MY BLOGGER BUDDIES WITH GIVEAWAY - MEET ANTONELLA, LUNAROSSA

Antonella, lunarossa, is Italian but lives in York, England. She is my "oldest" blogger buddy since she was the first to comment and start following Fly High! As it often  happens, we discovered we shared several interests. She loves reading and sharing her fondness  for books with  friends. So, she has decided to give  one of her latest best readsaway : Kate Atkinson, "When Will There Be Good News?"

Read what Antonella says about this book in the interview below. To win it you have simply to read and comment this guest post and leave your e-mail address. The giveaway is open worldwide. The winner will be announced next Saturday, 6th March. Good luck to you all!

Now, it's time for you to meet Antonella aka lunarossa

 So , Antonella, what do you want to start with?

Hi MG, I don’t really know where to start. I’m a translator/interpreter and owner of a small translation bureau in the North of England. I’m married to an Englishman and I’ve got two children, a boy of 16 and a girl of 10, both bilingual (on the left). They are the loves of my life. I studied foreign languages in Turin, Italy and Bielefeld, Germany where I got my postgraduate certificate in Translation Studies specializing in Law and Mechanical and Civil Engineering. As a kid I wanted to become a doctor and I tried my best to excel in scientific subjects and Latin at school but then my passion for languages got the best of me. My father always says that I chose to study languages as I talk so much than one language only was not enough for me!

Mmm ... Is that why I studied foreign languages, too? My husband would agree with your father but speaking of me , of course! I've never realized. But since I’m also very talkative ...  Now, how comes you are Italian and live in York?

Just for love. I met my husband when I was living and working in Germany. It wasn’t love at first sight but we liked each other a lot. We used to hang out together and other friends until I got a job in another German town and we realized we couldn’t be parted. We got married (in Italy) and had our first child in Germany and after that we decided to move to England. As much as we loved Germany we thought it would be quite complicated for our son, he had to cope with three different languages.

What do you most appreciate of your being in England?

Apart from the weather, you mean? Well, I love the English language above all. Its sound, the dialect, the music, the cinema, the theatre, everything that’s got to do with the language. I love going around without being judged how I dress, which car I’ve got, the size of my house, where I come from etc. People don’t judge me and I don’t judge them. I feel free and independent and above all respected.

 What do you most miss of Italy?

I miss my mum and dad and my extended family. I don’t have any brothers and sisters but I’ve got lovely cousins with whom I grew up and great friends I’m always in touch with. I miss my best friend Giusy whom I’ve known for 40 years (yes, I’m that old!) and who’s like a sister to me. I miss the weather, of course, and my Piemonte hills and mountains. If you wish to find out more about the place I come from follow THIS LINK

Antonella (on the right with sunglasses)  & her best friend , Giusy

Tell us something more about your fondness for reading ...

I’m a book addict and I’m quite happy to find new books, genres and authors. If I like an author I tend to read everything she/he has written and then I get bored with her/him. So I try to vary the books I read. I also like reading authors from different countries although I’m not always too happy to read books in translation. I like thrillers but they need to be really very good otherwise I get bored. I love historical novels and as I’m a Tudor fan I tend to read everything I can get about that period. In the last few weeks I’ve read a couple of amazing books that I’ve discovered through friends of mine and I’m very happy about it as there’s nothing more frustrating for me than reading a book I don’t like. I consider it a waste of time and I don’t have much spare time. My newest favourite is When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkison. This is her first book that I have read and I absolutely loved it. The characters are flawed and believable and the plot full of interesting twists and turns. This book kept me up long after I should have been asleep because I couldn't put it down. I really enjoyed it and felt a bit sad when I finished it. Mrs Atkinson will hold a talk in York at the end of March and I will be attending. Looking forward to it.
My most recent books are listed in  MY SHELF on anobii.com

 When and Why did you become lunarossa and start blogging?

I followed a few blogs for quite a while and I became blogger friend with a lovely lady called Jeannette (see http://outsidelookingin-jeannette.blogspot.com/  ) and she encouraged to start my own blog, LIVING ABROAD. That was the end of 2008. I’m a sort of outsider blogger as I don't’ fit in any blog category and I write a bit about everything. Mine is not a mummy blog (although I am a mum) or a book blog (although I love books) or a fashion blog (although I like clothes and style), it’s what happens in my life, what I like and all I care for. I chose lunarossa as I love the moon (luna=moon), I’ve been fascinated by it since I was a small child when I used to believe firmly that babies were born on the Moon!!! More trivially, I am very fond of sailing although I cannot afford it here and now, and Lunarossa is also the name of an Italian sailboat syndicate, create to compete for the American Cup in the year 2000.

