The Song Before It Is Sung : a novel - Justin Cartwright - ISBN: 9781596912687

In July 1944, a serious attempt was made on Adolf Hitler's life. That event acts as the basis for a fictionalized depiction of one man's participation in the conspiracy, Axel von Gottberg, a Prussian count. The group members who attempted to take the Fuhrer's life were tried and executed in a horrible fashion. Axel had been educated at Oxford in the 1930s and there became the close friend of Elya Mendel, an English Jew who eventually became a distinguished professor. However, a letter Axel writes drives a wedge between the two men and they do not see each other again after the war begins. In the present day, Mendel leaves his collection of letters from Axel to a student, Conrad Senior, whose charge is to organize the papers. Conrad then embarks on finding out what happened to Axel and to explain the rift between the two men.

The World According to Bertie - Alexander McCall-Smith ; illustrated by Iain McIntosh - ISBN: 9781846970177

For those of you who don't know, which began with 44 Scotland Street, the series is about the people who live and work in a tenement building in the Edinburgh New Town. It was originally begun as installments in The Scotsman.

The Bertie of the title is a precocious 6 year old with a very pushy mother who steers Bertie away from playing with other little boys and fills his time with Italian lessons, yoga, music and psychotherapy.

Other characters include Angus the artist and his dog, Cyril who in this book is under threat of being put to sleep for biting someone; Domenica the anthropologist, just back from studying pirates in the Malacca Straits (they turned out to be pirating videos, not ships); Pat the student who works in Matthew's art gallery - does she love Matthew or not?; Big Lou who runs a coffee shop in the basement and is rubbish at choosing men - the latest one is a modern day Jacobite.

This is the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series, nice easy reading you can dip in and out of because it's short stories and I love it because it takes me back to a city I love and was very happy in.

44 Scotland Street series :

1. 44 Scotland Street (2005)

2. Espresso Tales (2005)

3. Love Over Scotland (2006)

4. The World According to Bertie (2007)

The Two of Us - Sheila Hancock - ISBN: 978-0747590132

This is a dual biography - of actors Sheila Hancock and John Thaw.

Sheila was 9 years older than John and the book starts with her early life, then moves to John Thaw's early life and so on through drama school, marriages for both of them - ending in divorce for John and in the death of her first husband for Sheila.

Interspersed with the past are excerpts from Sheila's diary, starting a while before John is diagnosed with throat cancer, through his treatment, decline and death.

This is a beautiful love story with a sad, sad ending. Lots of tears as I read it - good job the family was out so I could really enjoy myself.

Books I have read

I've decided to make entries about books I read as I finish them. Some I choose to read because I've read a review, others take my fancy as they come across my desk as I catalogue and others are required reading for one or other of my book groups.
I'll start with a few I read just last week.

Next week - school holidays

Friday is the last day of term 3 for our kids then they have 2 weeks holidays.
I am away at a conference in Canberra from Wednesday 3rd to Saturday 6th October. Good timing!! Ishbel will be at Tanderra all that first week and the boys will no doubt be XBoxing themselves silly. We are trying to encourage them to find gainful employment. Unfortunately, neither my workplace nor Ian's have work they can do. Robbie has applied for a job in a pizza place in Springwood - his favourite takeaway!
I am taking Monday to Wednesday off during the second week so we'll try and do something nice. There is an exhibition of Princess Diana's clothing on at the Powerhouse Museum in town but it might be quite expensive . . . and I'm sure only Ishbel would have any interest at all.

Last weekend

Got through Ishbel's heavy social calendar!!! She had a school disco on Thursday evening and a Tanderra one on Friday evening. Went in to the school one telling me that one of the boys in her year had not danced last time and what a waste of time that was . . . came home telling me she'd been too busy watching the video of the music to dance. Saw no problem with that!
On Saturday evening she was at her friend Jessie's for burgers and a movie. The parents were going to drop her off between 9 and 9:30pm. Ian and the boys were out at the movies in Penrith to see the latest Bourne movie and I'd settled down to cry over Sheila Hancock's biography of her and John Thaw, The Two of Us with a nice glass of red. At about 8pm I got the call to come and collect her; she'd had a fall, banged her nose and wanted to come home. When I arrived she was sitting with an ice pack to her nose, very subdued. Wouldn't say thank you to Lisa. Howled loudly as soon as we got out the door! Nose and girl fully recovered.
On Sunday it was the soccer team picnic. We went down to Euroka Clearing at the National Park at Glenbrook. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had a picnic and games in the sun. Not far away a HUGE kangaroo was lurking in the bushes. We took some of the kids for a walk down to the river. It's a fairly flat walk until you reach sight of the river bank it is a pretty shear walk down the cliff to the river bank. Luckily Elki fell a little way down the hill and, although her cut was miniscule, she carried on like she'd broken her ankle so Ian and I offered to walk her back to her Mum and Dad so we got out of the really steep bit!

Robbie's a star

On Sunday some of the kids from Robbie's Year 9 drama class took part in the second annual One Acts in the Mountains, a drama competition where solo or groups of actors can perform short pieces and be judged.

Rob and two of his mates made up their own little play - "Birthday Shopping Men's style". It was a play without words. Rob played the shopkeepers who served an accident-prone father and son combo. They were pretty funny.

At the end of all the presentations the adjudicator gave them all feedback. He loved the boys piece, loved that they had done mime.

The competition had gone all weekend; Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday afternoon the winners were announced and Robbie was awarded Best Junior Supporting Actor - Yay!!!

Here's his trophy.

Everyone has a social life but me . . .

Ian is off on a Joey Scout training course all weekend.
Robbie is spending today and tonight at Leigh's house.
Jamie is going to a birthday party. It's fancy dress and the kids have to dress up as someone with their own initials. James is going as Jesus in Ian's dressing gown and carrying the Bible Granny and Grampa Cowan gave me when I started at Burnbraes.
Ishbel has her little friend, Zanny, over for a play.
I just get to be chauffeuse!

Soccer Gala Day

So that's the end of Ishbel's soccer career.

It was the gala day today where the team had two 15 minute games to play then had a presentation.


















Here is the team : Ben, Zanny (Alexandria), Elki, Oscar, Ishbel, Angus, Lily and Xander.


They lost their first game - by quite a lot - the other side were helped first by Ben and then by Ishbel scoring in our goal.

All the kids got a trophy.

The girls were very impressed because their trophies had people on with long hair and "bosoms".

This is Ishbel's trophy.

Ishbel's woes

Meanwhile Ishbel perked up.
She seems to have a bit of a troubled relationship with Elki and Lily, a pair of twins she's pally with. Elki is in her class, while Lily is in the class across the corridor. Ishbel and Lily often end up at odds - Lily is a real tomboy and Ishbel is really girly and they just don't get each other. Ishbel was saying that Lily gets cross when she plays with Elki, probably jealous. She also said when she and Elki fall out, Elki often goes and tells her big brother, Eden, and he intimidates Ishbel.
When I dropped Ishbel off on Monday I told her teacher Ishbel was a bit fragile and could she call me later. She did and we had a reassuring chat. She'd spoken to Ishbel and seemed to understand better than I had from Ishbel's tearful tale what was going on and said she'd have a word with Eden and also see if she could promote some other friendships.
This morning (wednesday) when I dropped her off Ishbel was greeted by two girls, Jessie and Renee, and they went into a group hug.
It's week 9 of the term too - I think they all get very tired as the terms go on.