Miscellaneous

Top 5 – Daphne Du Maurier’s “Great Cornish Novels” Awards

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So I have turned the last page in the big book of Daphne Du Maurier’s “Great Cornish Novels”. And what a lovely adventure it has been! Du Maurier has invented some fantastic characters, described some beautiful settings in scenic Cornwall, and created complex and thrilling story-lines. What more could you want from such a great big book?

I had wanted to do a Du Maurier themed Top 5 characters post, but it would be impossible to choose 5  favourite characters when some of the best are rather unlike-able. So instead, I have decided to hand some awards out. That’ll be 4 awards for 4 brilliant characters and 1 award for my favourite setting, all taken from the big book of Du Maurier’s “Four Great Cornish Novels” collection. These include Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek and My Cousin Rachel.

And to get into a Cornish mood, I have added some beautiful photographs taken by Louise Smedley-Hampson. You can find more of her work here:

… Drum roll please …

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Top 5 Animals in Children’s Literature

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Children’s literature is simply packed with animals. They can range from loyal pets to dangerous baddies, silly creatures to courageous heroes and most importantly, there are no limits to the imagination. They can walk on two feet, talk and dress up in boots, glasses and waistcoats.

With a world out there of wonderful animal characters, it is difficult to pick just five, but here are a few of my favourites.

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Top 5 Book to Film Adaptations

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There has been a big media frenzy this last couple of weeks with the last Harry Potter film being released, which I for one am excited about. I’m looking forward to the film, even though I can’t help but complain about all of them. The films can’t begin to live up to the book and they have turned Harry Potter into something else, a franchise, rather than books to spark the imagination of children all of the world. Children no longer have to conjure up their own personal ideas of the characters, they simply have to picture Daniel Radcliffe.

There have been some terrible film to book adaptations. And I don’t actually think Harry Potter is that bad compared to some of them. It must be extremely difficult to take a good book and turn it into a decent film. Even if you manage to cast the film with brilliant actors and have budget high enough to fill the sets with the perfect props and clothes, there is still so much to think about. So much of the dialogue must be cut down and many scenes scrapped. In fact I think it must be such a daunting task, I’m not sure why anyone would even attempt it!

Here are a few examples of films that I think have been adapted excellently.

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Top 5 Memorable Holiday Reads

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After recently returning from my holiday in Naples and reading Naples ’44, I got to thinking about some of my most memorable holiday reads. Packing is always difficult when going away, but one of the most important things is to pack the correct books. Everybody has a holiday reading list, usually books they haven’t had time to open and want to be able to fully relax with. If there is one thing I have learnt, it’s that the enjoyable books are not always the most memorable books that you might read on holiday.

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Top 5 Desert Island Books

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I have been listening to a lot of BBC’s Desert Islands Discs recently as I have found that the website has years of episodes archived. If you are interested, have a listen  http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs . It must be really difficult to choose only eight songs to have on a Desert Island, but imagine how difficult it would be to choose only 5 books! According to the BBC’s rules, each castaway automatically gets a Bible and the full works of Shakespeare. Along with these, I would choose…

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Top 5 Books That Inspired You To Read As A Child

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As a child, I remember hours of car journeys with my dad playing a certain game called Top 5 Favourite. It was more interesting than Eye Spy and more exciting as I really believed my dad had made it up. It’s only in the past few years that he has admitted that he stole the idea from Nick Hornby‘s High Fidelity. However, I still love to play this game on long car journeys.

Recently, someone asked me why I loved to read so much and how they could get there child to love reading. I thought about it and came up with my Top 5 Book That Inspired Me To Read As A Child. Continue reading →