 Many of my visitors are interested in costume movies and dramas. What about you?

As I love history and historical novels, I love period dramas too. I like most of Jane Austen’s adaptations but my absolute favourite is the 1995 BBC miniseries of Pride&Prejudice starring Colin Firth as Mr Darcy. I actually met Colin Firth in 2001 when he was on the set of The Importance of being Earnest, but this is very long story. A wonderful actor and wonderful man.

 Noooo!!! Mr DARCY! You met him in person! You must tell us something more about it. Please!

It was at the time of Bridget Jones Diary. I was a freelance journalist then for a couple of local newspapers and I happened to meet Colin Firth’s agent (she is not  his agent any longer). She invited me on set while they were shooting “The Importance of Being Earnest ” and I was lucky enough to meet both Colin Firth and Rupert Everett who granted me an interview. Colin was so handsome in his Jack Worthing’s costume!

 Since you were my first regular follower on Fly High, you know about my “one weakness” (aka Richard Armitage). What is your “one weakness”?
Dear MG, One weakness only? I’ve got so many! To mention just a few, George Clooney, Take That, Venice and Nutella!

So full of weaknesses? I can do without Nutella, Venice, Clooney (let’s leave him to his Elisabetta Canalis, if they are still together), Take that ... but leave me my RA daily fix, please!

 

 

BTW , have you got any job for me when I decide to stop teaching and move to England? Because I’ll do it, sooner or later, mind you. I’m ready to face snow, ice and rainy weather all over the year. Mmm, maybe I’ll have to think about it some more…

If you can cook, you’re hired as I’m terrible in the kitchen and my family like eating well! Jokes aside, I always need good translators to help me, so if you change your mind….And actually it’s not that rainy and cold here in York. I’ve never experienced such a bad winter here in England before. York and Yorkshire are beautiful, full of natural and historical beauty. There is more to England and Great Britain than London!

Thank you Antonella for being my guest. Your invitation to visit the North of England sounds great. We'll come and visit  you and ...Yorkshire. Meanwhile, we'll read abour your life abroad on your blog. Take care!

Just a question for my readers and friends: Who/What is your one weakness? One, please. The one weakness. Something /someone you actually cannot resist. Good luck with the giveaway. Don't forget to add your e-mail address!

A TALE OF TWO CITIES by CHARLES DICKENS - THE BOOK AND THE 1989 TV ADAPTATION

“ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair” (Book 1, ch. 1)

A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1859) is one of Dickens’s darkest tales and one of his two historical novels (the other one is Barnaby Rudge). The novel was published in weekly installments (not monthly, as with most of his other novels). The first installment ran in the first issue of Dickens' literary periodical All the Year Round appearing on 30 April 1859.

It is set in Paris and London (the two cities) in the years before and during the French Revolution. Its widely known opening (above) was the description of that terrible time but it is also considered the author’s literary description of his own age, the Victorian era. Some have argued that in A Tale of Two Cities Dickens reflects on his recently begun affair with eighteen-year-old actress Ellen Ternan, which was possibly asexual but certainly romantic. The character of Lucie Manette resembles Ternan physically, and some have seen "a sort of implied emotional incest" (not my words!) in the relationship between Dr. Manette and his daughter. Dickens was first inspired to write this novel after starring in a play by Wilkie Collins entitled The Frozen Deep ( yes! They say he was a good performer!). In the play, Dickens interpreted the role of a man who sacrifices his own life so that his rival may have the woman they both love; the love triangle in the play became the basis for the relationships between

Charles Darnay (Xavier Deluc)

 Lucie Manette (Serena Gordon)

 Sydney Carton (James Wilby) 

 in The Tale of two cities. (In the pictures above, the protagonists in the 1989 TV adaptation)

The impression you get while reading this novel is that Dickens doesn’t believe in justice, human justice, and doesn’t trust revolutions. Neither against incredible unjust tyrants. Like Orwell many years later in his Animal Farm, Charles Dickens shows how every revolution turns into its contrary, an involution, and how the rebellious subjects become as evil and unjust as the tyrants they overturned. Men always make the same mistakes in history.

