1. True Stories Told Live. Thank you Kerry, Kate and David. This event is becoming so cool, I’m not even going to tell you to come. The waiting list stretches for miles already.
2. Humboldt’s Gift, Saul Bellow. OK, I’m 54 and I’d never read Saul Bellow. Now I understand why Philip Roth is so depressed. These are the books he’s been trying his whole life to write.
3. Mal Peet’s new novel, Life: An Exploded Diagram, available in June or to preorder. If I didn’t like Mal so much I’d be forced to wish writer’s block on him. I mean, does anyone actually LIKE competition?
4. Downton Abbey. We’re all miserable, the economy’s doomed, I’ll never write another book, there’s mud knee-deep in my kitchen and it’s dark, but the footman’s snogging the Duke and I am just SO happy.
5. Angela de la Cruz and Dexter Dalwood‘s Turner Prize shows. One of them should have won, if you ask me.
6. Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch. Some soul searching required here. Why am I fatally attracted to weird-looking autistic geniuses?
7. The Hare With Amber Eyes. I know, I know. It’s a bandwagon now.
8. Finishing The Hat, Steven Sondheim (plus, A Little Night Music at the Menier and Into The Woods in Regents Park). Vast talent and an opinion on everything and everyone. What’s not to like?
9. La Bete with Mark Rylance. The reviewers who didn’t like it (like this one), didn’t get it. It’s a play about mediocrity, and why we find it so bloody appealing. See also, X Factor.
10. Waiting for Godot with Ian McKellan, Simon Callow, Patrick Stewart, and Krapp’s Last Tape with Michael Gambon. Beckett’s so bleak, he makes me want to cheer.
11. Meeting KM Peyton. Why someone hasn’t reissued all her pony books in a big pony-coloured box-set with a red ribbon for all those poor desperate girlies out there who would devour them like polos, I don’t know.
12. Gauguin at Tate Britain. I’m sorry, I don’t care if he was a paedophile. The paintings are beautiful and anyway he’s dead.
13. Andrea Seigel’s The Kid Table. Just looked it up on Goodreads to see if the world had wised-up, but the site worked its usual magic of turning me from a sensible friendly person to a homicidal maniac. Why are so many people allowed opinions?
Note to readers: These are only the events I remember liking. Feel free to remind me of the best evening of my life that I spent with you and have managed to forget. Thank you for your patience.
my boyfriend goes ballistic when he reads the 1-stars and then starts attacking them based on their photos/interests. it’s kind of satisfying.
I feel he and I would get along. And why restrict it to the 1-stars? I frequently find myself shouting, “but you said you LOVED it. So WHY is that just FOUR STARS?”
How many post twelves is a woman allowed? Even for people of your calibre.
Fixed now.
You met K M Peyton?! I am so jealous – I loved her books when I was a teenager. I remember reading the Flambards trilogy so quickly I was an emotional wreck at the end of it. We were on a family holiday and my mum couldn’t believe I was so upset just because I’d finished a book!
Hi Meg
I’d like to set up something like ‘True Stories Told Live’ in Hong Kong, where I live. Could I bother you to pass me an email of someone I could ask questions about organisational matters please? (No CONTACT details on their website.)
Thanks so much.
All the best for 2011.
Love your blog. Can’t wait to see the film. Good luck with The Dog.
Meg! How could you forget the night we dined by candle-light under the stars in Paris. The most magnificent meal was served by the world’s finest chef’s and you begged me to take you “away from all this”! A Spanish guitarist played just for us and then, just out-of-sight, an orchestra played the show tunes we requested……
Not even in the top 15! I’m heart-broken.
Bazza’s Blog ‘To Discover Ice’
Ah, Bazza, Bazza, Bazza. We’ll always have Paris…..
My little bit of K.M. Peyton trivia…
Tessa, who runs the yard where I keep my horses, was a very talented rider in her youth (still is!) appearing in many national arenas, riding side-saddle as well.
When the TV mini series of Flambards was due to be made, she was approached to do all the riding scenes, as the main actress hadn’t much experience with riding.
Boo, hiss – in the end, the actress decided to learn to ride properly, so Tessa missed her big break as a stunt double!
And I heard (from the horse’s mouth, ie Kathy Peyton) that the actress developed a real passion for riding. So a happy ending for everyone but Tessa…..!
[...] months ago, I started following Meg Rosoff’s blog. About a week or so she posted about her highlights of last year, one of which was meeting the author K M [...]