I thought it a near perfect history, enough detail to get everything across without going too deep. The account of the Papal Schism was utterly enthralling.

Gladly, you start as it's bedtime over here. I'll give it 8 out of 10.

When one has to get up at 0615 early to bed is correct. I like to read in bed (nothing else to do) so in bed I can ensure complete quiet, downstairs there is the temptation of the TV or the computer.

Tea and crumpets is more of a breakfast thing.

To the unreconstructed male maybe. 

I thought they were "birds?" Or is that a 60's thingy? See Twiggy. 

Incidentally, me and my lovely piece of crumpet are celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary today

I thought they were "birds?" Or is that a 60's thingy? See Twiggy. 

Nope, they're still birds

Incidentally, me and my lovely piece of crumpet are celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary today

Happy Anniversary and best wishes for the future!

Today is Star Wars Day - May the Force "Fourth" be with you, get it? 

It's also the date in 1891 that Sherlock Holmes "died". In the story The Final Problem he falls to his death over the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland in a tussle with his arch-enemy Prof Moriarty. However such was the outcry from the public when the story was published in 1893 that Conan Doyle brought him back to life in 1903 with a new set of stories explaining that he never actually went over the Falls. 

I suspect he killed him off in such a way as to allow for a return if he needed the money. 

In between he published The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901, but said it was set in 1889, as a test of public opinion, it was a huge success thus opening the way for Holmes' return.     

Conan Doyle said he was fed up with Sherlock Holmes and wanted his other literary works to be appreciated. But he must have had a notion to bring him back from the dead if need be. He actually wrote more Holmes stories after his resurrection than before he "killed" him off such was their popularity.  

I hesitate to recommend this novel Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola. The most depressing, grim book I've ever read. Just getting through it is an ordeal, but it's utterly brilliant. Strap yourself in and give it a go. If there's anything bad going on in your life best to leave it for a while as this will mess with your head.

On a review site this little poem says it all -

You don't need another Coca Cola
Or the latest Francis Ford Coppola
You don't need a holiday in Angola
You need this novel by Emile Zola
It's raw like a bad case of ebola
It's atomic like gay enola
Not pretty like a gladiola
Or sweet like a tune from a old victrola
He told the truth like the Ayatollah
He was revolutionary like Hizbollah
He never needed no payola
He didn't have a Motorola
He wrote the truth, he was Emile Zola
Like a panel he was solar
Nineteenth century rock and roller
He put Balzac back in his baby stroller
And this ain't no litcrit hyperbola

Incidentally, me and my lovely piece of crumpet are celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary today

Happy Anniversary and best wishes for the future!

Thank you mi-darlin', thanks Shule's. Y'know, it doesn't feel like a day over 48 years.

Incidentally, me and my lovely piece of crumpet are celebrating our 49th wedding anniversary today

Happy Anniversary and best wishes for the future!

Thank you mi-darlin', thanks Shule's. Y'know, it doesn't feel like a day over 48 years.

You are welcome.

As for Moonfleet I thought it was a very good adventure story, just about staying on the right side of credibility, whereas most tales of this type strength credulity too far. It was best in the scenes set in and around Moonfleet, I thought it lost a little once the action moved overseas and the rescue from the sea was in the best tradition of Victorian melodrama, which for some is too much. Fortunately I've developed a liking for such literature having read some of the masters of the art at their best such as Wilkie Collins and Mary Braddon.       

I've recently heard of the US novelist Ellen Glasgow, her novels are set in 19th century Virginia, ever read any Shula?