The  1989 TV Drama

In 1989 Granada Television made a mini-series starring James Wilby as "Sydney Carton", Serena Gordon as "Lucie Manette", Xavier Deluc as "Charles Darnay", which was shown on American television as part of the PBS television series Masterpiece Theatre.

It is a two-part series, a good product with good performing standards,  a mixed Anglo/French cast. It depicts the tragedy of the French peasantry under the demoralization of the French aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution. Quite accurate and respectful to the book, though shortened of course.

It follows the lives of several protagonists through these events, most notably Charles Darnay, a French once-aristocrat who falls victim to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature, and Sydney Carton, a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to redeem his ill-spent life out of love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette. (If you need a detailed summary of the plot click HERE )

The two male protagonists

1. Sidney Carton
Sydney Carton proves the most dynamic character in A Tale of Two Cities. He first appears as a lazy, alcoholic attorney who cannot muster even the smallest amount of interest in his own life. He describes his existence as a supreme waste of life and takes every opportunity to declare that he cares for nothing and no one.  Eventually, Carton reaches a point where he recognizes and can admit his feelings to Lucie herself. Before Lucie weds Darnay, Carton professes his love to her, though he still persists in seeing himself as essentially worthless. This scene marks a vital transition for Carton and lays the foundation for the supreme sacrifice that he makes at the novel’s end.

2. Charles Darnay
Novelist E. M. Forster famously criticized Dickens’s characters as “flat,” lamenting that they seem to lack the depth and complexity that make literary characters realistic and believable. Charles Darnay (and Lucie Manette!) certainly fits this description. A man of honor, respect, and courage, Darnay conforms to the archetype of the hero but never exhibits the kind of inner struggle that Carton and Doctor Manette undergo. His opposition to the Marquis’ snobbish and cruel aristocratic values is admirable, but, ultimately, his virtue proves too uniform, and he fails to exert any compelling force on the imagination.

The theme of the Double and other autobiographical hints

Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay may also have a connection to Dickens' personal life. He hinges on the near-perfect resemblance between Sydney Carton and Charles Darnay; the two look so alike that Carton twice saves Darnay through the inability of others to tell them apart. Carton and Darnay do not simply look alike they seem to anticipate a certain more modern dualism: Carton is Darnay made bad.

Carton suggests as much: 'Do you particularly like the man [Darnay]?' he muttered, at his own image [which he is regarding in a mirror]; 'why should you particularly like a man who resembles you? There is nothing in you to like; you know that. Ah, confound you! What a change you have made in yourself! A good reason for talking to a man, that he shows you what you have fallen away from and what you might have been! Change places with him, and would you have been looked at by those blue eyes [belonging to Lucie Manette] as he was, and commiserated by that agitated face as he was? Come on, and have it out in plain words! You hate the fellow (Book 2, chapter 4)

Dickens like Stevenson? An anticipation of his Jekyll and Hyde? Did you notice? Carton and Darnay = Charles Dickens. He did the same with David Copperfield = Dickens Charles. The author reveals part of himself through these characters.

Just a fragment of this adaptation which I cut for you to enjoy

Carton's profession of love to Lucie

 She is moved and amazed at Sidney's words but she will marry the man she loves, Charles Darnay.

While Sidney Carton's , in the end, will keep his promise.

RA FRIDAY - RICHARD AND ART

I like to think that it was impossible for  me to escape my destiny ... Though it is a very pleasant destiny. It has been impossible for me to avoid the chance of  meeting him on my path . Him. Richard Armitage. And once you meet him... You know, it's always the same old  story, familiar to so many .
 I love period drama and Victorian literature and he is Mr Thornton (2005). I love Art, especially the Impressionists (have you seen my avatar?) and he is Young Monet (2006). I've been fond of Spooks since its first series (2002) and he joined the cast in 2008 as Lucas North. Then, once you're caught under his spell, you find yourself doing things you would have never expected from yourself. "Being  fan of an actor!?!"  "Watching a Robin Hood series and like it!?! Buying the DVD of a  series called "Between the Sheets"!?! Listening to audiobooks!?! Reading a bestselling war novel meant for men!? !( I'd have other examples , but I prefer to stop) "No, thanks!" I would answer a couple of years ago. But I've done it. All of that. And I'm glad I did it. It's been such a great pleasure. It has made my life less dull and ...

