The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir

I have a keen interest in history and when I was in London last May I found some very interesting books. I did read a book about Henry III by Alison Weir, and now I have read the Lady Elizabeth by the same author. The book was a thriller/romace novel with some true things in it, but also some things that are not that true or can not be confirmed. The book follows Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Henry III, untill she becomes Queen. There is a book about that period aswell, but I still have to read it. This book was great to read and hard to put away. It was well written and full of intrigues and suspence. But there is also time for romance and fun in the novel. It shows us how the people lived in that time. It was a very hard time if you ask me. Especially women had a hard time as I see it. All they were good for is to marry and to bring offspring to the world. A lot of women died in childbirth or had dead born babies. I am glad that women these days show it can be the other way around too. I am very happy not to have lived in that time, there was also a lot of sickness around and lots of people suffered from the plague. Alison Weir is a great writer. Usually books about history can be quite dull, in my experience that is, but this and the Henry VIII book were not boring at all. They were great to read and give people a great insight on England as it was at the time.

The Whole Day Through by Patrick Gale

After hearing the Book at Bedtime version by Samantha Bond and Nathaniel Parker I got very curious about this book. To my surprise I was able to order it at a Dutch webshop. So 2 days after I ordered the book it arrived and I started to read straight away. The thing is that I couldn't stop reading. I love to read, but this book really is one of the best I read so far. I want to get more books by Patrick Gale for sure. I never heard of the author before and this was a very welcome introduction.

The story is about Laura who moved from Paris to a small English village to take care of her mother. In that little village she meets Ben, a former lover from school. They haven't seen eachother in 20 odd years, and she doesn't recognise him at first. They have dinner together and he tells her that he moved to this village to take care of his brother, who has down syndrome. They take on a passionate affair and Ben wants to ends his marriage. Do they end up together or not?

This book is very well written. You can picture the characters in the book and I love the style of the author. I think that this book is a great read. It is funny, sad and witty. I am really looking forward to read more by this Patrick Gale. The Book At Bedtime Story was very well abridged, but I was very happy to read the book and discover more about Laura, Ben and the other characters in the book.

Riding my Storm by Timmy Murphy

I was finally able to finish this wonderful book. Since a short time I am into horse racing and am interested in a few jockeys and horses. Timmy Murphy is one of the jockeys. I was able to get this book through Ebay and it was a great read. I started and it was hard to put it down. Timmy wrote this book together with someone else, but it is like you are Timmy. He is very open about himself and his past and present. It was great to read where Timmy came from and I have nothing but respect for him. He told me all about his alcoholproblem, which lead him to jail for a few months. He thought his carreer as jockey was over, but he came back stronger than ever. I really like the way this book is written. It is like Timmy himself is talking to you. Especially when he describes the Grand National of 2008, when he won on Comply or Die. It was a wonderful to see the race from Timmy´s point of view.



They were a wonderful team, but Timmy also talks about other horses like Beef or Salmon, which was one of his favorites. This book is a great read for people who love to know more about the person behind the jockey. This book tells about the comradery in the weight room, but also about the downsides of being a jockey. It was a great pleasure to read this book. I read a lot of books once and when they are "just nice" I sell them again, but this is a book for keep. I enjoyed reading it and I was a bit sad when it was finished. I am reading another book now, but I will be reading Timmy's book another time soon. I recommand this book to all who loves horses, as it shows that jockeys really care about their horses. It must be frustrating when you think you have been good on your horse and some others think you are not and get fined or banned. I am sure that race horses are well looked after, and this book is a proof of that. Well done Timmy and I hope to see you many more years to come as jockey.

Snobs, by Julian Fellowes

I was very intrigued when I read the description of the book, and I must say it was worth the read. Snobs is about an ordinary girl who marries herself into aristocracy. Julian Fellowes describes everything very well. He is a funny and witty writer and I really like the book. Julian is an actor who became a writer and he did very well if I look at this book. He makes fun of his own profession as actor and it is great to read it from an insider. He describes the characters in the story very well and you can make the picture in your head while you read. I think it is a great vacation read. It does well on beaches, in gardens and on balconies. I am looking forward to read more of Julian's book. I have Past Imperfect on my read list, but first I have some other books to read.

