Scales of Gold (1991): Dorothy Dunnett

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The House of Niccolò: Book 4
Dorothy Dunnett © Olive Millward. With thanks to the Dorothy Dunnett Society

★★★★

The House of Niccolò: Book IV

As I’ve said before, I’d already read the first three books of the House of Niccolò series, up to Race of Scorpions: this novel and its successors, by contrast, are gloriously fresh and new. During the last three books, I have to admit that I missed the breathless sensation of reading a Dunnett novel for the first time. Fortunately Scales of Gold has more than lived up to my expectations in that respect. Within the first hundred pages there is pomp and pageantry, a mass reunion, espionage, an attempted assassination, a death, a mysterious visit to Murano and the prospect of complete ruination for Nicholas’s bank. And that’s even before he unveils the main thread of the plot, more ambitious and dangerous than any of his previous escapades.

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower

★★★½

(directed by Stephen Chbosky, 2012)

I have two particularly busy periods at work each year and this is one of them; but shortly after 5pm yesterday, following a day of IT issues across the company, the program I was using providentially ceased to work. Since there isn’t much I can do without said program, I decided that Fortune had spoken, left the office and went to the cinema instead.

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Race of Scorpions (1989): Dorothy Dunnett

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The House of Niccolò: Book 3
Dorothy Dunnett © Olive Millward. With thanks to the Dorothy Dunnett Society

★★★★

The House of Niccolò: Book III

One of the things I most enjoy about reading Dorothy Dunnett’s books is the way in which she can so effortlessly create a sense of place. As in the Lymond Chronicles, the House of Niccolò moves to a new location for each novel, for each new move in the game, and the settings are ever more exotic and brilliant. Every time I finish one of these books I’m left longing to know more about the setting; until I move onto the next in the series and am beguiled anew by somewhere else.

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Scenes from an Execution (1990): Howard Barker

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Scenes from an Execution: Howard Barker

★★★

(National Theatre, London, until 9 December 2012)

Venice, 1571. The Serenissima, at the head of the Holy League, has defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of Lepanto and the great Republic turns to the artist Galactia (Fiona Shaw) to immortalise the victory in an immense canvas. They are taking a risk: outspoken, liberal Galactia is no state catspaw. Sickened by the slaughter at Lepanto, she decides to turn the triumphalist canvas into a seething denunciation of war: a tumult of flesh and violence, blood and severed limbs. This will be no vision of Christian victory, but an accurate representation of a battle whose rate of slaughter wouldn’t be equalled until the First World War.

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Ruby Sparks (2012)

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Ruby Sparks

★★★½

(directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, 2012)

Fresh from high school, Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) wrote a book that was hailed as one of the great American novels, earning its writer comparisons with J.D. Salinger. Ten years later, he’s still trying to write his second novel, lost in a fog of self-pity which is alleviated by weekly visits to his therapist and apathetic walks with his dog Scotty. His therapist suggests that Calvin just tries to write something simple: a scene in which someone stops to admire his dog. In Calvin’s imagination, the girl who admires Scotty turns out to be everything that he, Calvin, desires in a girlfriend. Inspiration flows and the narrative becomes less of a story and more of a wish-fulfilment.

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The Spring of the Ram (1987): Dorothy Dunnett

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The House of Niccolò: Book 2
Dorothy Dunnett © Olive Millward. With thanks to the Dorothy Dunnett Society

★★★★½

The House of Niccolò: Book II

While the Lymond Chronicles were built around the notion of a great game of chess, the House of Niccolò is ruled by the zodiac. At this early stage, who can tell whether this will prove to have the same significance for Nicholas that chess had for Lymond? Maybe it’s just serendipity that the word ‘house’ has both mercantile and astrological connotations. In The Spring of the Ram, the title alludes primarily to the potential riches of Nicholas’s journey east, to quarry the wealth of the Orient in Trebizond. This last, fragile outpost of the Byzantine Empire is the new Colchis and throughout the novel there runs a thread of references to the Golden Fleece, Jason, the Argo and Medea.

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Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon 2012

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Royal Parks Half Marathon 2012

Yesterday morning it was once again time to dust off my running shoes, pin on my number and stock up on inspirational power ballads. It was the day of the Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon. I ran for Cancer Research UK and my wonderful crowd of sponsors (family, friends and colleagues) rallied to the fundraising call, made donations and bought cakes from my bake sale. The current total is £536.80, so bravo to all of you and thank you: in total this year you’ve raised over £900 for an excellent cause. Of course, this support also gave me extra motivation to pull out all the stops. If I didn’t push myself to my limits, I wouldn’t just be letting myself down, but I’d be letting all my sponsors down; and I’m just not that kind of girl.

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Going Dutch (Amsterdam)

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Amsterdam

Yes, it’s a terrible pun, but my imaginative faculties are exhausted and you must forgive me. I spent last weekend and the beginning of this week in Amsterdam, a trip which was spontaneous and entirely unlooked for. It was for the purposes of business, but my boss, who knows my penchant for museums, granted me an extra night in the hotel and so I had most of Sunday in which to explore this unknown city.

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Beginners (2010)

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Beginners

★★★★

(directed by Mike Mills, 2011)

This deliciously quirky film is all about love, loss and letting go. It manages to be thought-provoking without being pretentious, sweet without being sentimental and moving without being mawkish. Not much happens, but it leaves you with a warm sense of humanity’s capacity for love in all its forms: for parents, children, friends, lovers, girlfriends, boyfriends, pets.

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Niccolò Rising (1986): Dorothy Dunnett

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The House of Niccolò: Book 1
Dorothy Dunnett © Olive Millward. With thanks to the Dorothy Dunnett Society

★★★★ ½

The House of Niccolò: Book I

Having finished the Lymond Chronicles, I needed a little time for my absorption in that series to fade, before I embarked on my next fix of Dorothy Dunnett. It would have been sheer indulgence to read the Chronicles and the House of Niccolò all in one go. As you know, I’m not a complete newcomer to Niccolò: I read the first three books last year, which on their own were sufficient to prompt an outpouring of enthusiasm. Now my mission is to complete the series, and to find out what destiny has in store for Nicholas and the Charetty company.

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