But,  what was the aim of my post? Richard and Art. Yes! Well, sorry. I'm so sorry for this long digression. Let's go back to the point.

RICHARD AND ART

Acting is an art, but what I mean here is visual Art, painting precisely. Richard Armitage seems very sensitve to all arts: he loves literature and theatre, he studied music and can play the cello and the flute, he had singing and dance lessons to perform in musical plays,  he can even paint. But when he was chosen to be the Young Monet in the BBC 2006 series "The Impressionists" he had to improve his skills.

 Have you seen this series? I loved it. It was a feast to my eyes: my favourite paintings were all there and young Monet, my favourite painter, had those deep blue eyes, deep smooth voice e long elegant hands....

How easily I got distracted by the man? Too much. Again, back to the point, MG!

RA told in his interviews how he was trained by  the series artist and consultant, Leo Stevenson. “Painting is not just about technique, it’s about body language – it’s a whole psychology," he said. "Monet painted at great speed and was lavish in his use of colour.”

Richard  was fascinated by the process and eager to learn more. “The artist on set taught us particular brushstrokes and how to mix paints and I knocked up a reproduction Monet in rehearsals. It wasn’t bad!”

He said of his artistic instruction, “I’ve really enjoyed finding out about Monet’s technique – how he mixed the paint on the canvas, dragging it across the surface and letting it dry in ridges. And it’s been funny discovering the problems of painting outside. Sand in the paint, gusts of wind, leaves and flies getting stuck in the oils, easels falling over – Monet had to deal with all of them.”

I'm afraid, this is not a review of THE IMPRESSIONISTS (BBC 2006), you see. It is just a reflection on how multi-talented Richard Armitage can be and how sensitive and thoroughful he is in everything he does. Anyhow, if you want a good review of this drama, which  I loved seeing, you can find it at Judy's

 Costume Drama Reviews .

In conclusion, have you noticed how contagious RA's artistic temper can be? Most of his fans have turned into highly creative human beings, starting to  use their hidden or revealed talents in order to express their gratitude for and esteem of his work. The Net is a continuous overflowing of stunning graphic art, drawings,  fan fiction and last but not least blogs (don't they require creativity?) dedicated to him.

For example, thanks to Natalie's RichardArmitageFanBlog I've just discovered a talented painter who enjoys portraying Richard (as John Thornton or Guy of Gisborne) but also other costume drama heroes. Her nick is couleurjane and she is greatly talented at  watercolour. Have a look at her Thornton and Gisborne.

Watercolour wonders, aren't they? If you want, you can go and see, on her Utube channel , how from a simple pencil drawing she gets to these amazing coloured portraits. Then, to visit her gallery, go to her site http://www.couleurjane.e-monsite.com/ . You'll find also beautiful portraits of Austen heroes from the screen.

Now, after my weekly fix of RA related rambling, I wish you all the best of the weekends!

P.S.Many thanks to  Nat at RichardArmitageFanBlog ,  Annette  at RichardArmitageOnline and couleurjane 

ROBERTO SAVIANO - BEAUTY, HELL AND THE POWER OF WORDS

Roberto Saviano. Beauty: his writing , literature. Hell: the life he has been forced to live since he published Gomorrah (Gomorra in Italian) in 2006. Beauty and Hell (La bellezza e l'inferno) is the title of his latest published book I've just finished reading.

When he wrote and got  his first book published ,  he couldn’t imagine that his life and the lives of his dear would change forever. They have become hell. He lives under constant police escort since several godfathers he mentions in his book want him  dead. His family had to move and change their identities. Do you think his people living in Campania, Naples and areas nearby, consider him a hero? Not at all. He has been emarginated and left alone, attacked and offended with awful “graffiti” on the walls. They consider him mad, not a hero. Not that he considers himself as such. He is still shocked for the consequences that his thirst for justice, freedom and truth has brought to him.

I think he has been very brave, starting at only 26, to do what he has done so far: in his writings, articles and books he employs prose and news-reporting style to narrate the story of the Camorra (a powerful Neapolitan mafia-like organization), exposing its territory and business connections. He denounced the underworld which, like a cancer,  corrodes our beautiful country and consequently  his life has changed forever.

