these days it would appear that you need to be a woman with theories that all that we have been led to believe previously is wrong, and that women were actually the driving force behind most historical events not men, or not a white person, and people who were not white played a far more significant role in history than we have been led to believe. Or gay... almost forgot about them.

We used to recite Tennysons poem ' Charge of the Light Brigade' at school. Still sends shivers up my spine.

[jukel123 8,825]

10 hours ago, chartpolski said:

I read it from start to finish because I was told there was a chapter about Borzois coursing wolves, and sure enough, there was. But it’s a very engrossing book. Downloaded it on my Kobo for free;

Cheers

I went to Louis the fourteenth' s Palace at Versailles because I had read he had kennels with thousands of wolfhounds and deerhounds which he personally fed himself. I had read the kennels were still intact.

I arrived there and asked the guide where the kennels were. He said they no longer existed and in any case, it was a myth that he kept thousands of hunting dogs. It was more like 2 to 3 hundred. I was somewhat underwhelmed. Lads on here have had more dogs the that. Lol

Edited June 13, 2024 by jukel123

[mackem 27,855]

5 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

I went to Louis the fourteenth' s Palace at Versailles because I had read he had kennels with thousands of wolfhounds and deerhounds which he personally fed himself. I had read the kennels were still intact.

I arrived there and asked the guide where the kennels were. He said they no longer existed and in any case, it was a myth that he kept thousands of hunting. It was more like 2 to 3 hundred. I was somewhat underwhelmed. Lads on here have had more dogs the that.

Two or three hundred?F*cking puff.

I love visiting places like that though,random places with a specific history,but time changes them,I visited some film locations last year from the movie HEAT but they had changed and lost the feel of the film.

[jukel123 8,825]

 

21 minutes ago, mackem said:

Two or three hundred?F*cking puff.

I love visiting places like that though,random places with a specific history,but time changes them,I visited some film locations last year from the movie HEAT but they had changed and lost the feel of the film.

Do you believe in the saying ' never go back' to a place of which you have fond memories?

A few times we've had a great holiday and tried to recreate it by going back again to the same place and accommodation and it's never the same.

I once spent an idyllic afternoon  in a genuinely  laid back taverna in Greece. There were kittens playing and  exotic butterflies and swallows flitting under the canopy of grape vines under which we were sitting. Lizards were busily hunting within a few feet of us and there were masses of unfamiliar buzzing insects together with authentic greek food and homemade wine. I will never forget that experience. It was heaven on earth.

We went back and it had all gone. Replaced with a shiny new, soulless restaurant.

 

 

Edited June 13, 2024 by jukel123

[mackem 27,855]

4 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

I once spent an idyllic afternoon  in a genuinely  laid back taverna in Greece. There were kittens playing and  exotic butterflies and swallows flitting under the canopy of grape vines under which we were sitting. Lizards were busily hunting within a few feet of us and there were masses of unfamiliar buzzing insects together with authentic greek food and homemade wine. I will never forget that experience. It was heaven on earth.

Reads like a paragraph from My Family And Other Animals,Gerald Durrells idyllic childhood.

[Bush Rummager 4,766]

The old lady had a habit of writing the date in books that were gifts when we were young. She must have known it would be handy to look back at. I used to really enjoy losing myself and goofing out in wildlife and bird books when I was a young un. Glad I hung onto it along with a few others! 

[tatsblisters 10,420]

1 hour ago, Bush Rummager said:

The old lady had a habit of writing the date in books that were gifts when we were young. She must have known it would be handy to look back at. I used to really enjoy losing myself and goofing out in wildlife and bird books when I was a young un. Glad I hung onto it along with a few others! 

Yep mine did the same with some books that were bought as Christmas presents plus the old man was a member of readers digest and some books on wildlife came from them. One I still have is the one on british birds. 

[tatsblisters 10,420]

Dug a few old books out I had bought for me as a nipper. The first one my mother had wrote in the front my age wich was 5 an half years old and remember also the Observer books that I had quite a collection of but only have a few now.