Steve’s Comments (group member since Sep 26, 2010)

Steve’s comments from the Q&A with Steve Morris group.

Absolutely. I think it set the bennchmark for recent classic "costume dramas" to aspire to.

I think a new story "Bus Ride Home" is in the June 2012 edition of Taj Mahal Review. My copies have not arrived yet (sort yourselves out, Royal Mail....) but "thank you" to editor Karnunesh.

Good evening!
Yes, that version was a revelation. It think I'd just started teaching and I'd hear the students in corridors and in the canteen discussing it on Monday mornings as much as old teachers in the stuffy staffroom. It certainly kept them hooked and I saw a number of students with the paperback under the desk. I've never known the like of it since, such a healthy Sunday night drama that kept the country captivated, and even those who had already read the book.

According to this link it won a BAFTA award and an Emmy (whatever they are!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride_an...

That's right.

There have been many examples of where the film just hasn't lived up to the book's potential especially in works of grest imagination such as fantasy or sci-fi.

I genuinely envy those readers around before the days of cimema and television. Their imagination had to work harder.

On the other hand, readers of Pride and Prejudice in the late Victorian days would have been impressed, I'm sure with the BBC adaptation in the 1990s.

That's right, Richard. I'm sure that the mental visualisation of a book's scenarios must be a valuable excercise for the developing mind.

In a book such as LOTR, strong in imagery where Tolikien went on to create an entire world to set his story in, it is so easy for children to let film -makers do all the work.

Colleagues who teach English often complain about the current lack of imagination amongst younger learners.

One of my younger students is insisting on reading the whole of The Lord of the Rings before he sees the film. What a star!

Using LOTR as an example, I sometimes think that when my age group read it (before the film), we had a distinct advantage in that we had to form the imagery in our own heads. Does filming children's books hamper imagination?

If possible when I've lived in cities then I've always found public transport to be the best option. As well as expensive, nowadays driving is stressful and tiring.

As I currently live in a rural area with limited public transport, I often have to drive up to 100 miles per day up and down between students unfortunately.

One big advantage of public transport is that you can have a good read while you're travelling. A far more efficient use of your time, especially when studying! I miss that....

Oh..cars are just a black hole for money.

Thanks for the instructions:
Here is my response to the rise of Kindle:

http://www.goodreads.com/photo/user/3...

Result!

I hope the exams go the same way.

GCSE maths papers will be on Monday and Wednesday. I hope they've all revised hard over half-term. Perhaps the bad weather has helped!

Thirty interviewees? There are so many people chasing so few jobs at the moment.

However, as you are naturally good at mathematics, that should lesson the competition for future vacancies when you graduate. Like book-binding, it is another specialism!

How do we upload photos to Goodreads?

I didn't realise that bookbinding was so expensive. It seems a very time consuming art done by so few specially skilled people around now.

I bought some restoration materials to temporarily make good the bindings but one day I would love to attend a class to learn how to do the job properly. Even a cloth binding for the editions would cost 60 GBP each!

This month I have found professionally re-bound copies of The Works of William Shakspeare (1859), Lord Jim (Conrad) (1920) and Tennyson's works (1878)for little more than the price of a chart paperback. They are lovely editions that I hope to keep for ever.

I took a couple of old first editions to a binder for quotations for quarter leather binding and I was told to expect 150 GBP per book.

Good luck on Friday. I expect they will be more reasonalble than the above. Customer service is key and you will need to be very patient with difficult customers!

"Chaos in Wessex as a raven haired beauty plays havoc with the hearts and minds of three men"

That would make a good newspaper headline of the time.

Good evening Nicolle. Yes, I can see the attraction for somewhere like Yorkshire.

You're absolutely right about being too reliant on technology. I have had to move out to stay with relatives for almost a week needing to be online contantly during the busiest weeks of the academic year. Just when you need it most....
I envy the retired generation, which is echoed in Playing Havoc.

We never had this problem with that museum artefact once called paper.

Infamous!
But not as gruelling as some job interviews I've had in teaching. The worst was eight hours with thirty minutes for lunch. Two more five hour interviews with ninety minutes travel on top. Wholly unnecessary. What do they want from people these days?

When will employers learn that burning people out is not the way to get the best out of them?

Good evening Richard. We must also instantly think of wild windswept country full of passion, history and Heathcliffe!

A venture into Staffordshire tonight to see a new theatre production of Hardy's FFTMC.

It was a "Theatre in the Round"
Great acting, accents and singing.

Hardy was such a wonderful writer that it is a shame that many of his books had such tragedy in them.

Tonight's performance was upbeat though and it was great to see a full house in this economic climate. A welcome night off in the world of one of the Great novelists.

Well, these are usually by phone or email. For the regional magazines last time I met the reporters. I love to watch people's lightning shorthand, another disappearing skill alas!

Yes, I much prefer the countryside too. I like the friendliness of Manchester and I've worked in London too but I always yearn for the open country and pay the price of having to drive a lot.
It has its drawbacks. I have been without a phone line since last Thursday and it won't be repaired until Saturday. I can get one bar on the mobile phone if I tramp around the sheep field!

Yorkshire is nice too.