 I felt guilty since I really couldn’t cope with his Gomorrah. Millions of people read it but I couldn’t go beyond the first pages. Too harsh, too violent, too shocking. The same was with the movie. I just saw some scenes. But it was not fair, I thought. Such a man, one should be proud of, deserves more from me...I have to read one of his books, not only listen to him in his rare touching TV appearances. And I did it. “La Bellezza e L’Inferno” is a collection of articles and writings not only dealing with the Camorra but especially with Saviano’s relationship with writing, the beauty in his life, and the description of his personal hell. His prose is reallly involving, he knows how to use words and this is the reason why his words have attracted so many readers and this is also why all the attention to his words infuriated the godfathers so much that Saviano is to them a “dead man walking”. This young man believes in the power of the words and he is right. Maybe they can’t change the reaility or the entire world but they can touch the most hidden corners of the human mind and soul.

There are so many beautiful pages and thoughts in this book! I’m sorry you can’t enjoy them since it hasn’t been translated yet. Gomorrah was and it was quite successful in the USA. (Read this review  by Rachel Donadio in the New York Times)

Let’s see if , with my poor translation, I may convey to you some of his beauty (from the Preface)

The danger of reading

Writing in these years has given me the possibility to exist. Articles and reports. Stories and editorials. Work that,  to me,  hasn't simply been work. It coincided with life itself. If someone hoped that living in such a difficult situation might induce me to hide my words, they were wrong. I didn't hide them, I didn't lose them. But this has made it a fight, a daily fight, a silent punch-up fighting, like a shadow fight. To write, not to renounce my words, has meant not to lose myself. Not to surrender. Not to despair. ( ...)

The title of this book means a simple thing. It just wants to remind that , on one hand , we have freedom and beauty, necessary for those who write and live; on the other hand, their opposite, their negation: the hell which always seem to prevail.

To close this preface,  Saviano quotes Giovanni Falcone who said that "like any human phenomenon mafia too must get to an end". And, finally, he quotes Albert Camus: "But Hell has only one time, then one day Life starts over ".

Then a series of beautiful writings and articles follows in which Saviano tells us about Miriam Makeba, Lionel Messi, Enzo Biagi, Peppino Impastato  's mother, Joe Pistone or the real Donnie Brasco, Ana Politkovskaja; of his experience at Cannes Festival where the movie Gomorrah was acclaimed; of his being invited at the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize Ceremony with Salman Rushdie; about his faith in the power of words. Words that can unhinge reality, oppose any form of power, witness the certainty that the truth exists, despite everything.

Saviano's Gomorrah reviewed in The Times and in The Guardian

               

 

 

       I read this book in the "Wish I'd read that Challenge 2010"

 hosted at The Royal Reviews. This is my second task.

LITTLE AUSTEN WOMEN : CATHERINE AND MARIANNE

Do Catherine Morland, the protagonist of NORTHANGER ABBEY, and Marianne , one of the Dashwood sisters in SENSE AND SENSIBILITYshare any trait of their personality? What they certainly share is their young age, they are both 17. But is there more?

Which of the two heroines do you like better?

 READ MY POST ON MY JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB

SPARKHOUSE - RA FRIDAY AND ALL ABOUT THE BRONTES CHALLENGE IN ONE POST

‘Oh God, it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!’

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

What I’ve been re-watching for the All About the Brontes Challenge is the modern-day version of Wuthering Heights , or better the 2002 BBC series thus presented. Emily Bronte ’s evergreen romance has inspired many TV and film adaptations, including Robert Fuest's 1970 film starring Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff and Anna Calder-Marshall as Cathy. In 1992 Pewter Kosminsky revisited the story with Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes in the lead roles and the latest version is quite recent, 2009 . I posted about the several adaptions I’ve seen so far in A WUTHERING WEEKEND .

In this loosely –based- on modern version Heathcliff is a young working -class woman called Carol Bolton, who is in love with her middle class neighbour, Andrew. So the class relationship between Bronte's uncultured Heathcliff and the upper class Cathy has been reversed. And it is middle-class Andrew's parents who want him to leave Cathy and go to university.

