Thursday, November 06, 2008

The Eastern Regional Library Show 5th November 2008

Library staff members Lesley Conway and Pia Butcher run a radio show each Wednesday 12:05pm-12:45pm on Eastern FM 98.1 called The Eastern Regional Library Show. Tune in next Wednesday for a great show.

On Wednesday's show

There is always a lively debate when a novel is turned into a film as to whether justice has been done to the original story. At the moment the film Brideshead revisited has sparked a lot of comment, some that it was impossible to better the TV series made in the 1980's, others that it doesn't do justice to the novel. The only way to find out is to go and see it, which Lyn Baines did last week, and feels that it was an entertaining and well made film. Lyn has admitted that she can be very hard on re-makes of the Austen stories or Jane Eyre on film or TV. But then we all have a personal take on what we read and see, and what will please one, will upset another. So it's worth checking out the many versions of classic stories we hold in our library collection to see what you think. There are any number of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Bronte, Thomas Hardy which have made it onto film, and of course the Brideshead Revisted TV series, and Lyn's great favourite Cold Comfort Farm. There is not currently a copy of Cold Comfort Farm on DVD in ERL at present, but it can be ordered from a Consortia library, and Lyn has rushed off to order new copies for our library collection.

Call me old-fashioned, you can even call me a Luddite, but I do prefer a book every time, and Lyn had some new titles with her today. Susan Hill's new novel The Beacon is a departure from her detective novels. This is the story of a family challenged by the revelations of a book written by one of the siblings, accusing the father of childhood abuse. It is a study of character, of how individuals cope differently with the conflict and has a dramatic finish.

Blood in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope on the other hand is very much in the 'cosy crime' genre. The crime or crimes in question are old, a skeleton in fact, and the investigator a young woman who is house sitting in that most beautiful of English regions, the Cotswolds. Her boyfriend is a police detective, but he's laid up with a slipped disc, so our heroine decides to work out the mystery herself.

Music today was from the CD As time goes by : the best of Jimmy Durante

---- Lesley

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