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What are you reading at the moment?
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aviddiva



Joined: 11 Oct 2008
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Location: Wakefield, West Yorkshire

PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 3:43 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

'Song Man' by Will Hodgkinson. I haven't read the predecessor, Guitar Man (not an Elvis biography - it's about him learning to play the guitar), but this is interesting. It's about him learning to write songs - his early attempts read like something from The Mighty Boosh ('Mystery Fox' had me thinking of Noel Fielding's Crack Fox!).

He gets to ask a number of songwriters for advice - Arthur Lee came across as a very bitter person, but Andy Partridge seemed to be both a control freak and very insecure.
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Lord Evan Elpuss



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 7:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not much of a book reader, however, I'm currently reading Johnnie Walker's autobiography. Next up will be Ken Bruce's Tracks Of My Years, finally Bob Harris' Whispering Years.
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SantaFefan



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm even less of a book reader.. maybe 5 complete books in my life! and I think two of those were about the Titanic.. Embarassed
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've just started JW's autobiography as well. I recently read Mark Radcliffe's Thank You For The Days - he writes a darn sight better than he speaks.
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Briant



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PostPosted: Sun Jan 24, 2010 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi aviddiva. I've just bought the 'Song Man' book too, despite the mixed reviews on Amazon. I've also sent for 'Guitar Man' as they both look like interesting reads to me.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:05 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

'Song Man' also made me want to seek out Bridget St. John's albums because of Will Hodgkinson's interview with her.

I also want to read Ken Bruce's 'Tracks Of My Years'! And also Nick Hornby's 'Juliet, Naked' because John Thomson and Dave Spikey gave it rave reviews on the TV Book Club!
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Lord Evan Elpuss



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PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:50 pm    Post subject: Re: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

aviddiva wrote:
I also want to read Ken Bruce's 'Tracks Of My Years'!

It's worth getting. A good insight into the workings of the beeb in places.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 10:25 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

'My Favourite People & Me 1978-88', by Alan Davies. He writes about his heroes on TV, in sport and in music and links them to the respective years in his life. I was sorry to read that his mother died when he was quite young, but he seemed to be searching for a mother surrogate in his teens with his crush on Valerie Harper when she was in 'Rhoda'! I can't get on with the bits about footballers, but I enjoyed his tales about how he admired Robert Lindsey as Wolfie Smith in 'Citizen Smith', and how Starsky & Hutch was a staple of Saturday nights in the family's house.

I'm a little older than Davies, but I'm remembering all these!
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SantaFefan



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PostPosted: Sat Apr 17, 2010 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Couldn't stand 'Citizen Smith' at the time but I loved 'Starsky & Hutch'.. still do, I watch it most nights as it's on FreeSat!
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 18, 2010 4:32 pm    Post subject: Re: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

aviddiva wrote:
And also Nick Hornby's 'Juliet, Naked' because John Thomson and Dave Spikey gave it rave reviews on the TV Book Club!


What a coincidence! I'm nearing the finish of "Juliet Naked" right this minute. I've read almost all of Nick Hornby's novels in the last few months and this one comes close to my favourite, which is "High Fidelity".

I really like Hornby's work. Every novel is written in a unique style.
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littlepieces



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PostPosted: Tue Jun 01, 2010 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just finished "Heartland" by Anthony Cartwright,it centres on the tipton three and how the area copes with the BNP.Quite a bit of football involved but i enjoyed it.

Next is Michael Holiding's Bio
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 12:24 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I've completed 'Juliet, Naked' and also Patti Smith's 'Just Kids' - this last because she was interviewed on the Radcliffe & Maconie show promoting it!

Currently I'm reading 'Adrian Mole - the Prostrate Years' by Sue Townsend.
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MadeinSurrey



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PostPosted: Wed Jun 09, 2010 2:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I read "This is How" by M.J. Hyland whilst on hols. It was immensely readable, a slightly unusual style of writing but I would recommend.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 11:56 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I started on Stephen Fry's 'Moab Is My Washpot' while on holiday, but got a bit annoyed with it when he started quoting various sources on what it means to be an Englishman.

I then read all of Nick Hornby's 'Slam', which was more interesting. The boy in the story seems to be about the same age as my great-nephew. He is the result of his mum getting pregnant at 16, and he's coping with having got a girl he knows pregnant.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:30 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I have just finished David Nicholls' 'The Understudy', which is about a man who understudies a famous actor and falls in love with the actor's girlfriend.

All through this I wondered if Jude Law was the model for the actor, because the author tells of him being very unfaithful with other cast members.