Nathaniel Parker, the garden man

Anna's husband Nathaniel was and is a famous actor. He is well known for his roles in the Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Stardust, Flawless and even had a small part in The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. A side of Nathaniel that not many people know is that he loves to work in his garden. While Anna decorates the house, Nathaniel works in the garden. When they bought the house they are living in now, he landscaped the garden with the help from his mother Jill Parker. She has a lovely garden in Minster Lovell where she and her husband, the late, Sir Peter Parker have a weekend home. Their house was neglected and the garden looked like rubbish. She found out how to create a romantic garden and even wrote a book about it. It is out of print, but it is a wonderful book. She helped her youngest son with his garden.



In my opinion they did a wonderful job. They even buildt a tree house for the children, although Nathaniel admits that their grown up friends are up there more than the children are. He is also very fond of his roses and olive trees. I think that he and Lady Jill Parker created a great garden that goes very well with the wonderful decorated house. They added a veranda to the house, so they can live outdoors aswell. And if the weather allows it they do that a lot. The veranda is a tribute to Australia, where Anna's mother comes from. I hope to see more of their work in garden and home soon.

Anna Parker

As some of you might know I am a huge fan of former actress/interior designer Anna Parker. She had a feature in the Living Etc of May last year, where they showed pictures of her stylish white house. Ofcourse I have the magazine and the pictures. I love the white and the little bit of colour she added to it. Recently I found pictures of a "new" Parker house. It is still white, but with more colour. If I am honest I like this more than the white. Anna really is a talent when it comes to interior design. She gives me lot of inspiration for changes in my flat. I don't have her budget, but I can do it all my way and with my own budget. I like Anna's point of view. She combines stuff she bought when she was 20 with new stuff. I really think she is amazing and creates a stylish and compfy home for her husband Nathaniel and their two children Angel and Raffy.



The pictureon top is a view of the living room, while the second picture shows a nice and cosy kitchen where Anna can cook and entertain people at the same time. Anna loves to cook and to entertain. She was a wonderful actress, but she is a hell of an interior designer. I know who I am going to hire to decorate my house when I win the lottery.

Michael Jackson

He was always there in my life and now he is gone. It was a shock to hear that Michael Jackson died last week. I remember watching TV and see him sing and dance with his brothers in the Jackson 5. I was totally mad about the song Ben. I was 3 or maybe 4 years old, but I liked him. I grew up and so did he. He started a solo carreer and I saw his first real videoclips. I still see myself in bed watching Count Down (a very populair music show in the Netherlands at the time) because Thriller was going to be on. After 8 o'clock. I watched it on my little black and white TV and was scared to death when I saw all these creepy figures. I was happy not to see it in colour. It was the talk of the day, next day at school. He had more hits and I watched his video clips on TV. I saw him change. His face, colour, behaviour and the gossip machine started to roll. In the 90s Michael went down hill for me when it came to music. He still had good songs, but not as good as they used to be. There were even more scandals at the time. I catched a glimpse of him when I worked in Disneyland Paris in the summer of 1996. He spent a few days there in September, during my last few days there. I still remember seeing all these fans at the entrance of the parc, in front of the Disneyland Hotel screaming for Michael. I had to stop them (with many other colleagues) from hunting him down to the store in the hotel. He was surrounded by bodyguards and had a boy with him. I thought it wasn't clever to do this what happened with this boy Jordan something. I always thought that this boy was after Michaels money. So was the other boy who was eager to appear with Michael in the Bashir documentary. He "loved" Michael and crawled all over him in the documentary. A few weeks later he claimed to be abused by Michael. I never believed that. I always thought that that boy was after his money. And there were more people after that. The last part of his life were marked by other scandals. But people forget that Michael did a lot of good things too. He helped a lot of charities and did a lot of good things for sick children and those in need. I was shocked to hear about his death. Michael was there all my life and now he is gone. I was never a fan, but I did and do like his music. Not all songs, but a lot of his hits are really good. He was a good entertainer and dancer. In my opinion we lost a great personality in him. I hope Michael is happy and in peace where he is now. I know that I will never forget him. He left us with a lot of great music and some wonderful clips. If I look at Thriller now, it gives me a good laugh and it is a great trip down memory lane, but it still is one of my favorites. May peace be with him.