The three-part TV drama is   SPARKHOUSE (2003) ,  filmed in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, northern England - not far from Haworth, where Emily Bronte grew up. Producer Derek Wax believed the story's themes are perennial: "The battle between passionate love and economic necessity; following your heart, or doing something expedient, or socially desirable. These questions are the same in the 21st century as they were in the 19th."

 

The storyline

• Carol Bolton is a feisty, passionate and reckless young woman who life has dealt a raw deal. She lives in poverty-stricken Sparkhouse Farm with a drunken and abusive father, Richard. Carol is determined to protect those closest to her - younger sister Lisa and her soul mate since childhood, Andrew Lawton.

(Carol and Andrew reading Wuthering Heights on the moors)

• Andrew and Carol's love is not a teenage crush. Their passion is urgent, powerful, enormous, like the landscape they share; the raw energy of the wind, the awesome loneliness of the moors. Yet all of this is in danger of being destroyed when a Pandora's Box of secrets and lies is forced open. Andrew's parents are strongly against the match and ensure that he goes away to college. Andrew is frightened by what he discovers about Carol and leaves...

• After another violent attack of her father against her, Carol runs away from home with her younger sister, Lisa,  in order to protect the latter from their father's violence.

• (After three years) Andrew has tried to forget his passion for Carol and is back to his family home married to a sweet young woman he met at university . (Parallelism with Wuthering Heights  : Catherine’s marriage to Linton)

• Carol too is back : her father's farmhand John Standring, has searched and found her in order to inform that her father is seriously ill , Carol’s rage and disappointment are unrestrainable (Heathcliff's furious reaction to Cathy's marriage)

• After the death of her father and since Andrew has also had a baby from the woman he married, Carol seeks solace with her father's farmhand, tender and caring John Standring, and works with him to protect her family (Lisa) and the farm. (Heathcliff ‘s marriage to Isabella Linton)

• But the bonds which have always linked Andrew and Carol cannot be easily cut ... as it happens in Wuthering Heights between Catherine and Heathcliff, their love will survive tragedy and even death.

(Andrew reading Wuthering Heights to his pupils)

 I loved and still love this series a lot, though  at first I was a bit disappointed because I couldn't  find as much Wuthering Heights as I expected buying the DVD in 2006.  This modern-day retelling of Wuthering Heights is a gripping  compelling story, with memorable characters and a complex plot.  Heathcliff/Carol Bolton, the daughter of an abusive, alcoholic father who molests her,  is incredibly well portrayed by Sarah Smart ( who had been Cathy Jr in 1999 version of Wuthering Heights).  Andrew and Carol, Cathy and Heathcliff , are torn apart by the upper class family of the boy and this will condemn them to unhappiness.  The subplots and supporting characters are all very contemporary with contemporary conflicts and passions. Some  viewers  may be confused by the gender-switch in the story  or disturbed by the bluntness of some scenes and dialogues. But I'm convinced , instead, that Sparkhouse  is worth seeing .

The Cast

• Carol Bolton - Sarah Smart

• Richard Bolton - Alun Armstrong
• Lisa Bolton - Abigail James
• Andrew Lawton - Joseph McFadden
• John Standring - Richard Armitage
• Kate Lawton - Celia Imrie
• Paul Lawton - Nicholas Farrell

About me and  John Standring

You've seen Richard Armitage in the pictures above as John Standring (the Isabella Linton of this story) , one of his most  touching interpretations. I must confess I didn't notice him the first time I saw this series, 'cause my attention was focused on the main hero that is  Andrew /Joe MacFadden and ... well... John  was a very sweet lovely guy but we didn't hit it off at the time! Then, when I saw Richard as John Thornton in North and South in 2008 for the first time, I came to "notice" him  and started searching for information about that unknown (then!) Mr Armitage.  I discovered he had worked in Sparkhouse but I couldn't recall him. I neither recognized him immediately when I played Sparkhouse again in search for broody Thornton! Now I would catch the glimpse of RA even with a mask on his handsome face, I bet. And I'd recognize his voice among thousands. So ... it was not love at first sight, you see! Now, I must admit, John Standring is one of my favorite among Richard's characters.

I want to leave you with three final caps....

Picture 1. Lisa Bolton (Carol's younger sister in Sparkhouse)  and John Standring (Carol's husband in the same series) - (2003)

Pictures 2 and 3

Guy  and Meg in Robin Hood 3 (2009)

Lovely couple, aren't they?