I was reminded of the series 'Extras' with the understudy's situation - he had another job filming a kids' DVD and he's really embarrassed about it.
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 12:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm halfway through reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

Reading this book reminds you how clearly the lines were drawn between the black and white community in America just 40 odd years ago ..... Sad

A review of the book ...(not mine)


Set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her skills by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams.

Sad
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Lord Evan Elpuss



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PostPosted: Tue Aug 03, 2010 12:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Currently on John Peel's Margrave Of The Marshes.
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Rachel
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 9:33 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just read "The Lost Symbol" another Dan Brown sprint through a day or two of nail biting drama.... Brilliant but the plot and the characters are all interchangable with his other books.... pretty much the same story as his other books but in a different city and differnet organisations.
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ColinB
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 10:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Lord Evan Elpuss wrote:
Currently on John Peel's [i]Margrave Of The Marshes


Lovely book. The point in the middle where the author switches from John to his widowed wife Sheila is quite poignant.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 2:23 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I've been getting fed up with Roddy Doyle's 'Paula Spencer' as nothing seems to happen much!
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Lord Evan Elpuss



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PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2010 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

ColinB wrote:
Lord Evan Elpuss wrote:
Currently on John Peel's [i]Margrave Of The Marshes


Lovely book. The point in the middle where the author switches from John to his widowed wife Sheila is quite poignant.

I wonder what that makes it, given that the first part was by John's hand (Autobiography) and the second part was written by his wife (Biography)?
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 7:51 am    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I'd say that 'Margrave Of the Marshes' is comparable with 'By Jack Rosenthal', which started out as Jack Rosenthal's autobiography, and then his wife Maureen Lipman took over completing the story when he became too ill to do it.

I've given up on reading Armando Iannucci's 'The Audacity Of Hype', because he gets too political and ties himself in knots explaining that Barack Obama talks in slogans and that David Cameron's a useless tosser.
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 6:23 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

I've finished the Book of Guardian Playlists, edited by Dorian Lynskey. He prefaces the choices with little essays explaining the choices of song and so on.

I liked his comment about how he'd love to see Nick Cave giving a weather forecast on TV, because of his Old Testament/apocalyptic look at life; 'Look over yonder!' I think Marty Feldman once did a sketch in similar fashion!

Currently I'm reading Jo Brand's Look Back In Hunger. She is very thoughtful discussing her father's depression. In hindsight she sees that she felt she was responsible for it, when she heard him and her mother arguing at night.

She tells about her mother training for the social services - it sounds to me like Mrs. Hennessey in the 'Eight Simple Rules' series because she worked extra hours and didn't always have time for the family.

Her teenage years are naturally awkward - she didn't want to go to the school her parents hoped for as she wanted to stay with her friends, and they pin such hopes on her for to go to university.

Discussing her various boyfriends, it sounds like the Idle Race song 'Girl At The Window' when the potential suitors come calling for her to come down from her bedroom!
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Lord Evan Elpuss



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 6:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm still on the John Peel book (I'm a slow reader! Laughing ) When, eventually, I finish that one, Stuart Maconie's Cider With Roadies will be next. It's one of my birthday pressies!
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2010 7:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You'll be well rewarded with Cider With Roadies, Lord.
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Soulsister



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I finished an English Literature degree last year (as a very mature student) and it totally ruined me for reading. We had to read so many books (about four a week), and it was a real slog tbh. It's taken me over a year to recover but I am at last able to enjoy a book again and just read for pleasure.

At the moment it's very light 'chick lit' stuff and biographies mainly, from the local library. A recent read was a a book by Tony Curtis (written recently even though he is well into his 80s now) about the making of the movie 'Some Like It Hot'. Also just finished 'Eating Blackbirds' by Lorraine Jenkin - an enjoyable and amusing read which I demolished in a day but was spoilt by an odd ending, that I still can't quite figure out.
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BaronLaCroix



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 3:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm on the last hundred pages of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower". Should finish it tonight.
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FLYBYNIGHT



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 7:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm reading "One Day" by David Nicholls. It's a lovely book and very different to his first one "Starter for Ten", which was hilarious IMO. I used to sit up in bed reading it, laughing out loud!
I'm really happy, as I've got "The Understudy" to read next.
Isn't it a treat when you discover a "new" author?
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

FLYBYNIGHT wrote:
I'm reading "One Day" by David Nicholls. It's a lovely book and very different to his first one "Starter for Ten", which was hilarious IMO. I used to sit up in bed reading it, laughing out loud!
I'm really happy, as I've got "The Understudy" to read next.
Isn't it a treat when you discover a "new" author?
I bought my son one of his books a while back....perhaps I'll ask him if he's read it yet...
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FLYBYNIGHT



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PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2010 8:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Becky,
He's only written 3 books so far and "Starter For Ten" was the first. It's based on a boy going to university and joining the "University Challenge" team.
I wish I hadn't given it away, as I must read it again one day.
The second one is lovely, for me, perfect bedtime reading.
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undiscovered



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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm on Moab is My Washpot by Stephen Fry, I am determined this is my last autobigraphy read loads over the last few years and to be fair got a little bored, I picked the Fry one up thinking it was a proper book, like Liar (which I loved) but as it's Mr Fry (great piece on his site about being hated my the Mail ) I am going to finish it, it is well written so it is keeping me entertained so far
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

FLYBYNIGHT wrote:
Becky,
He's only written 3 books so far and "Starter For Ten" was the first. It's based on a boy going to university and joining the "University Challenge" team.
I wish I hadn't given it away, as I must read it again one day.
The second one is lovely, for me, perfect bedtime reading.
It must have been The Understudy that I bought my son,Fly..I have seen the film of Starter For Ten with James McAvoy which I quite enjoyed ..think the ending let it down a bit if my memory serves me correctly. One of my local bookshops has had a booksale for the last couple of weeks and I have got to stop going in ..I counted yesterday and I have bought over 30 Shocked .. I do have lots of Christmas stocking fillers,though... Very Happy
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FLYBYNIGHT



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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2010 9:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Over 30?? And I thought I was bad enough! I get into a panic if I haven't got a small pile of books waiting for me to read, there's always about 7 or 8, but as soon as I've read one I have to "top up) and buy some more.
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graham b



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 6:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have just finished reading 61 Hours by Lee Child and I am annoyed. The book ended on a cliff hanger just like the last episode in a TV series such as Spooks. When I read a book I expect it to finish. I hope that this does not become a common practice with novelists.
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ruddlescat



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm actually reading the Good Pub Guide 2010
My son bought it for me last Christmas and normally I use it as a reference book but I have gleaned so much interesting information by doing this I thought I would read it cover to cover
People always said I was a bit eccentric!
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becky sharp



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PostPosted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

graham b wrote:
I have just finished reading 61 Hours by Lee Child and I am annoyed. The book ended on a cliff hanger just like the last episode in a TV series such as Spooks. When I read a book I expect it to finish. I hope that this does not become a common practice with novelists.
Me too!! I think I would be writing a letter of complaint to the author.. Smile

Oh and hello and welcome to the board... Smile
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aviddiva



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PostPosted: Mon Oct 04, 2010 3:17 pm    Post subject: What are you reading at the moment? Reply with quote

The More You Ignore Me, a novel by Jo Brand. This centres on a young girl, Alice, who is a big fan of Morrissey and she tries her best to cope at home and at school with her mum's mental health problems being the talk of her small town.

This has parallels with Willy Russell's The Wrong Boy, although Brand's own experiences as a psychiatric nurse have inspired the scenes with Alice's mum going to be sectioned after a big scene about her obsession with a local TV weather forecaster!

I saw that scene and pictured Paul Hudson on Look North being the man in question!
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Heloise



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 5:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just finished 'The Lost Symbol' by Dan Brown. Now reading 'The Snowman' by Jo Nesbo
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Soulsister



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PostPosted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 11:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Still on my World War 2 theme, I've just read 'Luck On My Side' - the diaries and reflections of a young Wartime Sailor by John Palmer. I've always been interested in history and the recent Battle of Britain coverage has had me reading all kinds of things - watching online documentaries and various books from the library.

All the discussion and debate and books written by eminent historians just doesn't even come close to this kind of first hand account of a young man, who through time of birth and circumstance found himself where he was. As he describes watching a sister ship in his convoy torpedoed, the basic nitty gritty of his life serving on a ship during a world war, the snatched moments of leave in the various ports he visited, his thoughts and feelings about what was happening around him.
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Dharma Cat



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PostPosted: Thu Oct 14, 2010 8:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just had a week off work and managed to get through the following:

Jump! - Jilly Cooper (a new Jilly Cooper book is a wicked treat for me)
Started Early, Took my Dog - Kate Atkinson (great characters especially the dog)
The Assassin's Prayer - Ariana Frankin (set in Henry II's reign my favourite monarch)
Heartstone - C J Sansom (which then made me want re read all C J Sansom's Shardlake series - what fantastically written books).


Just considering buying Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth as seen it is going to serialised on Channel 4 & I think I would prefer to read it rather than watch it. Would like to hear anyone's opinion if they have read it
I love books set in the medieval period. I have read some of Alison Weir's books which were very good and a few Sharon Penman's (good also) so any more recommendations would be greatly received.
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